It can be very frustrating when you have some good news but you aren't allowed to share it. Before Christmas, one of my stories was accepted for publication, and I was bursting to let the world (okay, my friends and followers) know. However, not all the details of the anthology concerned had been finalised, and until they were, I was sworn to keep my lips sealed.

Well, now the news is out, and I can tell everyone that my story, 'The Silent War', will be appearing in Flame Tree Publishing's Dreams Divine anthology, due out in June. I'm delighted on two counts.

The story has always been one of my favourites. Don't ask me where the inspiration came from (see my last blog), because if I ever knew, I've long forgotten. It was one of those stories that seemed to flow of its own accord. Sometimes it's the stories that you struggle over that turn out best, but this one simply felt right. 

Thankfully, other people thought so too, because it won the QWF competition. That was years ago, and I hadn't really sent it anywhere else since, until late last summer, and I'm delighted to find that I haven't been fooling myself all this time, as Gillian Whitaker, the senior project editor, liked it enough to publish it too.

Flame Tree Publishing specialises in anthologies of speculative fiction based around a theme. Dreams Divine will be a hardback book containing 25 romantasy stories inspired by the meeting between wishes, dreams and reality. The company was established in 1992 and among the authors it has published are Ramsay Campbell and Paul Du Noyer. Dreams Divine will include a great range of authors, and I'm excited to be in their company. 

For the full list, and more information about the anthology visit https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/fantasy-gothic/romantic-fantasy-contents-announcement-dreams-divine

There you go–something to look forward to in 2026.