Cancelled

Well, I guess it had to happen sometime. I’ve been cancelled. My story, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, was accepted for a horror anthology called December Tales II. Then this week I got this very nicely worded note that I’m cancelled.

My sincere apologies. I really do enjoy your story, but as I’m editing the stories I’ve selected for the collection, deciding which fits best where, it has finally dawned on me that yours is much more graphic in its violence than the others. I’ve gone back and forth several times, but I’ve decided it’s too much of an outlier.  I am sincerely sorry if I’m disappointing you, but I’ve decided against including “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep,” since it doesn’t fit in well with the others. I do ask that you keep the payment to help make up for the hassle I’ve given you, and you are, of course, free to submit the story elsewhere.

Nice, but it still stings. I never set out to be a horror writer, but sometimes I really can’t control what comes out of my fingers when I’m typing. I just go with the flow. I must be doing something right, in re horror, because those are my best-selling stories. But now I’ve gone too far? Ironically, I made the acquaintance of a teacher in Gibraltar last year who was looking for stories for her middle grade students. I sent her Now I Lay Me Down and she said her students (aged 11-14) absolutely loved it. If the story is tame enough for middle school children, but is too over the top for December Tales, it must be a very tame anthology. I may see if I can get a copy when it comes out to compare. And if you need any reminders of Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, just poke around this blog. There’s a link somewhere.