SALT LAKE CITY, UT August 2, 2013
British writer Rebecca Lloyd began writing in 1996 after returning to the UK from a remote hospital in Tanzania where she’d been working as a tropical diseases’ diagnostician.
Lloyd says, “I think that my life up there in the mountains was so extraordinary and magical that it triggered some thirst in me to write about, and in some ways celebrate, my fellow humans. My first piece of writing was a novel based on my experiences in that hospital. I put it away in a drawer where it still lies, but I’ve been writing fiction ever since.”
When Rebecca Lloyd’s collection of short stories came to the attention of WiDo’s submission editor Allie Maldonado, she was at first doubtful. “A short story collection is a first for us. But I decided to take a look because in today’s book publishing market, anything goes if it’s good enough to attract an audience.” And these stories were certainly that. Allie continues, “I could not stop reading. First one then the next, and I’d tell myself, just one more story, just one more. Each one is exquisite.”
The novel length collection includes twenty stories that examine a fundamental and common human trait, the fear of change. The innocent and often eccentric characters in Lloyd’s stories seek out safe and predictable places – either imaginary or real – where the frightening outside world with its inexplicable demands and random events is kept at bay. Thirteen of them have been previously published in anthologies or literary magazines.
“My ultimate aim has been to see my stories all together in one collection of their own and I am delighted that WiDo will be publishing this collection,” states Lloyd, who found WiDo through researching publisher websites. “I have studied literally hundreds of publisher websites over the years, and since submission via email is now the norm, the state of the website is of crucial importance for writers looking to submit. So, when I found the WiDo website, not only was it a pleasure exploring its different components, but I was impressed with the straightforward, unfussy submissions guidelines.”
“Thanks to our website designer for attracting Rebecca Lloyd, as well as many other excellent writers who submitted to us because they liked our site,” says Maldonado. “We are very excited to see the release of Rebecca’s book next year.”
Rebecca Lloyd is a writer and fiction editor living in Bristol in the south of England. She won the Bristol Short Story Prize in 2008 for The River. Her novel Under the Exquisite Gaze was shortlisted in the Dundee International Book Prize 2010, and she was a semi-finalist for her short story collection Don’t Drink the Water in the Hudson Prize that year. Lloyd’s first children’s novel Halfling was published by Walker Books in 2011. She writes three or four hours each morning before anything else is allowed to happen – the habit is ingrained from years of having to get up early to write before work.