Christmas Vulture Contract Returned . . . In Time for Christmas?

Well, maybe not quite Christmas, the email received Thursday night specifying a hoped for publication date for January. But then, the acceptance was a while back too (cf. November 3 2020), for a story submitted some four and a half years before then, on May 25 2016.

But better late than never, eh? As received from Editor Jason Marchi: Publication for AUTOMOBILIA is coming up in 2022. The copyright/publication year was moved to January 2022 so the book can be entered earlier into more contests.

So, finally, here is the contract I owe you . . . [a]ttached is a PDF of the contract, which you can sign and send back as a PDF if you are tech-savvy. I’ve attached the WORD version too if that’s easier for you, but your fonts probably won’t like it.

Next, I will send a PDF galley of the story for your review for changes, if any.

Or those are the highlights, with the contract, signed, going back just after midnight. As for the book, AUTOMOBILIA, while some details have been lost in the quicksand of time, this much is recalled: as the title suggests an automobile should be such an integral part of the story that if removed the story collapses. And the story to be in it, “The Christmas Vulture,” originally published in UNTIED SHOELACES OF THE MIND, Fall 2010, is the tale of a compassionate carrion bird that cruises the freeways on Christmas Eve, searching for crashes and food for its chicks.

But what of crash survivors?