Monday 11 July 2011

Declining the Compliment.

I had an e-mail tonight from a publisher I’ve never heard of. Seems they’d read one of my stories in an anthology and wanted to ‘warmly invite’ me to submit one to theirs. That’s never happened before.

The problem is, their anthology has a tightly defined theme and so I would have to write something to suit. I don’t work that way; I can only write stories that want to be written. One has to maintain one’s integrity, and writing to order would somehow seem like a mild form of prostitution. Worse still, it would be almost akin to being appointed Poet Laureate.

(Write a poem to commemorate the royal wedding. Can you imagine anything more whorish than that?)

So, I don’t suppose I’ll accept their warm invitation. Pity really; it’s a bit of a compliment.

4 comments:

Maria Sondule said...

I suppose if you have the luxury of declining it would be the right thing to do. Stories that don't want to be written tend to not be as good anyway. (though I'm sure yours would still be good enough for the magazine.)

JJ said...

Being true to myself is the only luxury I have, Maria. Thank you for your confidence.

Zz... said...

You do always have pretty good blog titles...how is this for one I thought of the other day but decided it was not appropriate to post...

"MY ARMPITS SMELL BETTER THAN STRAWBERRIES."

is that not one of the most enchanting blog post titles you ever saw? hahahaha

JJ said...

'Enchanting' isn't the word I would use, Zhen. 'Intriguing,' maybe. It raises questions about the Chinese gene (or should that be genome?) Did you know that my first love when I was a little boy was Tiger Lily in the Rupert Bear books?

Taking this too seriously, aren't I? I'm in mourning at the moment.

Helen didn't know that passenger liners don't operate any more. So now you can fall to wondering why that's relevant. Be intrigued.