Once in a while when the muse is silent I cruise the anthology open calls to see if I can tickle an idea out of my subconscious. Today I discovered a call for stories about demons and thankfully the perverse imp in my brain said, “Oooooh, I have an idea!” I almost never get into anthologies, but once I’ve been turned down for them my stories still get to see the light of day when I self pub them on Amazon. Some of my best work gets written that way. It’s not that the stories are bad, but my compulsive genre crossing that gets my brain children the boot.

Case in point: my gothic horror story – The Troubles at Austen House – that wound up taking place in the future in a Jane Austen theme park. Or Cranberry Surprise – my holiday horror story that also included romance and a few jokes to boot. Or The Unicorn – a superhero sidekick story that was probably much too comedic for the editors. One day when I get enough rejections I will probably release a collection of all my stories that missed the mark, but I have a good feeling about my demon story so hopefully this one won’t be in it. Wish me luck!