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AUTHOR’S FOREWORD

A writer becomes a published author by writing, rewriting, and sending work to editors for their consideration. It is a process, taking months or even years before there are positive results. At first there is the form rejection slip which tells the writer nothing helpful for improving the work. Next best, often seen in the small press, is the checklist offering broad general hints about problems with the work. (‘The idea is old’, or ‘The Story moves too slowly’, etc.) Hand-written rejections with specific comments, when they begin to happen, tell the writer the work has been noticed and is being encouraged. Throughout this process the rejection slips received are the dues a writer is paying to be published. It is a process that continues throughout a professional career. A writer should learn from editorial comments and is well advised to apply them to the work, but often the writer has moved on to other projects and the rewriting doesn’t get done.

Such is the case for the stories in this collection. All are earlier stories of mine that came close to selling, but had problems and received helpful suggestions from editors for doing the necessary work. It has been an interesting experience to rewrite these stories now, after publishing so many other stories over the past twenty-three years. The rewriting has been extensive, some storylines totally changed from the originals, and I present them here for the first time. Reader comments are most welcome, and can be delivered to my web site at www.sff.net/people/jglass/

Thanks go to editors and former editors such as Stan Schmidt, Kris Rusch, George Scithers, Charles Ryan, and Patrick Swenson for their useful comments in the past, and to my editor, Rob Reginald, for putting together this volume.