The Mammoth Book of Angels and Demons

Mammoth Book of Angels and Demons CoverI forgot I had a story in The Mammoth Book of Angels and Demons. When the author copies appeared in my PO Box last week, I opened up the package and blinked at the two books inside for a while wondering why the hell I’d ordered a duplicate.

This shouldn’t be taken as a reflection on the book – I mean, shit, I looked at the names on the front cover and there was no doubt in my mind that I might have pre-ordered a copy. Instead, it’s  a reflection of the long lead-times in publishing and my own scattershot state of focus over the last twelve months.

The timeline goes something like this: Paula Guran commissioned the reprint rights for One Saturday Night, With Angel, back in August of last year. The payment for the story came through in November. I put the details into my rights tracking sheet and promptly focused on other things. 

The books showed up. I paged through them. I found my story and had one of those, oh, right, moments.

Then I went back and checked the table of contents and, oh man, did my natural tendency towards suffering from impostor syndrome kick into overdrive. If you made a list of short story writers who made me want to be a short story writer, this book would include all of them except William Gibson. I mean, Caitlin Kiernan is fucking phenomenal. Neil Gaiman is Neil Gaiman. Gene Wolf. Lucius Shepard. Charles De Lint. Peter Beagle.

It’s rare that I forget I’ve got a story coming out in an anthology, reprint or otherwise. I’m kinda glad I forgot about this one, ’cause I’ve been grinning every time I catch a glimpse of the cover on the shelf.

PeterMBall

PeterMBall

Peter M. Ball is a speculative fiction writer, small press publisher, and writing mentor from Brisbane, Austraila. He publishes his own work through Eclectic Projects and works as the brain in charge at Brain Jar Press.
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