The Shifters of The Hills: Notes On A Story

Some time in July, my short story titled "The Shifters Of The Hills" got published (in print!) by A Coup Of Owls Press.

Look at what we have here - Other Worlds by A Coup of Owls

It has been a really, really long time coming for this post.

I mean, as I said, the collection this story is published in came out towards the ending of July. I got my contributor copy sometime in mid-august. So, why am I just sending this out at the end of September?

Well, because of my day job and the demands of it.

Really, any free time that I have had in my first year of being a doctor, I have spent most of it recovering from the amount of work I had to do while being a doctor. That will be for another post (which is coming soon, I promise).

For now, let’s talk about this story – one of the few that I managed to squeeze out of my limited time. It’s a story that was meant to be a haunting one, but I chickened out and made it only… eerie.

So, let’s go.

HOW IT STARTED

I have worked with A Coup of Owls a few times. In fact, this story is the third of mine that they will be publishing.

So, its nice to know there’s a place that admires my work enough to allow me score a hattrick (is that what it is called football lovers?).

When I saw that they were publishing their second anthology in the Othered series, I thought why not give this opportunity a go? The idea was to write a story about being in an Other world. And that word, other felt very intriguing to me.

I mean, I could have written about space aliens but I do not like space stories very much. I have never made it to the end of a Star Wars episode. But I know how you can be other within a context that is pretty ordinary.

What do I mean?

Without giving too much of the story away, I wrote about how a family line deals with the peculiarities of becoming estranged from their own community because of a unique ‘gift’ that they had. A gift that keeps showing up in the first male child of every generation.

The family starts out with a man who betrays his community and gets banished because of that. His family along with him. And I begin to explore, as the story unravels, the many ways that that this banishment puts the family, and the person who possesses that gift in an other world. both an internal and external world.

As a subtext to the story: I thought it would be a cool subversive thing to start the story with the line “Before the white men came, the family lived a half day’s journey from the town they belonged to”, and then not feature a single colonizer (directly) in the story.

I wanted to do it because the story of a lot of African countries is painted over by colonization. Meanwhile, it is still a very specifically African world, and colonization is only one part – a very heavy read sad, part. Still, it is just a part.

Even if you start the story of Africans from colonization, it is still a story about the complexities of being human, even as one is African.

I hope that makes sense.

TAKING INSPIRATION FROM AN OTHER FAMILY.

Remember how I said I had chickened out of writing a horror story?

Yes, because when I started the story, I wanted it to be reminiscent of Netflix’s adaptation of The Haunting Of Hill House. The series is the first, and maybe the last story within the horror genre that I will ever watch. Nope. Never again.

It scared me a lot.

The psychological horror of it, the ghosts that lived in the house, I don’t know. It wasn’t for me (but I watched it till the end - because who wants to see all that horror and not the resolution at the end)

Despite that, my story’s title was also inspired by the movie.

But why did I decide to write a story modelled after the something I lowkey regret watching?

Well, it is because I found it interesting, the idea of a family being haunted together.

There is a line in the movie that stuck out to me. How the father says that the house sees the family as an unfinished meal. For context, the mother in the family dies because she is haunted to the point of madness by the house, and obviously, the family moves away to a new town after the event. To a new life, or so they think.

But years later, they all begin to see the same ghosts that had haunted them since childhood.

And that was where I got that spark. Seeing it unravel over time. Seeing them navigate it: some of them failing at it, some of them triumphing over it. Some of them daring to leave that open mouthed monster alive, lurking abandoned in the woods.

My story ends with an almost happy ending. Almost. Because I am deeply fascinated by endings that are open-ended. That are not real endings. Just a way for us to realize that the character has to be the one to make a choice.

Those kinds of endings mirror real life the best.

A GORGEOUS ANTHOLOGY

I’ve read a few of the other stories in this anthology. I’m still making my way through them.

By the time this piece is publishes, maybe I would have read even more.

BUT I was really, really excited about getting my own copy of the book. You know why?

Because it got shipped with my copy of the story I published in the first anthology in the Other series.

You can read my Notes on A Story for The Kinsmen on my blog.

Getting these copies felt extra special for some reason: even though its not the first time I've received contributor copies.

Peep the date on the cover - because I LOVE to document when I get my favorite books

The evening I got home and realized that it had gotten shipped was pretty emotional for me. I mean, I’ve had contributor copies shipped from the US and the UK to me but it just felt special, realizing how far I had come. From that 400 level student sending in her first submission with her heart racing, to getting nominated (and winning some!) international awards. And seeing your work in print – it is always a special feeling.

Can we also talk about how gorgeous the covers of these anthologies are!

Here's my interview with the press about The Shifters Of The Hills - learn more about my process and inspiration!

Clicking on the image directs you to the interview!

The stories (yes, plural) are still available on the Press’ website:

You can buy the ebook version, or the print version. And read mine and other great Other stories.

In addition to that, here’s some other ways you can support this book (and me, in extension):

-        You could write a review, especially on the Goodreads page. Here’s one of my favourite reviews of my story in the Other & Different anthology

Was such a thrill to stumble upon this review. It definitely made my day when I read it!

-        You could share this post on your socials: Instagram, WhatsApp, X (or twitter, whatever you want to call it)

I look forward to doing more of this. Giving you a behind the scenes of some of the things I’ve published, what they mean to me.

And also, because writing, and learning about craft is something that needs to be honed very, very often. You can’t stop learning, or stop talking about learning.

That is all.

For now.

Very soon, I will be writing about my doctor experience chronicles (and how this has affected my art - for the better?)

Watch out for that!

Take care till then.

Sending you off with one of the stickers I was sent with my contributor copies. Isn't that such a cute owl?