(Not Quite) Friday the Thirteenth Brings Dragon Acceptance

So, okay, it’s really Friday the 12th. But then the first story I’d sent, a comedy about a large load of festering laundry that came to life, was rejected — a near miss, too.

The call, toward the end of last month, had been this: The theme of BLACK INFINITY 10 will be CREATURE FEATURES. Think 1950s or ‘60s SF movies. I need stories with monsters, beasts, insects, man-eating plants, etc. — some type of “creature.” Do you have something to fit this fairly broad theme, 2000 to 12,000 words? You’ve yet to let me down, so please send something.

So what the heck, I sent them a lighter, perhaps more absurd piece, “Got Them Wash Day Blues,” initially appearing in Third Flatiron Publishing’s MONSTROSITIES anthology, but was reminded as it were that BLACK INFINITY (cf. October 6, 8, et al.) doesn’t really do “light.” So it goes. But now with a request for a replacement submission, decided to take a chance with a 7300-word dragon story — sort of a separate sub-genre in itself, to my mind, but technically, really, a Creature Feature too, a giant-size monster in a (in this case) contemporary setting in early 21st century Wales. The story: “The Bala Worm,” originally published in BLACK DRAGON, WHITE DRAGON (Ricasso Press, 2008) as well as appearing in my third collection, THE TEARS OF ISIS, sent out earlier this afternoon.

And so, the reply just a few hour later, Thanks for sending “The Bala Worm.” I was hoping to get a dragon story for this issue, and yours fits the bill nicely. I can pay . . . for this one. Let me know if acceptable and I’ll send a contract soonish.

More to come as it’s known.