Men for Hire anthology - interview with the authors

The Men for Hire anthology is out on 25 September. J

There are four stories from Tina Donahue, Bella Settarra, Michelle Roth and myself.

Here are some questions the four anthology authors answered over the last few months:

This is Luminosity’s first anthology. Have you had any short stories accepted in an anthology before and tell us the title of your story in the Men for Hire anthology.

I’ve done a number of anthologies for Kensington and indie. My title is Got Muscle? A play on the ads for milk in the United States that always end with Got Milk? (Tina Donahue)

The ‘Men for Hire’ anthology has a specific theme. That of a firm in London run by Jennifer Archer offering ‘men for hire’ to do any job from dog walking, house sitting, DIY, chauffeuring, etc…. How did you find this theme easy (or hard) to work with?

At first it was hard as there were so many occupations I could come up with, but the idea of chimney sweeps came to me when a bird got stuck in my chimney. I liked that it was a little more unusual, although the problem of having a bird fluttering around your chimney when you’re a woman on your own is a very real one. (Bella Settarra)

Although Luminosity Publishing is based in the UK, we have authors from several different countries in this anthology. Which country are you from (and name of county/state). Did you grow up there?

Let's see. I'm from all over the place. I was born in Ceiba, Puerto Rico. I moved to the US mainland as a child. I spent thirty years in Florida then moved to Los Angeles. This past winter we packed up our things and moved back east. I'm currently living in Ontario, Canada. (Michelle Roth)

The stories in the anthology are all between 8-12,000 words. What is good (or hard) about writing a short story?

The great thing about writing a short story is that it is finished so quickly! This was the quickest one I have ever written. J The hard part is being selective about what you write – you cannot show the whole journey of a romance in a short story. Instead you have to write an episode from that journey. In all of my short stories I have chosen to write about people who already know each other so that makes it easier. (Jennifer Denys)

More info on each story to come over the next week.