With a writing career that spans two decades, Carina Bissett is familiar with rejection.
“There is one thing all writers have in common,” she writes. ” At some point in every writer’s career, rejection hits. It’s just part of the game.”
One story in particular, a modern “Snow White” retelling, was rejected fourteen times over the course of three years. However, at the end of 2018, “Rotten” was finally picked up for inclusion in the Crystal Lake anthology Arterial Bloom.
“‘Rotten’ was the perfect closing piece for this anthology,” writes Mercedes M. Yardley, editor and award-winning author.
But that wasn’t the end for this story that once stacked up rejections during its submission rounds.
This week, Arterial Bloom made the Bram Stoker Awards preliminary ballot for Superior Achievement in an Anthology!
“There were times when I nearly trunked this story,” writes Bissett. “I became convinced no one would want to read it, which makes it all that much sweeter that self-doubt didn’t win. I’m considering this journey a lesson in patience and resilience. Sometimes, stories just need to find the right editor to believe in them.”
You can read more on her reflections HERE.
Bram Stoker Award Preliminary Ballot
Superior Achievement in an Anthology:
Bailey, Michael and Murano, Doug – Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors (Written Backwards)
Cagle, Ryan and Jenkins, James D. – The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, Volume 1 (Valancourt Books)
Flynn, Geneve and Murray, Lee – Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women (Omnium Gatherum Media)
Givens Kurtz, Nicole – Slay: Stories of the Vampire (Mocha Memoirs Press)
Kelly, Michael – Shadows & Tall Trees 8 (Undertow Publications)
Kolesnik, Samantha – Worst Laid Plans: An Anthology of Vacation Horror (Grindhouse Press)
Neal, David T. and Scott, Christine M. – The Fiends in the Furrows II: More Tales of Folk Horror (Nosetouch Press)
Rector, Jeani and Wild, Dean H. – The Horror Zine’s Book of Ghost Stories (HellBound Books Publishing, LLC)
Tantlinger, Sara – Not All Monsters: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women of Horror (Rooster Republic Press)
Yardley, Mercedes M. – Arterial Bloom (Crystal Lake Publishing)
The Nearby Universe 