It’s 2019, and I have fantastic news. The January issue of Galaxy’s Edge magazine includes my story, “A Song for Persephone.” This is a very different kind of story for me, and its origins are rather interesting.
A few years ago, I saw a story call for a themed anthology. I liked the theme and the people who were putting the anthology together, so I wrote a story and submitted it on a whim. The theme was outside my comfort zone, and I figured as long as I was doing that, I might as well go whole-hog. So I wrote in first person point of view. Present tense.
I sent in the story, and it was shortlisted. Cue the excitement! Sadly, as so often happens in this business, I was close but not close enough. My story didn’t get in. That was a bummer, but I kept working on the story. Revising. Rewriting. After a while, I was ready to try submitting it again.
At around this time, I’d sold my first story to Mike Resnick for Galaxy’s Edge magazine (“The Coming of Darkness”). I figured why not, maybe I’d try him with this one. I sent it over, and this is where it gets crazy. I got a form rejection from Galaxy’s Edge within a week. Or at least, I think I did. I can’t find it now. So I thought it was time to put the story away.
A few weeks later, for reasons I can’t explain, I thought that maybe it was time to check my spam folder. I opened it up to find… spam. Plus one e-mail, from Mike Resnick, with the subject line Contract attached. I actually thought it was a phishing attempt, but I opened the e-mail and it was for real. Mike said he’d attached a contract for “A Song for Persephone.” At the end, he added three words that I still remember quite clearly.
Lovely little story.
That, from multiple-award-winning Mike Resnick, is quite a compliment. I was pleased when I learned the story would be out this month, and simply delighted when I saw the table of contents. As Mike writes in The Editor’s Word:
We got some fine stories for you by new and newer writers Dan Koboldt, Edward M. Lerner, Elly Bangs, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, Thomas K. Carpenter, Austin DeMarco, Joy Kennedy-O’Neill, and Christopher Blake, plus old friends Joe Haldeman, Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg, Todd McCaffery (with a dragon story of course), and Jane Yolen.
It’s an absolute honor to see my name alongside scions of SF/F like Jane Yolen, Joe Haldeman, and Todd McCaffery. And I’m thrilled that my story is out in the world. I hope you’ll give it a read.
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Congratulations! And the moral of the story is, always check your spam folder!
Congratulations Dan. That is fantastic news.