This morning, I got a terrific email message from my friend, Josh Peterson.

Josh and I go back to when we were at Brandeis as undergrads. After graduation, we were in a writing group that met somewhat irregularly. He was working on a space opera that had wonderful characters like Andrelay and Grandfather, and I was working on my Great American Novel. Josh, a fantasy reader, was the one who drilled it through my head that magic must have a price; if it’s easy, then what’s the point? He’s also read pretty much every incarnation of those early drafts of the GAN — back before I realized those really were drafts, not final versions ready for publication. (They were also quite terrible. Poor Josh — I subjected him to a lot of torture.)

This is the email I received from Josh this morning. He sent it to his current writing group, as well as to me:

Several years ago, Jackie Kessler sent me a portion of her WIP, what she referred to as her “Great American Novel,” her GAN. I’d been there with the GAN from the beginning, and looked forward to reading a revision more than ten years in the making. But I didn’t get it. Instead, I got most of it, only without the ending.

So, I did what any of us would: I wrote a story about it and sent it to her. The story is currently up on New Myths, uploaded just in time for Christmas, in the same issue as our Debra’s “Revenge is a Dish Best Served Boneless.”

Here is Josh’s story, called A Literary Agent’s Lament.

Thanks so much, Josh — I have always loved this story, and I’m thrilled it was published. And it’s the first time I’ve ever been a Muse.

In the same issue, Justin Gustainis gets interviewed. Check it out! And preorder EVIL WAYS — I’m reading the ARC now, and it promises to be just as engrossing as BLACK MAGIC WOMAN, if not more so.