Myths, Legends, and Dreams! The speculative fiction short story anthology we’ve been working on since FEBRUARY. Featuring 16 short stories from 14 authors, inside the pages you will find fierce dragons, cunning succubi, and dangerous thieves. There’s a story for everyone, from retired superheroes to desperate soldiers.
We had a lot of fun putting this anthology together over the last 9 months. Well, and a lot of tears, and days where we wanted to quit, but mostly fun.
And this is only the first in the series! We will do this whole show and dance again next year, with the theme ‘Moonlight and Darkness’. Daring heists, secret trysts and deadly secrets. This anthology will feature stories that take place under the cover of darkness. What to participate? You can either join our writing Discord server (https://discord.gg/fvPPa6hQDG) or you can wait for the call to submissions to come out in early 2022!
See What the Reviews are Saying!
Celebration Livestream!
We did a looooong livestream to celebrate the launch of Myths, Legends, and Dreams! We talk about what got us into writing, what the process of making the anthology was like, and a lot of chatting about writing. We are still live at the time of posting, but if you missed it and want to see more, click the link below!
These prompts are optional. You can choose from any, all, or none of these prompts for this challenge
Prompts Theme: Sleep 1) ‘People are committing surprising acts in their sleep’ or 2) ‘Write about dream assassins who are tasked with fighting nightmares that disturb people’s sleep.’ 3) ‘Darkness and Moonlight’, stories that take place at night, deadly secrets, daring heists, and secret trysts 4) Picture prompt: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/793407659348391970/
Deadline: October 31st by 11:59 PM EST Word count: 7,000 words or fewer How to Submit: Join the Discord server! (link above)
Last night we submitted the anthology to Smashwords, and it is officially up for preorder! The eBookk will be released on October 9th, 2021! You can preorder it through Smashwords here.
We also submitted the anthology to Ingramsparks for print, which means we should be able to order the proof copies some time over the next few days!
The preorder shop for ordering physical copies of the anthology is now open! The shop will only be open until September 30th, and then after that you’ll only be able to order eBooks. To preorder a physical copy, you can go here https://myths-legends-and-dreams-an-anthology.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
Good news! Even though our official Indiegogo campaign ended, it turns out we qualify for their InDemand program, which means we can keep using Indiegogo to fund raise even though the main campaign ended! If you missed the campaign but still want to support us, you can go to the campaign page here.
Our beautiful cover was designed by a freelance graphic designer named Kaitlin Klockow of Nite Owl Creative. Her prices were super reasonable, she answered all of our questions, and she did an amazing job! We highly recommend her.
We hit our goal of $750 dollars today! Of course, shipping has to come out of that first, so we don’t take $750 home, but we are getting there! All the support is greatly appreciated, with this money we will be able to pay for professional cover art, interior illustrations, and an advertising campaign for the eBook.
To celebrate we are launching some stretch goals! No one likes getting paid in exposure, so our first goal is to raise an additional $250CAD, which will allow us to pay each author $10CAD. It’s still a token payment, but better than nothing!
We also are introducing a stretch goal of $1750, which would allow us to hire a (cheaper) professional editor. A professional editor starts around $750, so we have to make this goal quite high to make sure we can cover the cost.
Again, thank you so much for the support! If you are unable to financially support this campaign, feel free to share on social media, or tell your friends! Anything helps
Ally, Penguin, Tangwystle, and Sheepy (the business committee) have started reading through the Anthology stories! You will start to see comments coming in, but we ask that you refrain from making edits just yet, to give all four of us the chance to read. We will have some basic comments to you by Tuesday, April 6th, and you will have 10 days to address them (Friday, April 16th). You aren’t required to implement everything we’ve commented, there may be things we don’t understand about your story, so the comments are there to start a dialogue.
Formatting – We didn’t enforce it for the initial submission, but we ask that people go in and format their stories to fit the following requirements. This will make it 1000 times easier for us when we are preparing the manuscript for publishing. *Single spaces *Indented paragraphs *Size 12, Verdana font *ONE space after each sentence.
The Plan – Our plan is to do several rounds of editing to get these stories polished. This first round is focused more on big picture plot stuff (developmental editing) like plot, pacing, character arcs, and satisfying endings.
We invite members of the community to help edit! The link to the folder with the stories is below. Remember to comment both on things that need a second look, and on the parts you like. Once this round of editing is complete in Mid April we will do a second round of editing, making sure the stories are satisfying to read, before moving onto the more mechanical elements of writing, like eliminating Show vs Tell, filtering, and run on sentences (as a non exhaustive list)
Art! We have an artist lined up willing to do some illustrations for us, so we are asking people to go into the doc linked below and indicate which scene they would most like illustrated from their story. This doesn’t guarantee it will be illustrated, but it will help the artist select what he wants to draw.
The Indiegogo Campaign – We are currently at 88% funded (though shipping has to come out of that first, so it’s more like 50%) and we have 12 days left to go until the campaign ends. If you would like to support us, please visit https://igg.me/at/worldsmyths/x/26237864#/
Acceptance into the Anthology Because we hit the number of slots we were aiming for, we are going to accept all the stories that were submitted – with a caveat. We do expect these stories to be as polished as possible, so if an author is unable to address the comments within the 10 days given, we will have to consider removing them from the anthology. We understand that life happens of course, so if you are unable to meet the 10 day editing deadline, please let us know as soon as possible so we can look into accommodations.
We recently made a post on Instagram looking for a few authors who were willing to do an interview exchange of sorts, as a way for us to help get the word out about Worldsmyths and the anthology. Mark Piggott, author of the Forever Avalon series, was the first to volunteer! You can find his website here.
Book one of the Forever Avalon series by Mark Piggott
I sent Mark a set of twelve questions to fill out for us to put on the Worldsmyths website, and he sent me some questions to answer as well to put on his blog. Here are the questions I sent to Mark:
Have you always been interested in writing?
Growing up, I wanted to be a comic book artist (the next Jack Kirby/Stan Lee) so I created my own comic book characters, stories. But, my art wasn’t up to par so I switched to writing. I started out as a journalist for the U.S. Navy and, near the end of my military career, I started writing my fantasy stories. When I’m not writing my novels, I work as a writer-editor for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
I think I’ve always been a storyteller. In the Navy, I wrote stories about the people who served, the places we visited and the operations we participated in. When I was deployed, I used to play a lot of Dungeons and Dragons, especially in the 80s and 90s, in my off-duty free time. This was before email, internet, and gaming consoles. So, combining late-night D&D sessions with missing your family while deployed led to dreams about being with them in a fantasy world. I had these dreams all the time whenever I was deployed. On my last deployment on USS Enterprise (yes, I can proudly say that!) I started taking my dreams and writing it down, until I had my first novel, Forever Avalon. After that, I stopped having the dream. That’s when I knew I was a writer.
How long does it take you to write a book?
It varies from six months to more than a year. Writer’s block has worked on me in more ways than one. Add to that my full time job, writing/editing my own WIPs, as well as marketing, social media, setting up book signings, etc. It makes for a lot of long days and nights, and not in a good way. But, it’s what I love doing and, without writing, these stories would stay stuck in my head, spinning around like a 24/7 Broadway play.
What is your writing process like?
When I first started writing, I just wrote what I thought, no outline or research. It was just whatever was in my head. Now, I’ve evolved into first writing down character names, descriptions, places and background of the world I’m creating, and a complete outline. This helps me see where I’m at and so I know where I’m going. All the while, I’m doing constant research online using baby name generators, Google translate for languages (for magic spells and other languages), and a lot of historical research too. On top of that, I do a lot of reading of other authors in my genre to look for trends, myths and legends explored, etc.
Where do your book ideas come from?
I’ve always loved myths and legends. I even took a mythology class in high school. These are the original stories to which all of today’s fantasy genre is based on. D&D has been a big part of my stories, using my skills as a player and Dungeonmaster when it comes to character development, world building, etc. Beyond that, I get a lot of inspiration from anime. Japanese anime has some of the best writing as far as storylines, character development, and world building. Along with the beautiful artwork accompanying these series, I get inspired from watching them and using their influence in my own writing.
What is your favorite aspect of writing — creation characters, world building, plotting, editing, etc?
I think character creation is my favorite aspect of writing. I am so involved in the creation and life of them that I break down and cry when I write a scene where one of those characters die. I still cry when I reread them in my work. Also, the family in Forever Avalon are based on my own family members, my wife and children. I used their personalities when creating these characters, even their middle names for the characters first names. That makes them very personal to me. The hardest aspect is world building. When you have to create an entire world from the bottom up, one simple mistake could lead to a plot hole or other issue in your story.
How much has the idea of your first book changed between the first draft and the final, published draft?
Not a lot, really. I stuck with the story from the original concept. The biggest change was between book one and two. When I started writing the sequel to Forever Avalon, I actually started writing it as a prequel to show the protagonists 10 years spent on Avalon before his family’s arrival. But, the more I wrote, the more off putting it seemed going to a prequel instead of a sequel. So instead, I wrote a straight sequel with flashbacks using the prequel material I had already written. That ended up being my second book, The Dark Tides.
Your first series is about Avalon, which is a very well-known part of Arthurian legend. Have you always had an interest in Arthurian stories? What made you want to write one about Avalon?
Like any child, my first exposure to King Arthur was through the Disney movie, “The Sword in the Stone.” In my youth, I remember the movie “Excalibur” which took the Arthurian legend to full bore. That led me to the books and stories of the legend of King Arthur. To me, these are the first stories of magic, knights, heroism, love and courage. I think everything we, as fantasy authors, base our stories on, it all leads back to King Arthur, Camelot, Merlin and Excalibur. That’s why I based my story, not on D&D, but on the legend of Avalon. I wanted to take a “what happens next” approach. To me, the death of King Arthur meant the end of magic in our world, so where did it go? Forever Avalon explains that story.
What does your writing space look like?
I live and work in Washington, DC, so right now, my writing space is wherever I can find it in a one-bedroom high-rise apartment. It’s just me, my wife Georgiene, and our Westie, Sully. My children are all grown up and moved out on their own. I write at the dining room table, sitting up in bed, or on my recliner with my laptop on my lap or table. I don’t mind the noise as, working on an aircraft carrier for most of my adult life, you get used to it.
Do you plan your stories thoroughly before writing, or just dive right in?
I outline the idea of my stories, but as I said before, they come from my dreams. The stories play out in my head and I do my best to translate that into my computer. That was true for the Forever Avalon series, my new work The Last Magus, and a steampunk story I’m working on. Outlines help me plan but it lays out in my head. I used to express my stories through my D&D gameplay, but now I do it in my writing.
What is your number one piece of advice for a new writer?
Don’t give up. It is a time-consuming, grueling, nose-to-the-grindstone business, but the satisfaction of reading a review that someone liked your story is worth it. I may not achieve the status of a Stephen King or Terry Brooks, but those few people who enjoy my stories are all worth it. I love being a storyteller because we are the writers of life and love, of myths and legends. That makes all this worth it.
What advice would you give a more experienced writer?
Be a mentor to other writers. There is a vast community out there of aspiring writers who need advice and the experience can help guide others into the swamp that is the publishing industry. There are so many paths to follow, both good and bad, and I try to help others as much as I can. That’s why I write a blog to write about my experiences as a writer as well as promote my books and my geek hobbies.
We officially launched our Indiegogo campaign! This campaign is to help cover some of the costs of publishing the anthology, such as cover art, advertising, and hopefully an editor. You can find our campaign here. We would appreciate any donations, and if you can’t donate but want to share the link, you are welcome to do that as well!
Some of the perks of the campaign include: * A Youtube interview *A special Discord role *A 3D pin of the Worldsmyths logo *A paperback copy of the anthology *A hardback copy of the anthology
and more!
We’ve also made a short Youtube video to explain who we are and our Indiegogo campaign
We also have a new logo, designed by one of the admins of Worldsmyths
We look forward to continuing our campaign, and putting this anthology out into the world!
