Cemetery Dance Publications has announced the upcoming publication of Shivers VI, with stories by Stephen King and Peter Straub and a whole slew of others.

I was fortunate to get a story into the anthology as well. It’s called “Trouble Follows.” It’s one of those stories that took years to come together. I first started it in 2007. I liked the basic premise, which I’ll leave for another time, but it depended on the voice of the narrator to really make the story work. And I couldn’t find that voice. I remember, after weeks of work, bouncing the unfinished story off a friend. She was less than enthusiastic in her reaction, and that cool response took all the air out of my enthusiasm.

So I put the story aside, and basically forgot about it.

Until I had a chance to submit something to Shivers VI. “Trouble Follows” was the first story that came to mind.

I pulled it out and read the fifteen or so pages I had previously written and I could see right off the bat that I’d been trying too hard to capture that voice. You really can’t force a voice on a character. You have to let it come out. With that in mind, I went back through the story, deleted everything that struck me as a little over the top, and took a look at what I had left.

Surprisingly, the voice was there. It had been hiding under the weight of my forced intentions all along. I just hadn’t recognized it.

It’s always nice to be able to go back to an abandoned story and save it. And believe it or not, it happens more often than not. There’s something to be said for putting a little distance between you and your work in order to gain a proper perspective.

And now I’m very pleased to have “Trouble Follows” appearing in Shivers VI.

I hope readers will be pleased, too.