The Withering Update

A few days ago, The Withering was just a ms, a work in-progress.  I finished my first round of edits, saw it was cleaning up nicely, and decided that I should probably pitch this collection somewhere.  I always had the perfect place I wanted to send this particular collection in mind and, of course, I was nervous to pitch it, but decided to just do it.  I waited in agony for about a week and then received an email saying they were interested!  That blew me away.  I was sure I would have to shop this around a bit before receiving a positive response.  After I received that response, my collection began to feel more real to me.  This was now something a publisher wanted to look at it.  It was now desirable. 

As it became a bit realer to me, I realized, man, I need someone to write an introduction to this, but who would write that??  I tried to think of writers who this collection would resonate with and I came up blank.  A few people suggested a few names and then Kyle came up with who we both felt was the perfect person for this collection.  I decided to be bold again and shoot this person a message to feel them out.  They said they'd be happy to read it and would only write one if they liked it, because they do not write intros or blurbs for things they do not like.  That makes perfect sense to me and is how it should be. 

And now I'm freaking out because The Withering just got even more real.  A publisher is interested and I have a potential, possible author of my introduction.  Of course, they both might hate it when they read it, and if so, you'll hear about that here.  But for the present, I will keep my optimism!

Now to the progress of The Withering itself.

The Withering is not for a young audience.  Yes, it's my juvenilia that spans approximately between the years of 2001-2011, but it's very dark.  There is no fantasy, much less light fantasy, in this collection.  Supernatural and psychological horror are its primary themes, with some dark nature and gory/body horror.  There are currently 49 poems but I'd like to add at least one more to make it at hit 50.

The Withering is very different from Diary of a Sorceress.  The Withering does, however, contain a couple Sorceress poems that didn't make it into Diary of a Sorceress.  I felt they didn't fit well with the newer poems.  Other than that, I don't feel the collections are similar. It is meant to sate my readers' appetites until Diary of a Vampyress is finished.

After another round of edits, I shall submit it.