It’s been a long time since I did a cover reveal for myself. And this time I have help from many other people! You might have seen the cover out in the wild already, but I wanted to show it off here as well and add a bit of context to this release.
A Dress to Kill For is an old story. I wrote down the premise years ago but when I heard that Grimdark Magazine was opening up for submissions again, I knew I had to give it a shot. I had just released Undine’s Blessing and was worldbuilding and plotting for my next series. This give me the time and space to finish up the story and edit it.
Rereading the old draft made me a bit nervous. Most (if not all) of my stories have been sweet and wholesome to a degree. This was the complete opposite. It was gritty, dark, violent, angry. But the words flowed out of me. Claire’s voice came to me instantly. I don’t know if it was because Sarah Chorn had helped me with the emotional description or if I truly was becoming a better writer. It didn’t matter. This story was good. And I knew it.
Since then, this short story has been rejected by three magazines. All form rejection, but I’d like to believe it was more because it wasn’t the right fit than that it was a bad story. I honestly don’t know how to classify this. Is it horror? Is it dark fantasy? I don’t think I follow the general horror conventions (I wouldn’t even be able to tell you what they are) with this, so I pitched to magazines who took both fantasy and horror. Maybe I was wrong to do so. But not knowing what it was made it hard to find the right market.
So I decided to self-publish it for this spooky season.
That’s the beauty of self-publishing and being in control of your own career. Even if other people don’t want want it, I can still create my own thing.
So here is my first short story in the darker genres. A Dress to Kill For is a four thousand word short story, roughly twenty pages on Kindle. Let me know if you like this. I’m very tempted to write more stories following Claire and her new friends.
You can preorder it now ahead of the release on September 30th.
A Dress to Kill For
Release Date: 30 September 2024
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Blurb
How much are you willing to sacrifice to gain everything you ever wanted?
Lady Claire Rosewood lives on the fringes of society, pitied by the people she used to call her friends, and her husband is no longer the suave businessman he once was. Frustrated with both her status and her marriage, she longs for more.
When an opportunity presents itself that allows her not only to be part of higher society, but to mingle with the elite, she needs to make a choice. Every rise to the top comes at a cost, but is she ready to pay with blood?
A Dress to Kill For is a horror short story, perfect for those who love The Picture of Dorian Gray and Crimson Peak.
