You sit and you write, and you write, and you write some more. You think you’ve nailed it. You think it’s perfect for that anthology you seen that’s accepting submissions.

Then it gets rejected. Rinse and repeat. Write, reject, write, reject. I’ve received some very nice, personalised rejections, and I’ve received more templates. It doesn’t matter what it is, that demoralising, demotivating feeling washes all over you. “What’s the point in trying to write this novel when no one even wants my short stories?” Been there? Me too.

But then it all gets forgotten about when you get that mail of congratulations. That buzz when you see your story has been accepted. And that’s what I felt after I received an email from HellBound Books congratulating me for being accepted into one of their upcoming anthologies.

Yep, I’ve just had my first short story accepted for publication! The Dollhouse:

When a young woman’s dog runs into the garden of a creepy house, she has no choice but to follow it. But what starts as a simple search quickly turns into a terrifying ordeal, as she finds herself trapped in a nightmarish world where nothing is quite what it seems.