My short story “Aquarius” was accepted for publication in September 2022. The anthology had some work to do to get all the stories finalized and organized, but more than a year later in November 2023 the publisher issued the contracts and payments. In March 2024, the publisher contacted us to say they were finalizing it and getting ready to release. And then, as of today (September 15, 2024), the publisher officially notified all the authors that they were no longer planning to publish the anthology (or anything else by anyone but the editor, ever again).

Weirdly, this is the SECOND time that specific story has sold to an anthology and then the project ended up abandoned. The other one didn’t get to the point of issuing a contract, though.

The interaction with the publisher was definitely the longest drawn out process I’d seen, and there was a lot of confusion–rapidly changing website, placeholders that disappeared without notification, long periods of not answering e-mails and queries–so I guess I’m actually kinda glad it didn’t end up permanently placed there. Though I’m also sure it wasn’t anything they did nefariously or on purpose. Perhaps they just had too many balls in the air.

Anyway, disappointing, but the story’s got to go back on submission. I really like this story and I’d love for it to finally find a real home. Hopefully I’ll be placing it back on the “published” list soon.