I Do Two: we have a line up!
This year the standard was even higher than last year, and we were, again, struggling with the problem that we had so many good stories that we had to reject some for no better reason than that they were too long, or they were ever so slightly less relevant to the theme than other stories of the same length.
Strangely enough, the heat level is way down this year, making this a volume highly suitable for buying for friends and relatives who might be supportive of civil rights without wanting to read too much erotica. But otherwise we have perhaps more of a wide spread of subjects and settings than we had last year, and a real international line-up with authors from the USA, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland and Australia.
In no particular order – almost certainly not the order in which they will appear in the book, these are our stories for 2009:
Two Men: A Fugue by Sophia Deri-Bowen
The Uneven Chance by Charlie Cochrane
Work Experience by Bruin Fisher
Elephants In Her Tea by Julia Rios
Mountain Ash by Ruth Sims
Inner Truth by Alex Beecroft
Mallory’s Gift by L-J Baker
Cakewalk by Nathan Burgoine
The Song Inside by Nexis Pas
Turnabout by Lee Rowan
Home Cooking by Brian Holliday
Morbidly Obese by Rick Reed
Ships that Pass by Jamie Freeman
Honolulu Hula by Neil S. Plakcy
Aim Higher by JL Merrow
Hitched by Michael Gouda
No Queens on Pickett Street by Martha Miller
Even Guys Cry by D.C. Juris
Ganymede by Lenore Black
Under the Shadow of Your Wings by Jill Palmer
Touche by James Buchanan
Stripes by Nigel Puerasch
Mister Right by Rob Rosen
Congratulations to everyone who’s in, commiseration to everyone who isn’t, but it’s worth repeating that the standard was so high we were turning publishable material away.
This is very exciting – I'm certainly impressed with the company I'm keeping!
It's great, isn't it? I think we're all squeeing 🙂 And every story was chosen on merit, so you must deserve to be there.
I'm thrilled to be included in ID2. And as Nathan says, the company we're keeping is impressive.
I must admit to being VERY impatient to read Elephants in Her Tea. The title screams "Read me and find out what the heck it means!"
Thanks to the editors who must have spent hundreds of dedicated hours reading and agonizing over the selection. I'm assuming that I'm now free to put the list of titles and authors, and the cover, in my next newsletter? Is there a tentative publication date?
It certainly is a step up from last year in terms of big name contributors 🙂 But we've managed to keep with tradition and have at least a couple of new authors as well, for whom this is their first publication. That's nice too, particularly when we're not the easiest people to please 🙂
Do tell everyone, that's fine 🙂 And yes, we're hoping to have it released in time for Valentine's Day 2010.
(Carefully not even giving you a hint about Elephants in Her Tea!)