Cake & Quill – Gifts from the Dark

Once upon a time, there was a website named Authonomy. It was full of writers, who, full of hope and dreams, uploaded their work there for other writers to see and comment upon. Much fun was to be had, many a useful bit of knowledge or advice to be gained. Authonomy is gone, but the writers are still here. Some of them call themselves now Cake & Quill – for our fondness of both cake and writing.

It was Rubianne Wood who first got us together in a Facebook group, and it was only a matter of time until we’d start writing together. We set out trying to write one story – everybody would write around 300 words, then pass it on to the next one. That didn’t quite work out as planned…I remember one writer killing of another writer’s character, only to have a third writer step up to resurrect him…in the end, the idea died.

Then someone – okay, it was me – came up and said, fine, if we can’t manage to write a story together, why not have everybody write their own story on one theme we can all agree on? Everybody approach it from their angle, make it an interesting, diverse collection?

That was in January 2015. And, lo and behold, it worked. After months of writing, mutual editing, professional editing, and cover design, we will soon publish our common brain child, Gifts of the Dark – A Miscellany of Dread, coming right in time for Halloween, on 31st October. Proceeds will completely go to charity, and since this collection focuses on dread and anxiety, recipient will be a charity in the LA area which provides clinical support, advocacy and other services to mentally ill homeless.

I’m so proud of everybody who contributed, and so happy we managed to reach this point despite everything life threw at some of the members this past year. Thank you, you wonderful people. I love you.