Once upon a time there was a boy who was about to turn 16 years of age in 1986.
The boy wrote a short story called: "The Miami Tarot", it wasn't the greatest story ( far from it ), because it was written by a boy just getting interested in writing. But the story had a pretty original concept, or at least the boy thought so ( as did others ).
The story was about a man that found a newspaper that told the future.
The boy showed this story to many family and friends, and they all urged him to do something with it.
His Mother and Aunt helped him proofread the story, by correcting any spelling or punctuation errors. They even helped him type the story, because he had originally written it by hand ( he still has all of these copies ).
So he got the current Writer's Market, The Scavengers Newsletter, and any other resource or directory for writers. He started sending the story to many magazines, small press and large press. He sent it to The Twilight Zone magazine, Isaac Asimov's magazine, and many, many others.
He also sent it to many writing contests, such as the L. Ron Hubbard's Writer's of the Future Contest, and any other short story contest he could find out about, etc... .
The boy ( now an adult ) almost had it published in 1989 by Figment Magazine. But the editor that was interested in it, was voted down by the other editors. He told the boy/man that he was the "casualty of an editorial war".
The boy/man kept trying, and in 1992, he gave up, because a magazine called Unreality sent him another form rejection letter ( one among many he had received over those years ). It was the straw that broke the camel's back. He sent it to so many people over the years, and he was so tired, he didn't want to fight anymore. He did write other stories during these years, but he became so discouraged, and rarely wrote after that. He developed a major case of writer's block, and was even losing interest in reading other books.
In 1996, the boy, now a man in his twenties, was watching TV, and saw the preview for a new TV series about a newspaper that told the future. The boy aka man, was shocked, frustrated and hurt. He didn't know what to do.
He even received calls from family and friends saying that the TV series reminded them of his short story. They all asked him what he was going to do ( they even offered to vouch for him, or provide affidavits that he wrote the story with the same basic premise or concept, long before the TV series aired ). He said he didn't know what to do, and so he did nothing.
This boy aka man, grew up poor, he was disabled all of his life, but his disabilities and health issues began to worsen as an adult. He never became well off. To this day, he struggles to pay his medical bills, and all of his other bills. His health declines. He puts off medical care and surgeries because he can't afford to pay the co-pays and deductibles.
The boy kept all the rough handwritten drafts, the poorly typed drafts, the copies proofread by the editor of the magazine that almost published it. He kept a few of the rejection slips, a couple of short notes from one of the editors, some of the postmarked envelopes, and 2 free gratis copies of the magazine ( Figment ), that he almost got his story published in.
What is the Boy, now man, to do?
How does this story end?
The boy wrote a short story called: "The Miami Tarot", it wasn't the greatest story ( far from it ), because it was written by a boy just getting interested in writing. But the story had a pretty original concept, or at least the boy thought so ( as did others ).
The story was about a man that found a newspaper that told the future.
The boy showed this story to many family and friends, and they all urged him to do something with it.
His Mother and Aunt helped him proofread the story, by correcting any spelling or punctuation errors. They even helped him type the story, because he had originally written it by hand ( he still has all of these copies ).
So he got the current Writer's Market, The Scavengers Newsletter, and any other resource or directory for writers. He started sending the story to many magazines, small press and large press. He sent it to The Twilight Zone magazine, Isaac Asimov's magazine, and many, many others.
He also sent it to many writing contests, such as the L. Ron Hubbard's Writer's of the Future Contest, and any other short story contest he could find out about, etc... .
The boy ( now an adult ) almost had it published in 1989 by Figment Magazine. But the editor that was interested in it, was voted down by the other editors. He told the boy/man that he was the "casualty of an editorial war".
The boy/man kept trying, and in 1992, he gave up, because a magazine called Unreality sent him another form rejection letter ( one among many he had received over those years ). It was the straw that broke the camel's back. He sent it to so many people over the years, and he was so tired, he didn't want to fight anymore. He did write other stories during these years, but he became so discouraged, and rarely wrote after that. He developed a major case of writer's block, and was even losing interest in reading other books.
In 1996, the boy, now a man in his twenties, was watching TV, and saw the preview for a new TV series about a newspaper that told the future. The boy aka man, was shocked, frustrated and hurt. He didn't know what to do.
He even received calls from family and friends saying that the TV series reminded them of his short story. They all asked him what he was going to do ( they even offered to vouch for him, or provide affidavits that he wrote the story with the same basic premise or concept, long before the TV series aired ). He said he didn't know what to do, and so he did nothing.
This boy aka man, grew up poor, he was disabled all of his life, but his disabilities and health issues began to worsen as an adult. He never became well off. To this day, he struggles to pay his medical bills, and all of his other bills. His health declines. He puts off medical care and surgeries because he can't afford to pay the co-pays and deductibles.
The boy kept all the rough handwritten drafts, the poorly typed drafts, the copies proofread by the editor of the magazine that almost published it. He kept a few of the rejection slips, a couple of short notes from one of the editors, some of the postmarked envelopes, and 2 free gratis copies of the magazine ( Figment ), that he almost got his story published in.
What is the Boy, now man, to do?
How does this story end?
*PLEASE NOTE*: Absolutely no accusations are being made against anyone, there are no allegations against anyone. This is merely a post trying to get something off the author's chest, an unburdening, or venting, if you will. There is much confusion as to why a story written in 1986, with a fairly original concept, or story premise, was sent to so many persons for about 7 years, and it was never bought, or published. Then in 1996, a TV series using the basic premise of a newspaper that tells the future begins to be aired on TV. The TV show was not named in this account, nor was the network named. It is understood that there is nothing original, that most ideas have been used at one time, or the other.
It is probably just a matter of being in the right place, at the right time, and sometimes who you know, to be the one that gets picked, the one who's story concept is used.
AGAIN: *PLEASE NOTE*: Absolutely no accusations are being made against anyone, there are no allegations against anyone. No one is being accused of any wrongdoing. Publishing this post, is not in any way, shape, or form, an effort to cause any harm to anyone. This is just one writer's frustrating experience in life. It is merely an effort at expressing the author's opinion about a past experience. It's just an effort to find peace in this matter that has now gone on for almost 30 years, as of next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.