A young Elora-based author is hoping the buzz around his teeny tiny stories will amount to big things as he continues to work toward a career as a novelist.
Skyler Hammond is the author of The Big Book of Teeny Tiny Stories, an anthology of very short stories he wrote daily and posted to his social media.
The 24-year-old Hammond said his latest book has no genre, in that it includes just about every genre out there.
“That was one of my goals,” said Hammond. “From fantasy to sci-fi, to love and a bit of thriller too - it has a bit of everything.”
The individual stories in The Big Book of Teeny Tiny Stories began as creative prompts, approximately 50-word tales that he would write as a writing exercise.
“I couldn’t always get to writing out a book and I wanted something I could still do on a daily basis to keep the creativity flowing,” said Hammond. “It’s trying to tell a beginning, middle and end, but in 50 words.”
Hammond began posting the prompts, which were his first teeny tinies, on his personal social media.
“Family and fiends really liked it so I went on to make pages for them and then other people found it and liked it and now there’s about 4,500 people who follow and read it every day,” he said.
The book marries each prompt with an illustration. In total, 16 artists from 10 different countries contributed, including professionals and even his own sisters and grandfather.
“It turns out they had completely different interpretations than what I had in my head and gave the stories a whole other meaning, like going from sci-fi to love, and that was so cool,” said Hammond.
Because some of the artists don’t speak English, Hammond had to communicate through a translator.
This is Hammond’s third book to be self-published; he began his first at the age of 14 and completed it at age 16.
“I have always had a book on the go since then,” he said.
Hammond was hooked on creative writing since he picked up the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer when he was young.
“I didn’t like reading and then all of a sudden I was obsessed with reading and writing after I read it,” said Hammond.
More recently, Hammond was living in The Netherlands and Ireland for five years studying law.
“My passions didn’t lie there and I realized this is what would make me happy,” said Hammond.
Now Hammond works as a freelance writer from his home in Elora and is working towards a career as a novelist.
On launch day the self-published book reached the number one spot in its Graphic Novel Anthologies category on Amazon.ca.
With two other completed novels ready to be published, Hammond hopes the buzz created by The Big Book of Teeny Tiny Stories will help him enter the world of traditional publishing, with the agents and editors that come with it.
Hammond said one of the biggest thrills that is coming with the newest book is knowing it will soon be in the hands of Eoin Colfer. A copy of the book is on its way to the Artemis Fowl author who inspired Hammond to begin writing.
“We messaged for a brief time on Twitter and I was on cloud nine the whole day,” said Hammond.
