Wormy, Crunchy Ketchup Marks First Sale for June

Aha! A sale! The first for the summer as e-announced today by Editor/Publisher Carol Hightshoe: I’m happy to tell you that your story has been accepted for the CRUNCHY WITH KETCHUP anthology.

I’ve attached a contract – if all meets with your approval – please sign and return a copy – either via email or regular mail.

I will also need a short bio (approximately 250 words) to accompany your story – written in 3rd person please.

CRUNCHY WITH KETCHUP? Yes, it’s a real book to come from WolfSinger Publications on the subject of . . . dragons! That is, quoting from the initial call, really badass dragons — they can be evil or good — or somewhere in between. The point is they need to live up to the power and strength we picture when we imagine a dragon. . . . Show us why you should never meddle in the affairs of dragons as they may consider you crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

Yes, that kind of dragon and, as fate would have it, I happened to have a tale that seemed like it might do, “The Bala Worm,” about a worsening shortage of virgins — or at least young women — in a modern day town in Wales, and how a myth from the Middle Ages just might offer an explanation. With or without condiments.

It’s a longish story at something over 7000 words, as perhaps its subject matter deserves, and has seen print before, initially in BLACK DRAGON, WHITE DRAGON (Ricasso Press, 2008), as well as in my 2013 collection THE TEARS OF ISIS (for more on which one may press its image in the center column). While for the dragon, it has received good reviews both in terms of the book(s) as well as singled out as a story, and probably deserves to be seen again.

So, Ms. Hightshoe apparently agreeing, the bio and signed contract went back today.