CHILDREN'S STORY AVAILABLE:
My first published children's story, "The Secret of King Kong Mountain," is now available in the December 2004 issue of KidVisions webzine. This story is based on a hill in Vincennes, Indiana, in Hillcrest Park near where I grew up... a hill called King Kong Mountain. It was fun, as a child, to ride bicycles down this treacherous slope.
The rest of the story is purely fictional.
In other interesting news, I got an intriguing e-mail yesterday from the editor of an upcoming anthology. I had submitted a story to this anthology some months ago. The editor requested a revision for me to go on to the last round of picks. I made the requested changes and sent it back into him. Then, on October 25, he publicly announced the table of contents for the anthology -- and I wasn't on it. While I never received either an official acceptance or rejection, I took this as a pretty definite sign that I wouldn't be appearing in the anthology. I proceeded to submit the story to another market, this one that actually pays for the stories.
Yesterday, this editor sends me an e-mail saying that he needs me to let him know what I want the artist to do for the artwork associated with my story. I inform him of my confusion, since I wasn't on the table of contents and tell him that I'd like to pull the story, as it's been submitted elsewhere. He responds with apologies, saying he's sorry he can't use the story, and wishing me well -- but no actual explanation of what went awry with the table of contents and my absence from it.
Very strange stuff, and it only reinforces my determination to try and work exclusively with paying markets in the future. The royalties-only, print-on-demand, market is littered with people who, despite the best of intentions, just aren't able to handle the logistics of editing an anthology in a professional way. Working in the publishing industry now, I see how much goes into it and you really have to make it a priority if you're going to turn out a quality product.
Making people think ... one idea at a time.
