It all began with Choose Your Own Death. I was offered a short story commission from a magazine editor that specialised in macabre fairytales and fantastical stories for young readers. I started writing one Saturday morning thinking I’d knock it over by Sunday evening.

By late Saturday, the story had taken on its own life. Characters refused to die. My carefully plotted index cards were scattered across the room. I submitted the story anyway – 5000 words over the word limit. I never heard back from the publisher.

I was disheartened but not defeated. I’ve never killed any of my stories. Instead, they skulk in the virtual bottom drawer of my hard drive and every so often, usually on a Friday or Saturday night when I’m home alone with a glass of wine, I’ll find the file and plug away at it. That was how Choose Your Own Death was completed, eighteen months after the initial ‘commission’. At 16,000 words, it was more of an extended short story than a novella.

There was no way I could find another children’s book publisher to take the work. I couldn’t keep editing this story indefinitely. I had a day job where I taught film students the business of animation. Here’s the thing. In animation, no one looks for a producer or a film studio to produce their first film. Every emerging filmmaker spends their own money producing, distributing and marketing their work at film festivals. If they’re lucky, a producer will take notice after their third or fourth short film. Likewise, visual artists also spruike their own work. In the creative industry, no one waited around for an agent or a publisher to produce their work.

The decision to self-publish my macabre little story was easy. I had a lot of transferable skills from working in screen production. And after learning 3D modelling software for my animation degree, picking up technical skills in Adobe Indesign was easy. I hired the talented illustrator, Tara Brown, to create the cover and ten illustrations for my story.

There’s a lot to learn about self-publishing, and I don’t know where it’s going to take me or what I’m going to do with my writing. For now, I’m content to release Choose Your Own Death to the world on my own terms.