Sand Pilarski, the genius Managing Editor of The Piker Press, is serializing The Goatmen of Aguirra starting as this week’s cover story and running for the next seven.
I am thrilled, and thanks to Sand and The Piker Press for accepting this novella.
For those unfamiliar with the story…
The Goatmen of Aguirra is based on my experiences as a cultural anthropologist working with aboriginal societies. I wrote it side by side with The Augmented Man back in the early 1990s. I sent it to a few markets. One editor requested several edits and finally rejected it with “I think I’ve done more damage with my suggestions than helped it.”
Yeah. Well. Thanks.
In the end, nobody bought it so I shelved it.
In 2015 I gave up a business I grew from my basement to having offices in the US, Canada, and the EU. Susan (wife/partner/Princess) said, “I’ve never seen you happier than when you’re writing your fiction, so I want you to do that for the rest of your life.”
It’s wonderful when the one true love of your life knows what you love in your life, isn’t it?
I included The Goatmen of Aguirra in my self-published anthology, Tales Told ‘Round Celestial Campfires, which’s received good reviews so far.
I decided to send The Goatmen of Aguirra around again. But now it had a blackmark – “previously published.”
I saw The Piker Press and thought, sure, why not. But I started with an email entitled “Querying before submitting” and gave a two paragraph synopsis. Sand wrote back
Yes, I’d like to see it very much. Please send it along, and give me a couple days to read through.
I sent it. She wrote back
What a captivating and thought-provoking story! Once I sarted reading, I couldn’t stop. Every interruption seemed like a catastrophe.
And The Goatmen of Aguirra saw print in a recognized market earlier this week.
Remember what I wrote in 30 Years to Publication?
Yeah, I’m feeling good.
Take a read. Let Sand and me know what you think. ‘Preciate it.
