From Cover Idea to a Published Story: All the Beautiful Things is a new novella that took time to write

 

 

We authors have different ways of formulating ideas for the books we choose to write. Sometimes we’ll have the idea for the story from beginning to end, an idea for a story based on something we read or dreamed about, or we’ll overhear something that sparks an idea for a story.

 

Or, we’ll get the image of a book cover in our head!

 

That’s exactly what happened with my most recent book, a psychological horror novella called All the Beautiful Things, just released by PsychoToxin Press. Getting the idea for the cover of the book grabbed my curiosity. If you’re curious, the actual cover of the book is pretty much what I saw in my own head! It was that cover, with my name on it, that got me thinking: Exactly what kind of book IS that??

 

It took me a while to find out. In fact, a VERY long while!

 

Sometime after that cover popped into my head, a scene with two characters was next! In the scene, there was a man and a pregnant woman. The man threatened to kill her if she ever ran away from him. He threatened to kill her, cut out the baby, then kill it too. The woman told him he would never get to see the baby. Her baby would live and she would name him QL. The man started mocking that name, saying it was a stupid name and making up fake names that “QL” stood for.

 

The story I ended up writing, though, didn’t include the man and woman. The story was about QL. I was so taken by this very interesting character that baby grew up to be. I got snatches of what QL’s childhood was like as well as his adult years. I also got that he was fixated on his neighbor, Danielle.

 

This all came to me in bits and pieces. At one point, I tried sitting down to write the story, but I could only manage one chapter. Everything else was closed off. So I put it away and went on to write other things and do other things. I just lived life while I waited until I had the whole story.

 

Years later, I came across that chapter again. By then, QL had been stored in the back of my mind, living out his story in my head.

 

What’s interesting is that after I read that chapter I wrote, the rest of the story came to me and I started the next chapter and the next. I didn’t stop writing it until I had the whole story written down.

 

And that is how I managed to finally write the novella now known as All the Beautiful Things. At the time, I felt the story was complete. It was rejected by several publishers. I remembered reading about a publishing company called PsychoToxin Press in the Horror Tree newsletter, so I decided to submit my novella to them. It was accepted last year and now, finally, the cover of the book that popped into my head one day is now the cover of an actual book, which I wrote! Yes, it took me a long time to get this story written and longer to find a publisher for the book, but I’m happy with how it all worked out.

 

I believe that things happen when they are supposed to happen. In an article I read in praise of slow writers, "The Virtue of Slow Writers," writer Lauren Alwan mentioned a book which also supports the art of taking time to write things and writes about a book included in the article “The Art of Slow Writing is a manifesto for giving a book the time it needs, for cultivating patience and connection.” I believe that All the Beautiful Things is a story that took the time it needed to grow and piece itself together. Some books get written quickly, but others need more time to be written. This particular book is one of mine which required some time, and I’m happy I gave it the time it needed, because I am satisfied and thrilled with how the story turned out.

 

Thank you to Christopher Pelton of PsychoToxin Press, cover designer Ruth Anna Evans, and formatter Cat Voleur for all of your hard work in getting All the Beautiful Things published as the book that it was meant to be.

 

Here is the blurb:

 

QL likes to collect heads. Not just any heads, mind. The heads of the things he loves. And he likes to keep them all on his special wall of beautiful things, so that even in death, they can still be his forever.

 

QL Buscemi grew up with a hard life. Abandoned at birth, he was raised by his aunt and uncle in an abusive home. That was until his fixation for collecting the heads of dead animals became a problem. Soon he started talking to a voice in his head and acting strangely around other people. Fed up with his issues, his aunt and uncle place him into a home for "special children," despite its reputation for neglecting patients. There, QL encounters even more abuse, neglect and intolerance for his mental health issues, which only get worse since he refuses to take his medication. He finally leaves "the center" after twenty brutal years.

 

Finally free to live on his own at last, a 31-year-old QL becomes infatuated with his pretty neighbor who lives across the street, 20-year-old Danielle Pinota, who is herself finally free of a home where she was a "second mom" to her kid brother. As QL's attachment to Danielle grows, he wants to get to know her better. And keep her close to him forever. But he has to be careful. He always hurts the things he loves. At least if he hurts Danielle from loving her too much, just like he had with his pets, she could still be his forever ... on his wall of beautiful things.

 

 

And here’s the ebook link

 

Print coming soon!

Interview with Deborah Sheldon, Author of Redhead Town

 

 

Deborah Sheldon is an award-winning author and editor from Melbourne, Australia. She writes short stories, novellas and novels across the darker spectrum of horror, crime and noir. Her award-nominated titles include the novels Body Farm Z, Contrition and Devil Dragon; the novella Thylacines; and the collections Figments and Fragments: Dark Stories and Liminal Spaces: Horror Stories. Her most recent works include the novel Cretaceous Canyon and the novella Redhead Town. 

 

Deb’s collection Perfect Little Stitches and Other Stories won the Australian Shadows ‘Best Collected Work’ Award, was shortlisted for an Aurealis Award, and longlisted for a Bram Stoker. Her short fiction has been widely published, shortlisted for numerous Australian Shadows and Aurealis Awards, translated, and included in various ‘best of’ anthologies.

 

She has won the Australian Shadows ‘Best Edited Work’ Award twice: for Midnight Echo 14 and for the anthology she conceived and edited, Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth andBabies. As a senior editor at IFWG Publishing, Deb specialises in horror anthologies. Upcoming in November 2024 is Deb's Spawn 2: More Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies, sequel to the multi-award-winning and multi-award-nominated Spawn.

 

Deb's other credits include TV scripts such as NEIGHBOURS, AUSTRALIA’S MOST WANTED and STATE CORONER; magazine feature articles; non-fiction books (Reed Books, Random House); stage plays; poetry; and award-winning medical writing. Visit Deb at http://deborahsheldon.wordpress.com

 

How long have you been writing?

 

All my life. Before I knew any letters of the alphabet, I’d draw my stories; simple tales of a heroic boy and girl – usually with their dog, cat and bird – defeating a bad guy.

 

But if you’re talking professionally, I sold my first piece in 1986 when I was 18 years old and just starting my three-year Bachelor of Arts degree. It was a non-fiction article on steroid abuse that was picked up by an Australian bodybuilding magazine. Back then, I was an avid gym-rat.

 

Now, I’m pretty much sedentary thanks to Sjogren’s syndrome and degenerative disc disease. Remembering 18-year-old Deb – with her boundless energy, low body-fat and muscles – feels strange and foreign, almost like picturing someone else’s life.

 

But that first sale lit a fire in my belly that can’t ever be quenched. In the intervening 38 years, I’ve devoted my life to writing, sitting at its feet in my attempts to master its various forms such as scriptwriting, journalism, medical writing, fiction and, most recently, poetry.

 

How did you find a publisher for your book?

 

Circuitously. My two main long-form publishers are IFWG and Severed Press, both based in Australia. Between them, they’ve released a great deal of my work including four novels, four novellas, three short-story collections, and two anthologies (with a third in the wings). I’m happy with my publishers and our working relationships, yet I wanted to potentially extend the reach of my readership via a US publisher.

 

It took some doing to find the right fit. That’s where PsychoToxin Press comes in! I’m thrilled that they’re keen to publish an Aussie author who wrote an Aussie story. They’re even okay with Australian spelling, which is – quite frankly – my hill to die on. This is important to me; it’s a cultural thing.

 

What can you tell us about your new book, Redhead Town?

 

It’s a vampire tale wrapped in a dystopia where the government has ultimate control over how life is lived in a small country town. In part, Redhead Town was influenced by the Covid lockdowns in my city of Melbourne, Australia, which were amongst the harshest and longest in the world. As a dark-spec/horror author, not being permitted to leave my house for fear of being arrested definitely shaped my writing of this story.

 

Where did you get the idea for your book?

 

From my adult son, actually. Over the years, Harry has sparked the idea for quite a few of my works, mostly short stories. For what would become Redhead Town, he suggested in one sentence, “Vampires, but they’re like meth-heads”.

 

I took that prompt and ran with it.

 

What are some of the ups and downs you went through while writing your book?

 

I loved developing the characters and interpersonal relationships of the Murphy family; Mark, Bernie, and their son Nathan.

 

Conjuring the dilapidated state of their fictionalised town, Oleg’s Creek, was also absorbing.

 

Best of all was creating my own kind of vampires. That’s where my creativity took flight!

 

The downs of writing this novella? Well, I guess identifying too much with the main character, Mark, as he tries to live in a strict society that doesn’t allow for individual wiggle room. Redhead Town is, for me, a soft exploration of totalitarianism and what it might look like in its initial stages.

 

Please share where we can find you on the Internet, as well as social media.

 

I’ve got a website and a monthly newsletter with giveaways.

 

I’m on Goodreads

 

A Facebook page managed on my behalf by a third party

 

Lastly, my Amazon Author Page

 

Where can interested readers buy your book Redhead Town?

 

Via Amazon and PsychoToxin Press.