A Second Chance for the Phantom Rose

Strange things do happen. On the first weekend of June in 2004, I decided to write a short romantic story. At that time, a magazine, Arabella, was being published and that was my targeted market. I had fun with this story. It was set in old New Orleans during the days of Jean Lafitte. My heroine was a fabled pirate princess and hero an American privateer. I've always liked the story myself. Of course, I wrote it. I submitted it email to the editor at Arabella on June 10th. (Now, I did have to go look that up) She called 4 days later to tell me she wanted to buy it and how much she'd enjoyed it. It was the kind of call that a writer lives for. Unfortunately, my story, The Phantom Rose, didn't see print because the magazine folded that fall.

The story lingered on a floppy disk for four years. There was no market for it and I just never got around to making a book out of it. It was never intended to be a book. This past winter, fellow writer, Kathy Bone, sent me an email about a new magazine in the works from a publisher who does mostly non-fiction craft and cooking magazines. I'm game for anything so I sent in The Phantom Rose. That was months ago and I had thought they'd probably shelved the project. Then, today, almost 4 years to the day I sold it the first time, I got an acceptance email and contract from the publisher of the new magazine, which is presently titled New Love Stories Magazine. I don't know if my story will be in the first issue or not but when it does get published, I'll have another writing credit and some extra money, which beats having a story gathering dust. So, to all you writers, hang onto to your stories. You never know when a market might avail itself and you cannot sell unless you submit.