As you may already know if you’ve been paying attention, the other neat surprise I had while offline was the launch of the Dark Wisdom anthology, and the arrival of my contributor copies (few things make an author happier than contributor copies).  It’s been a very long time coming, but it looks well worth the wait.  A glorious Malcolm McClinton cover, wrapping stories by Peter Straub, John Shirley, Alan Dean Foster, Tom Piccirilli, and more.  Including me.  My contribution is a story called ‘Mopleoli’, a title you may never work out, despite the clues throughout the tale.  My wife didn’t puzzle it out, though my friend Heather did, a couple of years ago.  Buy the book, read the story, and let me know if you get it.  If you don’t, don’t worry.  The story should entertain anyway.

Get a copy, in the USA, Canada, the UK, or if you want to thank the publisher, buy it straight from them and save them losing chunks of the cover price to Amazon.  It should be easy to get online anywhere, and will probably turn up in at least some brick and mortar stores.

You know what you must do.

An anthology of macabre fiction exploring the unseen folds of urban life. From the monstrous to the psychological, these tales fearlessly venture into the hidden world of the supernatural, where strange creatures stalk the night and eldritch investigators search for the unknown. Features the short story Mopleoli, by Richard Wright (Elder Signs Press 2009).

Order from the following stores:

Elder Signs Press

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Amazon.ca

I love it when good news comes out of the blue. I woke up this morning to an email from Elder Signs Press head honcho William Jones, to tell me that he was buying my story ‘Mopleoli’ for his anthology Dark Wisdom.

While it feels like I sold a story in what little sleep I’m getting, this one is a testament to the power of patience. I think I submitted the tale to William in 2005, when Dark Wisdom was a thriving magazine, nationally distributed in the US. He accepted it, for publication in early 2007. Unfortunately, between the acceptance and publication, the magazine was cancelled, so that William could spend more time developing his book line. An email went out to dispirited authors such as me that their stories would be held for consideration in either the anticipated Dark Fiction anthology, or the website, if we were agreeable. We were also welcome to pull our stories and submit them elsewhere, if we chose to.

I left it where it was. I really liked Dark Wisdom, and was proud of the sale. I hoped the book would happen, and I’d be in it.

Time passed. Lots of it. I wondered often whether the book was actually going to happen, and whether I should submit the story elsewhere. I didn’t. I had other stories for those other markets, and like I say, I really liked the magazine.

And now, I’m in the book, and over the moon. It’s due sometime in Autumn, or Fall for you Americans, and the first details are here.

More soon, about one of the strangest stories I’ve written. And I’m not telling you what Mopleoli means. You have to read the story to find out. Even then, you’re going to have to work for it…