“Hello?”
Silence. Sounds through a mistreated microphone..
“Hell-ow?”
“Oh, sorry. My headset was giving me problems. Is this Mr. Hardwick?”
“Speaking, and with whom do I have the pleasure?”
“My name is Emily! and I’m calling on behalf of–[some outfit or other that sells something unwise to businesses who have just registered to pay taxes to the state of Texas, like the credit card processor who pretends to actually be the state of Texas and gets around to offering an “absolutely free of charge” credit card reader (skimmer included at no extra charge) and “for a limited time” credit card processing at the “special low price” of three times what Square or Paypal charge for exactly the same service]–“and we’d like to offer you–”
“Emily! Stop!”
“a– um…”
“Before you go any further, Emily, you have to pay.”
I got a very complimentary note from an editor today who told me “Dreams of the Rocket Man” was in consideration for his best of the year anthology till the very last cut. Of course, I’d love to have made that cut, but I also know there are many considerations in choosing works for a commercial anthology, and a long work from a little known author is not an easy sell.