Naughty Accepted for “Best of” Antho, Contract Signed; Werewolf Howls at Last Sun. Poetry

A double header this Sunday, though the acceptance and contract actually arrived Saturday.  This was for a Christmas story, “Naughty or Nice,” originally published in DAILY SCIENCE FICTION on December 21 2011 and as a reprint on March 3 this year in METASTELLAR (cf. March 3, February 29), which has now made the cut for the latter publication’s “Best of the Year” anthology.  And, unlike their reprint e-zine in March, this one will pay!

Well, maybe not that much (the pay, that is, which I believe consists of a royalty share), but pay is still pay. And thus Sunday afternoon a somewhat complex — and requiring the library’s computer equipment — contract was printed, signed, faxed and self-emailed back to me, and thence re-attached to wing back to the publisher.  More on this when it’s known.

Then this evening brought November’s Bloomington Writers Guild’s “Last Sunday Poetry,” at Morgenstern Books, with ToledoPoet.com and Facebook Toledo Poetry Museum page co-founder Kerry Troutman, a Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee and lifelong Ohio native with seven books published, first featured reader with poems on such subjects as sunsets on parking lots, Toledo, teeth, showers, and others, several based on paintings. She was followed by author, MFA, and university teacher Shannon K. Winston with poems from her (speaking of artwork!) 2021 book THE GIRL WHO TALKED TO PAINTINGS, along with a clutch of more recent works.

After that came the “Open Mic” section, with a healthy group of eleven readers in which I came ninth with a single poem, “Beware of the Dog,” on the subject of werewolves.