A Most Memorable 21st

Your 21st birthday can mean different things to different people. In the United States, it’s the day you can finally celebrate their guilt free sip of alcohol. in the rest of the world, you’d certainly be old enough to drive, vote, and work. In my case, it was a birthday to remember.

My parents and sisters both wished me a happy birthday. So did my brother and his family by phone. As I sat down to see what messages I received on my birthday, one particular email caught my eye:

Good morning, Skander.

Many thanks, once again, for submitting your short stories for consideration to the upcoming charity Horror Anthology, Fear. We have received a very high standard of submission over the last month, and I am delighted to offer you a contract for their publication in the Anthology, which I attach to this email. I would hope that the details are clear, but please don’t hesitate to email me if you have any questions related to it.

In brief, by signing the contract you provide us with the exclusive rights to publish your short stories in the Anthology for twelve months (from publication date). You agree that, after twelve months, we have indefinite non-exclusive rights to publish your short stories,  in that you are free to seek their publication with additional sources. As you will know, all net royalties, received by us from the distributors (Amazon, Smashwords, Createspace, and so on), will be paid to charity.

I blinked. It couldn’t be what I thought it was, could it?

I replied to the email, my words not even close to describing my disbelief.

Dear Laurence,

I’m not sure I understand correctly. Does this mean that you would like to publish one of my short stories in the magazine? Please let me know. Thank you very much.

This was his response:

Good evening, Skander.

 

Yes, that’s correct. We have attached two contracts to our previous email – one for each story.

 

Kind Regards,

Laurence

This wasn’t the first anthology I submitted my work to. Previously, one of my short stories was short-listed to appear in a similar book called Deviant Nightmares which was a horror anthology made up of stories and artwork by writers and artists of the online community deviantART. Even though the person responsible for compiling the stories personally liked my submission, there must have been others far more talented.

Two years later, a group I joined on deviantART called The Written Revolution advertised the opportunity to be published by Crooked Cat Publishing, an independent publisher based in the UK. It was calling for submissions from writers. Any opportunity was good enough for me at the time, so I submitted my stories “The Wild Huntsman” and “The Nightmare Queen”, both written around 2010 and having gone through very minimal editing at first.

I never once expected that anything would come of it.

The anthology, called FEAR, was published on October 3rd, 2012 and is still available on Amazon and Smashwords.

My 21st birthday was more than one more year in my life. It was a milestone. I had heard the same thing over and over again that persistence was the key for any aspiring author. And now, I know it’s true.