By Susan Schooleman
Ever notice how at the beginning of so many books all the good, sweet, motherly mothers die?
The narrator of my short story, And Now a Word from Bambi’s Mother, makes this observation over margaritas in an Italian-Mexican hybrid restaurant. One too many margaritas, it turns out. She ends up dying in a drunken car wreck on her way home. Reflecting on her Bambi insight, she realizes she sucked as a parent. In response, her spirit sets out to fix what she broke when she was alive.
I hope you’ll enjoy the wild ride this story promises, along with the 13 others (there were 78 stories submitted, and 14 were accepted) featured in RMFW’s 2020 Anthology, WILD: Uncivilized Tales from Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers (#WildAnthology). Perhaps the only thing more wild than the stories—which range from horror to history—are the circumstances surrounding the Anthology’s publication process.
Early this year, the Anthology’s two extraordinary editors, Rachel Craft and Natasha Christensen, had just started working with us on revisions when COVID-19 threw a wrench in our plans. We had to cancel our bookstore tour and celebration brunch.
No margaritas for us.
But our panel talk is still on. You are cordially invited to come get WILD with us via Zoom at 8 p.m. on Friday, September 11, 2020. Bring your friends or prospective RMFW members because everyone is welcome. Watch for details. The panel would be especially ideal for those who plan on submitting to the next RMFW Anthology, which will begin next year and be published in 2022.
So, what’s the process like?
My personal experience with the WILD Anthology’s editors was a lot like working with a fantastic personal trainer. You come into a gym thinking you have a pretty stellar diet/exercise routine, but then you quickly find you can push yourself further.
In this case, pushing yourself further involved rewrites.
At first, the rewrites seemed so extensive that a fellow Anthology author told me, “I couldn’t believe my piece was chosen—especially after I saw the edits.”
I felt the same.
But once I incorporated Rachel’s edits and suggestions, I was hit with a big blast of insight: “I now know what my story is trying to say.” Working with Rachel and Tasha was a truly a remarkable journey.
From ours to yours
It was also fascinating to hear about the other author’s stories. This is truly a “RMFW family” production. Even the cover was illustrated by RMFW’s own Amy Dryer, who wrote the WILD short story, Schrödinger’s Mouse, which is so quirky, dark, intriguing, and unexpected that the ending made me scream, out loud.
I hope you’ll join us in September, and that you’ll love the Anthology as much as we enjoyed creating it for you.
The 2020 Anthology is available for pre-order now on Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1734575611
You can find six previous RMFW Anthologies at https://rmfw.org/publications/
Susan Schooleman (pen name Cepa Onion) wrote a full-length play that was published by Samuel French and was also published by Self, and wrote for a Hollywood TV show, before trading it all in for parenthood. This adventurous period of her life honed her intuition, refined her wit, and gave her a front-row seat to real real life.
Her debut Women’s Fiction novel How to Stay Sane in the Carpool Lane, was a winner in the 2019 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Gold Contest. Her short story And Now a Word from Bambi’s Mother will be published in the 2020 RMFW Anthology.