Color Me Happy

I had some good news yesterday. My mailbox had a large envelope in it addressed to me. I looked at the return address label and smiled. The envelope was from an editor for a small Canadian magazine called Horizon. I've had my work published there a couple times.

Inside the envelope I found two copies of the most recent issue and a check made out to me. Color me happy! It came as a surprise since I had never heard from the editor regarding two stories I'd submitted in the first week of December, 2008. In early May, I dropped him a note asking if the submissions were still under consideration or had he decided against publishing them. I received an answer right away saying he'd been busy but he'd take a look at them soon. Then, nothing all summer, so of course, I had written them off as a no-go. This particular editor has been one to let writers know if he can or cannot use the work submitted, so this approach was out of character for him.

Horizon is a low-budget magazine with a circulation of 10,000 households in the Ontario area. Translation: low-budget magazine means low pay. But it's a nice little magazine, and I'm happy to have my work published there.

The story in the present issue is fiction titled "Crime and Punishment." I wrote the story from a prompt exercise in my former online critique group. The line given was "A six foot plastic chicken dominated Harry's front porch."  I wrote the story using that line as an opening. It was a fun little story to write, and I'm pleased it found a home. I had posted it long ago at OurEcho.com but had not sold it to any publication. If you have any interest in reading about Harry's six foot chicken, go to http://www.ourecho.com/story-323-Crime-and-Punishment.shtml

Remember the Patience keyword I wrote about yesterday? Patience is what will be needed as I wait to see if the other submission I sent last December sees the light of day in a future issue of Horizon.