My brand new short story “Screaming Jenny” was accepted for Legends of the Mountain State: Ghostly Tales from the State of West Virginia, which will be published by Woodland Press in October. The editor told me he liked it as much after reading it the second time as he did the first.
This one must set something of a record for me. Friday I amassed a bunch of research material. Saturday morning, as chronicled earlier, I started the story and read through the research material. Sunday and Monday I edited and revised it. Yesterday morning I submitted it and had it accepted at noontime today. It’s not a terribly long story, about 17-1800 words, but it has a nice arc and manages to tie in the requisite W. Va. legend at the same time.
And, once again, though it’s inspired by a supernatural occurrence, it manages to not be a supernatural story. Funny how that happens to me so often.
Man, this anthology would be right up my alley, but I can’t find much in the way of Virginia material up here in the Maritimes, and don’t have much time to go seriously hunting. Glad you got in. I’ll have to give this one some thought, if Bev Vincent’s in it.
I believe I heard that Tom Monteleone and Joe Nassise have committed to this anthology, too. Perhaps Scott Nicholson as well.
Congrats!
U.S. Senator Robert Byrd is writing the introduction. Kealan Patrick Burke and Tim Waggoner are two other confirmed contributors. Looks like a fun book!