Last week, 21-year-old Hadassah Waugh had an original short story included in the newly released Seasons of Romantasy: Spring.
It is the first volume of a new anthology series by Quill & Flame publishing that features a collection of short stories centering on fantastical adventures of romance and daring in each highlighted season.
She said her story was themed around the idea of each season being embodied by a person and marrying each other.
"In this first one, Lady Spring has married Lord Winter, and it’s about her dealing with the fact that he can’t be there for her in her season because he doesn’t come back until his own season where there is only one month overlap between them.
"I actually wrote Lord Winter’s story first and submitted that but because the book is being published by an American company and their seasons are different time-wise, they contacted me to stay my story had got in but instead of doing one anthology like advertised they would now be doing four.
"They contacted me and said they ‘really liked the winter story’ but wondered if I would want to do a story from the point of view of Lady Spring.
"I said ‘yes, why not’ and I’m now going to have stories published in all four of their seasonal anthologies this year."
Miss Waugh said she had been writing stories since she was 10 or 11 years old.
"I wasn’t writing seriously though until I was 15, because before that I kind of just wrote fanfics for fun.
"It was around then I decided that if I wanted to actually get something published I would need to create my own intellectual property.
"My main genre is epic fantasy and at the time when I was 15 I was quite frustrated because I had grown out of the 10 to 12-year-old stories, but the adult stories or even young adults stories were a bit too violent and romance-heavy for me at that age.
"Out of that frustration I started writing my own and that’s also what really got me into professional creative writing."
It was very exciting to have her work traditionally published for the first time, she said.
"I still can’t believe I’m actually getting published with these four different things this year.
"Also importantly, all the proceeds from the anthologies I’m being published in are going to Ronald McDonald House Charities.
"That was an important reason why I submitted to this publisher in the first place.
"Ronald McDonald House is a special charity for me, as my family has benefited from it in the past when certain members have needed a place to stay when going to hospitals out of town, like Christchurch or Starship."
She said she already had a couple more projects in the works.
"I have two main epic fantasy projects I’m working on and once I’ve done some more short-story writing this month, I will be working on revising one of my novels.
"I’m going to the Realm Makers conference in America this year and I’m hoping to pitch it to agents or publishers there because it’s like a specialised Christian sci-fi and fantasy conference.
"That’s the market I’m aiming for because that’s where I think that my more family-friendly oriented brand will fit better.
My audience range is 13 to 16
but I keep the violence and romance level just appropriate enough that 11 to 12-year-olds could read up."
Seasons of Romantasy: Spring can be purchased on Amazon.com and is also available on Kindle.
The next three seasonal anthologies featuring Miss Waugh’s work are set to release sporadically throughout the year.
