Good Work Makes Cut for DeadSteam II, Contract Signed and Returned
Sunday late afternoon’s email from Bryce Raffle didn’t come as a complete surprise: The DEADSTEAM II anthology is fast approaching its publication date. I am happy to accept your story, “The Good Work,” into the anthology.
After all, I had had a story in the original DEADSTEAM, “The Re-Possessed” (see November 9, September 15 2018, et al.), and the call this June for a second volume seemed promising too. DEADSTEAM II is a collection of more gaslamp and dreadpunk stories, which embrace the Victorian gothic. In this edition we’re really focusing on driving home the dread. We want your scariest, darkest stories that embrace the classic traditions of horror (monsters, gothic castles & haunted houses, dark and stormy nights, foggy walks through gas-lit cobblestone streets) but pair them with with modern sensibilities and pacing. So I sent in a story called “The Good Work,” reprints being allowed, originally published in BLURRING THE LINE (Cohesion Press, 2015) and including a note: The monsters are witches, real or suspected, and/or 1850s (i.e. after the 1843 publication of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and the new popularization of celebrating Christmas) London street urchins. And I received a reply a few days later: Thank you for your submission to DEADSTEAM II. As always, I appreciate your strong writing style and your skill at the craft makes this story a strong candidate for inclusion in the latest anthology.
So now the acceptance. The email Sunday continues, I have attached a copy of the contract, to be signed as soon as possible. I am anticipating publishing in October of this year, so things will be moving quite quickly. I would ask for you to also send, at your earliest convenience, your most up-to-date author bio. I will also be updating the DeadSteam website, and would ask that you send a recent author photo, if possible. You can see on the website how I have used those author photos in the past. Since you contributed a story for the first anthology, this is not required unless you would like me to update to a more recent photo.
Thus Sunday night the signed contract went back, with a note to the effect that the previous bio and photo are still good. With, within a month or a few days after if things go well, the new anthology to be published for Halloween.
