Good news on the acceptance front yesterday. I submitted “Rivals” on Tuesday and on Friday I had a contract in my inbox.
It was not, however, accepted for Christmas Dreams – Mistletoe Madness (the 2009 Advent Calendar). Instead, Dreamspinner Press plans to publish it as a stand alone short story, which they do quite often. I’m excited by this opportunity to see how one of my stories flies on its own. It looks like it will come out in December, which makes sense since it is set during the holiday season. It’s revolves around two former high school hockey rivals who meet up again after college and discover they have a lot more in common than they expected. Once it’s available for sale, I’ll post more information.
I’m glad I stuck with the story. I wrote for a couple weeks any chance I could get. I’d be up early or late, depending on what was going on with work. I wrote a big chunk of the story sitting at Sky Rink for 3 1/2 hours between games one Saturday night. I wrote bits of it on my Blackberry when I was on the subway. It all came together in a story that I was pleased with, and ultimately someone else was too.