Photo credit: Sealle, Glass half full or half empty. 3 Aug. 2017. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Some time ago, I posted about an honorable mention in The Third Book of Corona Horror Stories. While gratifying, this was obviously not the brass ring I had been hoping for. At some point after that, I read that the anthology series was paused owing to the unfortunate coincidence of its name with the type of virus causing the pandemic. I published my story, "The Jet-Black Knight," which I wrote about here, in 34 Orchard and thought that was the end of it, at least until I wrote enough generically congenial stories to put out my own collection.

Imagine my surprise and pleasure, therefore, to find an email from Editor Lewis Williams offering publication of the previously rejected story in The Fourth Corona Book of Horror Stories! The only wrinkle was that Editor Kristi Petersen Schoonover, of 34 Orchard, had instigated some significant revision of the story, which had necessitated (in my view) a change in the ending. This had to do with unifying the story and the narrator's psyche using a connection between children in the work. Would Editor Williams agree with me that the revision was an improvement or prefer the older version (which, of course, I would still happily allow him to publish despite my preference for the revision)?

Within only a couple of days, he got back to me. He and his colleague, Sue, had gone over the story. Kindly, Williams revealed to me that, while Sue agreed with me and Editor Schoonover, he preferred the original, especially for its ending: "I found myself remembering the original ending long after I'd first read the story and it became something of a regret of mine that we didn't decide to include it in The Third Book of Corona Horror Stories." Nevertheless, he was democratically willing to go along with Sue and me and use the revised version.

Naturally, his view of the original ending was gratifying, especially since I agonized quite a lot about how much to explain in that version, and was, frankly, relieved to be rid of the agony in the revised story. His comments did raise some doubts about whether we were doing the right thing, though, as well as some thoughts about gender and reading, since I, Kristi, and Sue--all women--sacrificed the mystical existential ending Lewis liked for the sake of more emphasis on the children and greater narrative unity. In the end, I didn't think I could make the old ending work with the revision, which I still believe is an improvement, so I sacrificed it. I would also add that the new ending is based on my father's telling me how he used to pretend to be shot and fall down saying "Bang I'm dead" while his father was away in World War I. I found that good, chilling material, though I can also see how Lewis saw the first ending, with the narrator alone confronting his demons, as strong.

Anyway, I hope any of you struggling with rejections will find my experience encouraging. Many thanks to Lewis Williams and Sue.