BURNT OFFERINGS

As Groucho once sang, “Hello, I must be going.”

I don’t do short stories anymore and haven’t for some time.

{Actually, I have doubts that I’ll be doing fiction anymore either. But more of that later.}

I have been working hard at my day and night job as a courier for rare blood. I have been dealing with the dying of my best friend with inoperable cancer. Out of the blue, an editor asked me for a short story … no guarantees, of course.

The parameters? The topic was Petulant Parables. An original story with none of my established characters from my other novels. The story had to contain a moral and be within 5,000 – 7,000 words. It had to be entertaining.

I wrote it. I submitted it. I was rejected with “I don't feel bad telling you the story doesn't fit, because the senior editor has said that same thing to me on every anthology.”

Well, I felt bad.

I had broken a personal rule: no more short stories. I felt I had jabbed myself in my own eye by not listening to my own code. I was also a bit confused.

The story contained a parable and a moral. The problem might have been the moral:

Forgiveness is something you do for yourself, loving is something you do for the other person.

It was 6,600 words long. The topic Petulant Parables was addressed. So obviously, the tale was not entertaining.

Just as obviously my short story prose is not marketable. The evidence seems to indicate that my prose as a whole is not marketable. The market is what it is.

I truly have better things to do with my time right now than clap with one hand.

So I am listing the story, WEDNESDAY’S CHILD, in the volume, BURNT OFFERINGS, for free for the next five days.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008N4QGA8

As an extra, I am including three Samuel McCord urban fantasy short stories. I started out with him. It is fitting I end with him.

It has a beautiful cover and an equally beautiful interior illustration by the truly talented Leonora Roy. It’s worth a look merely to revel in her genius.

Be my editors. Read WEDNESDAY’S CHILD and tell me what is lacking and sub-par with my work. I’m rather interested.

Thanks for sticking around with me these past months. You have enriched my world, Roland

Oh, one last thing: Sandra, if she is feeling well enough, will draw for the winners of THE ART OF MICHAEL WHELAN and the autographed photo of ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. on August 1st.

If not, I will use a random internet name selector.

My heart goes out to all the family, loved ones, and friends of those murdered in that senseless Colorado movie theater shooting.