Not so long ago, I found it a mark of pride to showcase every single anthology, magazine, journal, newspaper clipping, etc. that included my name in print... alas, I buried myself in mounds of swill and vanity!
Perhaps a bit sensational, but it did get to be too much, although not a terrible problem to have in retrospect. There now are just certain pieces I prize more than others, and ‘room’ on the shelves dictates what I can and can’t keep.
With that being said, it still pains me to donate these works away, although I hope a new reader will find pleasure in their pages.
Thus farewell, “DAILY FRIGHT, 2012”.
Backstory to DAILY FRIGHT, 2012: In March, 2011, I wrote a couple of my earliest works, two separate flash fiction pieces (500 words each) for this massive anthology (550 pages, yo!), and they were both accepted SAME DAY(!) of submission! It wasn’t my first acceptance (but, like, #2 and #3), and at the same time! Man, was I dancing, and I printed out the acceptance notice and hung it on the fridge, and expected from then on, every publication I submitted to would be falling over their feet to grab me up.
The book was a neat concept, one piece of flash fiction per day, over a calendar year, this being leap year, so 366 different horror stories, edited by Jessy Marie Roberts—who was very kind—and published by Pill Hill Press, who put out a large number of books, some others of which I was also happily part of.
I received no pay for my work, not even royalties. The book cover-priced for $24.99, although I have doubts it sold well, and with the number of contributors involved, I don’t fault the press for not providing physical copies (but not even a complimentary .pdf version...? C’mon...)
Anyway, I remember this experience well, as it was the very beginning of my writing journey, and the acceptance of having my name published gave me confidence to go on, to push myself for improvement, which I feel I have.
The funny thing is, at that time I had no other writer friends to share the news with... I simply didn’t know anyone in the industry. The book was published in November, 2011, and I bought a copy of the book to prove I was really a “writer”. By its publication date, I’d gotten to know some people, but this anthology did not have a Table of Contents, and I never actually read anything from it, so I didn’t notice who else was involved.
But before I passed the book away now, I glanced in the back at the contributor bios. Most of the names I don’t recognize, but it’s an affecting reminisce to think now that after several years, some of these people have since become my friends, while some names I encounter occasionally enough on the internet to at least recognize and follow their achievements. And there are more names than the ones I know and listed below, over 100 others! Some authors wrote four or more stories, some just one, but overall enough to fill 366 days.
T. Fox Dunham
Kurt Fawver
A.J. French
Scott Goudsward
E.E. King
Frank Larnerd
Aurelio Rico Lopez III
Joe Mynhardt
Gregory L. Norris
Suzanne Robb
Joseph Rubas
Sheri White
Here’s a Goodreads Link, and a few other contributor names: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13186822-daily-frights-2012?ac=1&from_search=true
