Nightmare Abbey/Great Man Reprint First Sale for 2023

Two days before the end of January, late Sunday, the 29th, the logjam burst! The first acceptance of the New year, for reprint rights to a story first published in THE STRAND MAGAZINE, Spring-Summer 1999. The market: NIGHTMARE ABBEY (see December 2, et al.).

It started, actually, two days before with a Friday email from Editor/Publisher Tom English: Hope all’s well with you. And I’m also hoping you’ll send me something for the 3rd volume. New or reprint. (Your reprint in #2 was fabulous.) I bumped up the reprint payment rate, too, by the way. This was followed by a re-iteration of the guidelines: ghost stories, weird tales, dark fantasy (surprise or twist endings are always good), gothic, light horror . . . creepy tales that rely on atmosphere, suspense, and/or building a sense of dread; with minimal or no violence and gore . . . which, as I read through them, brought a particular story to mind. A reprint as already noted, “about a tale heard by a possibly somewhat pacifistic Englishman in France” (quoting my subsequent cover letter), which I sent back yesterday morning, Sunday.

The story’s title is “The Great Man,” and it takes place sometime after the French Revolution. Thus the reply came Sunday night:

Thanks for sending this old-fashioned macabre tale! I’d like to include “The Great Man” in NIGHTMARE ABBEY 3 (due for publication in June). . . . Let me know if agreeable and I’ll send a contract.