Saturday’s Snow Portends Sunday “I’m Dreaming” Acceptance?

Well hopefully not quite. Nevertheless, Saturday morning brought the season’s first snowfall here, a not too deep dusting, enough to shovel but nor really an annoyance. At least so say I, who it being the weekend stayed home anyway, other than shoveling a little bit of it enjoying the white, peaceful calmness outside through the window.

The story, however, “I’m Dreaming Of A. . . .,” first released by Untreed Reads Publishing in December 2011 as a stand-alone chapbook, is about a far, far, more serious snowfall, its title reflecting the Bing Crosby croon longing for a “White Christmas.” But not the way I wrote it. And the acceptance to be in MONSTORM, a collection of weather-themed horror stories [quoting the guidelines] edited by Josh Strand and Matt Matsucci and published by Madness Heart Press. Storms are elemental forces — at once oddly beautiful and devastatingly destructive, and as such serve as prime fodder for dark, fantastical fiction. We’re looking for anything scary you can think of about weather — a rain-summoning charm gone wrong, a mad scientist with a weather-control device, angry gods of thunder and hail. Give us unnatural rains — of acid, of eyeballs, of lava. Give us wind that tears flesh from bone. . . . Well, you get the idea. And moreover, it would be for charity: All money earned from sales of the ebook or print editions of the anthology will go directly to All Faiths Food Bank in Sarasota, Florida.

So, long story short, the word came today, Sunday: We’re pleased to inform you that “I’m Dreaming Of A…” has been accepted for publication in the MONSTORM Hurricane Ian Charity Anthology. We feel that your story is a great fit, and we’re happy to have you aboard.

Contracts will be sent out soon.

Publication, according to the guidelines above, is hoped for for December — so perhaps out in time for Christmas giving. In any event it sounds like a winner, and for a good cause.