Murder And Machinery Proof Received, Returned

Welcome to December. I hope it’s treating you well. First of all, thank you for your patience. I’ve contacted some of you regarding minor changes to your stories. If you haven’t heard from me, it’s because everything looked nice and sparkly. Of course, you will notice formatting and stylistic changes to your stories — an anthology needs continuity after all. American authors may notice a “flavor” has become “flavour”, for example, or “traveled” changed to “travelled”. Please don’t take this personally, as it’s just part of ensuring a sense of uniformity and, as indicated in the submission guidelines, you’ve submitted to a publisher who uses BrE.

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Thus began the email late Wednesday from Black Beacon Books’ Editor Cameron Trost, with attached proof copy of (to give it its full title) MURDER AND MACHINERY: TALES OF TECHNOLOGICAL TERROR AND MECHANICAL MADNESS, with request to [r]ead your story and let me know if you spot any issues. And so the Writing Life starts for December. My story in this is a steampunkish saga of life as a church sexton in mid-nineteenth century New England, “Vanitas,” first published in the January 1996 ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE. Well, maybe not just ordinary church life — it also involves the need for more graves in the churchyard due to a traveling circus disaster, plus the creation of the region’s most powerful church organ.

Late last night I went through the attachment and, earlier this afternoon, emailed back my okay, noting only two minor typos. Thus the cogs of publication grind on, with confirmation of a final draft to come, review copies to be sent out, other promotional work to be planned, and a release date, most likely in April or May, to be announced. More will appear here as it becomes known.