Having made two (semi-)professional short fiction sales, I qualified to be an Associate Member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. I need two more short fiction sales or a novel sale to qualify as a full member.
This story is based on a scenario I thought up after seeing a production of "DungeonMaster" in Chicago: this was a live-action, audience participation, staged presentation. Combat was in slow motion with foam weapons, and any reasonable rhyme was a spell.
The scenario was about an evil magician who could only be killed by a dragon. The party (consisting of mostly audience members and a few of the actors) had to obtain a magick sword made from a dragon bone in order to defeat him. however, he destroys the sword and gloats, until one of the party reveals that he is a dragon and defeats him.
Needless to say, the plot has changed in the creation of the story itself.
This story began with the image of Dirinian standing before King Death and offering him the stand of flowers. Everything else in the story is a backtrack in order to explain why this scene happened.
When I submitted both stories to Marion, she kept "Mistaking" and told me to try selling "Marching"; if it didn't sell in a year, try sending it back to her again. Well, it didn't sell in a year, so I re-submitted it to her and she bought it.
A tribute to one of my favorite actors, Michael Rennie, and pleasant memories of watching the old Batman TV series..
This short story was submitted to the Sandman anthology but it was rejected, with the advice to submit it again if the sales warrent a sequel. Nice words, except that the incredible stupidity of the DC Comics editorial staff in handling the book made Neil Gaiman swear not to do a sequel. Just take a look at the people who were not included (they're listed in the front) even though they were invited to submit a story, and you can see that something went terribly wrong here.
This short story is set in White Wolf Games' World of Darkness roleplaying game setting. It was originally a dream that I had to write up (!) and eventually wanted to sell to their in-house magazine, Inphobia, but it folded before I could get an answer. As White Wolf is not publishing short fiction at present, and that it is so totally a part of the WW universe, it has little chance of selling outside the gaming field.
Of all the Magic cards, I find that the most attractive one is the Vesuvan Doppleganger. This story is about one.
At the Winnepeg WorldCon, a set of submission guidelines for an anthology based on Wizard of the Coast's Magic: the Gathering collectable card game was distributed around the SFWA suite. On the way back I had an idea for a story, and while sitting in a cramped commuter plane flying from Minneapolis to Appleton, I sketched out the key scenes, and finished it soon after.
I bid for the right to appear in this novel in a fannish fund auction, because Michael was a friend, which made the appearance even more appealing to me. Another friend did the same with Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series and now appears as Lt. Bone, Finance Officer for the Dendarii Mercenaries.