I sent a story out to SDO Fantasy last month. They notify by the publish date, which was 7/1. I never received anything. I was going to send my usually snotty sarcastic query missive, when I realized that I misspelled my email address in the body of the RTF file. I sent an apology and asked the editor to resend my rejection, hoping for something that might help the story. A form reject came back.

I went over the story. It’s called the Duke’s Left Eye. I discovered numerous typos and grammatical errors. I had originally sent it to Arthur for a quick edit, but I guess he didn’t really work too hard on it. Carlos does a better job, but lately he has had computer problems.

I cut 500 words from the story and then added 700 more to fill out some of the thinner places. It’s into Neverary now. The editor at Neverary gave me nice feedback on the last one I sent him. (The Thoat) and I took his advice and rewrote parts of that story.

The Duke’s Left Eye is a story my Father told me when I was small boy. I found the story of the archer Astor who wrote on his arrow “Phillip’s Left Eye” and actually put out the Greek king’s left eye. My father studied Greek mythology in college. Astor was hanged, but in my father’s story, the archer was rewarded by the king for his skill, even though he shot out the King’s eye. My father is very sick with cancer right now and I'd like to get the story published before he dies. In my version of the story, the archer kills the Duke and turns the course of the battle. I think, though, that my father’s version is the better one.