Aimée et les Amies Vont à <>, or, That’s One Thing I Did on My Summer Vacation

So what did I do on my summer vacation?  For one thing, I went to World Horror Convention in New Orleans (cf. June 19) and, while there, I went on a walking tour that included the Old Ursuline Convent in the French Quarter and a recounting of legends of the “Casket Girls.”  Interesting stuff, this, that “les filles à les casquettes” have been accused of smuggling vampires to America in their luggage — though all they really were were young women sent from France, of generally good character, to be wives for the men who had founded New Orleans in the hopes of starting families and making Louisiana a lasting colony.  For those with an interest in musical theatre, Victor Herbert’s 1910 operetta NAUGHTY MARIETTA offers a more romantic view.  For me, though,  the bloodier version seemed nicest and, with a bit of research on my own, I finally came up with a story, itself titled “Casket Girls,” of the coquettish Aimée, forced from her home, and what “really happened.”

Today the word came from Editors Jonathan and Michele of DAILY SCIENCE FICTION (see, e.g., May 5 2012; December 28, 21 2011, et al.):  the peripatetic Casket Girls have found a new home.  “A sample email, including any edits to your story that may be necessary, will come later.”  This will be the third story I’ll have had published in DAILY SF, one of the top markets for speculative flash and near-flash fiction, the previous two being “Naughty or Nice” and “Killer Pot” (the latter of which followers may recall was linked to on October 31, below, as a lagniappe for this year’s Halloween).

As for this one, more news will appear here as soon it comes to me.