Another Proof Copy Received: The Country Doc

Or, great editorial minds think alike (or at least on similar schedules)? So, hot on the heels of yesterday’s proof of “Killer Pot” for STRANGE WEEDS, today brought an email from BLACK INFINITY editor Tom English with a proof of my story, “The Country Doctor,” for their upcoming FIRST CONTACT issue (see September 8 2021, et al. — yes, September a year ago, partly delayed because of new magazine NIGHTMARE ABBEY in development from the same publisher, cf. this year’s July 27, et al.).

As with “Killer Pot” (originally published in DAILY SCIENCE FICTION, August 9 2011), “The Country Doctor” is a reprint, in this case first appearing in Summer 2005 in BOOK OF DARK WISDOM, as well as about a sort of medical topic. This time, though, with a more horrific, more science fictiony premise concerning a doctor in the American southwest — northern New Mexico more precisely — and top secret doings involving a (maybe) not-quite-human patient.

And, well, sometimes doctors, in practice a long time and set in their ways, may tend to cut corners. . . .

In any event the proof copy was perfect, also like “Killer Pot,” with my okay going back this evening. More to be here later as it becomes known.