Reprinted stories soon to go up at eQuill Publishing.

Finally, some good news to report — I have agreed in principle to place Michael’s Joey Maverick SF/adventure story “A Dark and Stormy Night,” my Elfyverse story “Trouble with Elfs,” and a poem, “A Love Eternal,” with eQuill Publishing.  They are a new e-press located in Australia, and I know about them mostly due to my friend Piotr S. Mierzejewski, who has placed a number of stories there already.

At any rate, “A Dark and Stormy Night” is a novella — 14,000 words — and my contribution to it is about 1400 words to even it out a tad and up the romance a mite.  “Trouble with Elfs” is 8,000 words — a long short story, if that’s not an oxymoron — and is an urban fantasy set in the same universe, with many of the same characters, as ELFY.  The Maverick novella is the very start of Michael’s book MAVERICK, LIEUTENANT, currently being revised by me in order to add action.  And for the record, the Maverick story carries the byline “by Michael B. Caffrey, with Barb Caffrey,” while the Elfyverse story carries the byline “by Barb Caffrey, with Michael B. Caffrey,” though I wrote well over 85% of that story.  (I simply believe that without Michael’s 15%, the story wouldn’t be worth reading, which is my prerogative.)

As for my poem “A Love Eternal,” it is the best way I’ve come up with yet to describe how Michael’s loss has affected me — and how to describe how I felt while Michael was alive.

All three reprinted stories/poems accepted for publication originally appeared at the Written Word — “A Dark and Stormy Night” appeared in ’05 and is not archived online, while “Trouble with Elfs” appeared in ’07 and the poem “A Love Eternal” appeared in ’06.

I may have further good news in the reprint quarter to note soon — but for now, please check out eQuill Publishing here:

http://www.equillpublishing.com

Also, please know that while publishing remains a very difficult occupation to break into, there are good moments from time to time.  This is one of those moments, and I’m pleased that my persistence has paid off in order for these stories to appear in the way I’d always hoped.

Michael did not live long enough to see our first story, “Bright as Diamonds,” published, though he did know it had been sold.  (We cashed the check and enjoyed the proceeds immensely, going to a Japanese restaurant and seeing the “floor show.”)  He was looking forward to seeing the BEDLAM’S EDGE anthology in print at the time of his passing, but did not get that wish.  And Michael obviously did not get the chance to see any of his own work published, either — me getting Michael’s “Maverick” novella published in ’05, after adding the 1400 words to make it a legal collaboration and thus, much easier to sell, was an act of love, faith and persistence. 

Michael believed very strongly in my ability to write.  Without his faith in me, without his help (as he’d already completed a novel before I started on ELFY), I would not be the same writer.  And I’d be no kind of editor, as Michael had major skills there that he did his level best to pass on.

I continue onward as best I am able though sometimes it seems like an inordinately difficult task.  Still, I was not raised to give up, and my wonderful, amazing husband believed I could do anything I set my mind to do.

My mind is set on publishing, in case you hadn’t figured it out already, and I will continue onward toward this goal.

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Btw, the title of “Trouble with Elfs” is not a misprint.  (You need to read the story to find out why.)