[Mkguild] Some MK Publication News

[Chris Hoekstra]

Greetings all!

I know that I haven't been heard from around here in a terribly long 
time, and for that I am sorry. But something happened recently that is 
worth saying with you all.

I have been waiting months to write this email. This is about why 
leaving old stories hanging around the internet can sometimes lead to 
some really cool things happening.

Back this February, I get a nice little email, the gist of which is:
"We at FurPlanet Productions would like to pay you for the permission to 
republish one of your stories."

To which my reaction was pretty much:
"You want to publish one of my stories? And pay me money?!"

Suffice it to say, in the end I said, yes.

The end result is the dead-tree anthology collection An Anthropomorphic 
Century will feature my Metamor Keep story Daylight Fading and Bill 
Kieffer's The Good Sport . The anthology debuted this weekend at 
Rainfurrest 2015 and is up for pre-order on FurPlanet 's website 
(http://furplanet.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=810). It was supposed to 
come out at Anthrocon, but due to foot-dragging around story rights 
issues (apparently caused by the professional publishers, not the 
amateurs) it was delayed till now. Thankfully FurPlanet  was able to get 
it all sorted on their end!

Now, I never got into writing with the goal of getting published, or 
making money, or anything like that. I got into it because I found it 
fun, I found I had a talent for it, and I found I could make some great 
friends along the way. So to have something like this happen is just 
absolutely, positively mind-blowing for me. To get an email from the 
editor of the anthology back in February and have him tell me that he 
still remembers that story and considers it good enough for solicitation 
and inclusion in a work like this was just such a heart warming occurrence.

Getting to see the final full list of 20 authors is also a real treat 
for me. As I said, Bill Kieffer is there as well, as is Phil Geusz, but 
some of the other names are a bit of a surprise (How the heck did I get 
published alongside Peter S. Beagle, Michael H. Payne and Philip K. 
Dick?! Holy sh--t!). It's a shame Channing (aka Jeffrey Channing Wells) 
didn't make the list given some of his contributions to the fandom that 
I've sure most (if not all) of us have read over the years.

And so there we go. I have been waiting since July, when An 
Anthropomorphic Century was supposed to debut, to post about this. It 
feels absolutely amazing to say that I am now a published author. (I 
don't care if it's fandom and not mainstream, it's still amazing!) For 
those reading this, just take it as a reminder that... well, you never 
really do know what may happen in the future.

Take care everyone!