The Reveal: Siren Daughter
WriteHive News Update
We know how expensive it is to break into the publishing world. There’s costs for editing, cover design, and marketing. And that’s just the basics. Overcoming that financial barrier is one of the main focuses of WriteHive’s mission. Everyday on our discord, we have conversations going on about writing advice, networking, querying, etc. If you can ask it, we can assist. We have resident professionals for editing, self-pub, art, and blogging. And once you’ve got all the knowledge and are ready for publication, the sponsored artist award is here to help!
Last year, Cassandra Stubbs won the Sponsored Artist Award for her YA novel Siren Daughter, and she’s graciously allowed us to reveal the cover! Isn’t it gorgeous? We’d like to thank Moor Books for creating such an amazing design.
We invited Cassandra to say a few words about her experience
Why I Applied
Not-so-fun fact: due to mental health problems, I didn’t write for nine years. But then, thanks to NaNoWriMo in November 2016, I wrote a book.
That book was not Siren Daughter, my 2021 debut novel.
But after that bonkers, magical, amazing experience of writing (and finishing!) a book in 2016, I kept writing. Another book, then another. Yet one idea always stuck out, even then: a Greek mythology/fantasy world combination focused not on demigods or gods, but on the monsters. On those creatures defeated in all the famous Greek myths.
The idea sat there, waiting, until spring of 2019. I’d tip-toe closer to it, then scuttle away, afraid I couldn’t do an epic fantasy justice. But one day, I didn’t retreat into my comfort zone. One day, I wrote the first chapter. Thus, Siren Daughter was born.
That very first draft was ridden with plot holes and the pacing was outright garish, but I discovered the main character, Agathe’s, voice. She was a young siren, exiled but not alone, and she rebelled against her lot in life even then.
By the spring of 2020, I’d written another draft of Siren Daughter and had just begun edits when I stumbled upon WriteHive through a writing-focused Discord server. Someone posted a link to the website and mentioned the Sponsored Artist Program. Though I wasn’t sure I was ready to publish, I clicked the link, excited but nervous, and read the application rules and questions. My heart pounded; my hands became so sweaty my fingers slipped right off my keyboard more than once.
Still, I typed and typed. I completed the application. I hit submit.
Guess what happened? The page froze. Our internet failed. The application got lost to whatever gods linger between that submit button and the webpage error following it.
Well, that’s a sign, I thought. Then, because I’m nothing if not one of my mother’s stubborn daughters, I took it as a challenge. I can’t say my second application was any better, but it sure felt like it was. I was more determined, like the embers of my hope had burst into an actual fire.
I hit submit again. The internet gods sighed, then let my application go through.
The waiting game began. One where I thought and thought some more about if I wanted to publish this book. Why this one? Why now?
And like a clarion bell, something in me said because if not now, when?
Please join WriteHive at February’s #BookNook on our Discord server for a read along and discussion on this page-turning adventure.
How I felt when I won:
Fun fact: I didn’t actually think I’d win. I thought I’d hit submit, eventually get an email about not making it to the voting round, and that’d be that.
That’s not what happened.
Instead, I got an email informing me I’d made it further, that the lovely patrons of WriteHive would now vote on who would win by reading the first three chapters of each finalist’s novel.
I’m not ashamed to admit I freaked the heck out. I still slept, I still went through the daily motions of life, but now there was this breathless wonder infused into my days. I made it to the final round? Me?
The day came for WriteHive to announce the winner through their Discord. I opened the app, waited for the voice-channel announcement to begin, and bit my nails down to the quick.
Outside, my family worked on some yard work. My niece, my biggest cheerleader and the most vibrant, excited kid you’ll ever meet, burst into my bedroom every ten minutes to ask if I’d heard the results yet. Each time, my heart would pound a little louder.
Then the announcement began. I listened, eyes wide and sweating through my shirt, as the third-place winner was announced, then the second.
Neither of them were me.
Did my three chapters get lost in limbo? Had the internet gods tricked me yet again?
The first-place winner, the winner of over $500 toward publishing their book, was announced. They said my name. The chat went wild.
I froze for a long second. Then, two things happened: I texted my mom, something I’m sure was along the lines of OMG CALL ME, and I ran all the way outside.
By the time I made it to my family, the world had taken on that fuzzy, golden hue it often does in moments of pure joy. To say I was excited or joyous or giddy would be an understatement. It was all those things, all at once, combined with so much more that I can’t begin to explain.
My family noticed me standing there. My niece stood up, grinned, and asked if I had won.
I did, I told her, heart beating wildly in my chest.
I can’t be sure the entire neighborhood heard her ensuing screech of excitement, but I like to think they did.
How I think winning has helped my writing career:
I’m disabled. Disability doesn’t define me, but the fact is I never thought I’d self-publish. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I simply couldn’t afford to.
Then came WriteHive’s Sponsored Artist Program. Then came being awarded funds that finally made publishing reachable. Thanks to WriteHive, I have covers for each book in my trilogy, the first book being Siren Daughter, and a real chance at making writing my career.
But it goes beyond the money. Winning awarded me something I needed much more: confidence. People read my first three chapters during the voting round and liked my book. Enough to vote for it.
I’d shown few people my writing before, and while I thought I was a decent writer, maybe even good, the knowledge that there were people out there who wanted to read more of Siren Daughter blew my mind.
Winning gave me something I didn’t think to ask for. It gave me knowing there were readers, actual real-life people, who liked my writing. They liked my book and its characters and even the stupid typos I later found during edits. Better, seeing people like my writing made me ask myself something important: if they like it, why can’t I?
The truth is, I was always afraid to like my own writing. As if there was some super-secret task force ready to knock me down the moment I said wow, this is good.
Following my win, I said wow, this is good, and no one knocked me down.
I’m not afraid anymore. That, right there, is the biggest win of all.
