It started with a diagnosis. One that shakes every bone in your body and leaves you changed at a molecular level. Cancer, the high mortality rate kind.
Then it was about telling family and friends, working through the surgeries, the recovery, and to top it all off, this was the middle of the pandemic in Melbourne, Australia, one of the most locked down cities on the planet. That meant no visitors in the hospital, and my wife saying goodbye to me at the door every time.
I recovered (no small feat, but a different story!) but though my body survived, my brain was somewhere else. I was a shell of the person I used to be, and there was no point pretending otherwise. Mid-life hit hard, I had almost died and not actually accomplished any of the dreams of my youth, which is such a cliché, but it didn’t feel like one to me. I felt lost.
I talked to my loved ones, the people who truly knew me before and were learning who I was now right alongside me, and they encouraged me to find who it was that I wanted to be.
So, I quit my corporate job to become a freelance consultant to give myself freedom to do other things and figure it all out. I also started writing again with a fervour I had not done since my twenties. At first, it was from my hospital bed, but once the words started flowing, they never stopped.
In the beginning I did what lots of folks do—I wrote fanfic to exercise a long-dormant muscle. I got feedback, lots of it, both good and not so good, from a passionate community who became friends. They encouraged me to do more.
Then I finished the fantasy novel I’d been working on for a decade. I wanted to get it out there, but when I looked at the state of the publishing industry today, especially in Australia, I despaired. Dark fantasy, for lesbians? Not in this market, they said.
Agents and publishers I talked to encouraged self-publishing. I have a corporate background in marketing, access to resources for professional editing and cover design, so really, what could big trad offer me as an (at best) mid-list author other than years of delays, rejections and frustration, and some distribution and bookshop placement on the other side? Not small things, granted, but I thought I could do this my way.
I quickly realised that publishing my book wasn’t all I wanted to do. I wanted to offer a home for other authors who I could help with the resources I have. I also found a love for short fiction, and my ambitions expanded to being an anthology editor.
I needed help. This would have all come to nothing if I had not had the immensely talented Ella T. Holmes, who has been the heart of this project with me. I talked to readers, writers, editors, and everyone said the same thing—there’s a niche market for sapphic speculative fiction, but we need to seek out, and perhaps even create the communities in which it can thrive (more on that soon!)
So, Scylla Publishing was born, and she will always be small, and niche, and sapphic.
The name (in case you were wondering) comes from two places. I wanted something that represented my personal transformation, and the transformative power of fiction for under-represented people. In the original Greek myths, Scylla was a beautiful water nymph who was made into a monster by a jealous goddess. People are always trying to paint the queer community as ugly. What an amazing parallel to the queer experience!
The second origin story is nerdier. I am a proud fan of Motherland: Fort Salem, and I honoured my path back to writing by naming the company after my favourite character from the show.
BTW – Amalia Holm, the actress who brought Scylla to life, signed the proof copy of my upcoming novel and asked me to sign the Who Am I? anthology when I gifted her a copy—pinch me!
Picture of a page with a signature and inscription by Amalia Holm.
Inspiration comes from so many places; a tv show, music, friends and family, dreams, myths, books, adventures, places…I drew on everything that I loved for this project, and am putting everything that I love into it.
On this release day of our first book, and the official day one of Scylla Publishing (we have big dreams and there’s so much more coming!), I wanted to tell my story so you know the human behind this a little better, and you understand how committed I am to make this a place for queer people and our allies to read great stories, and be seen.
What are we but our dreams after all?
Thanks for being here.
Veronica
PS - I wrote every word of this. Scylla does no AI, in anything, ever.