My story "Through Thy Bounty" originally appeared in a small press anthology called The Midnighters' Club. As a result, it got an honorable mention in Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 15. Later, I re-sold it to Apex Online; as a result, it was optioned by an indie filmmaker (though, just like the vast majority of options, the film didn't get made). Still later, it was purchased by LampLight. Most recently, you can find the story in my Stoker-winning collection While the Black Stars Burn.

Which is a long way of saying: this is demonstrably a decent story. Not a story that sucks. An entirely publishable tale.

It also got rejected about a dozen times before the first publisher bought it.

The story was essentially the same the first time I sent it out as the lucky number 13th. But nobody knew who I was, and competition for slots in short fiction venues is tight. Paying publishers might only accept 3% of what they receive through…

Six and a half years ago, I weighed a bit over 300 pounds. I got invited to attend a friend's wedding, and decided it would be nice to dress up in something formal. The only suit I owned was black, having been purchased a few years prior to wear at a friend's funeral. I was unwilling to wear a funeral suit to something as optimistic as a wedding, so I went to Men's Wearhouse. An employee there helped me select a couple of sport coats and a pair of slacks, all in tweeds or brownish earth tones, along…

Well, it's been about four months since my weight loss surgery.

The past month was a bit frustrating, intially, as my weight loss slowed numbers-wise. However, my surgeon warned me to expect this, and also advised me to remain alert for shape changes when the numbers stopped moving, and she was right. I've 'only' lost around 10-11 lbs over the past 30 days, which is slow compared to my prior rate but still a fast loss rate by any other measure. When I checked my lean mass/fat mass readings…