I’m pleased to announce that my short story “Abandonment and Possession” has been accepted to appear in Sidearm & Sorcery Volume Three, coming later this year. The contract has been signed, so let the word go out! This will be the eleventh Kellan Oakes story I’ve had published, bringing us yet another step closer to the inevitable Kellan Oakes Omnibus! Of course I’m always pleased to announce a short story sale, particularly when it extends the long chain of Kellan Oakes’s adventures, but this instance is particularly gratifying for another reason.
I’ve brought it up many times before, but at the risk of wearing the anecdote out, my career as a published short story writer begins with a piece of short experimental fiction in an anthology titled How the West Was Weird v. 2. A small group of writers, some of whom I knew through various internet fandom spaces, brought How the West Was Weird into the world, and when they decided to proceed with a second volume, their goal was to make something even bigger and better. So one of those acquaintances reached out to me, and in a stroke of great luck I already had a story in reserve that fit the weird west theme. I sent “The Demon Wrestler” to the editor, he accepted it, and the story saw print.
When discussion inevitably turned to a potential third volume in the How the West Was Weird series, I was looped in from the beginning. I wrote a new story from scratch, and once again earned a place in the anthology’s table of contents. That proved to be the final installment, but by then I had gotten into a more productive writing routine, earned another acceptance at a completely different publisher, and indicated my interest in a different series with the How the West Was Weird publisher. That series was the PulpWork Holiday Specials, my first contribution to which was the very first Kellan Oakes story, so not only is this my origin story for short fiction publishing in general, it’s more or less the druid private eye’s instigation point as well.
My one regret, if that’s even the right word, was always that the stars hadn’t aligned for me to be a part of the first volume of How the West Was Weird. If I had been, I could have appeared in every volume of the trilogy, and that would have been a nice accomplishment in and of itself. Human beings love patterns, repetitions, and things that come in threes, and I’m no exception to the allure.
So my happiness at the latest Kellan Oakes story finding a home is all the greater because it marks my first complete anthology trilogy, lo these thirteen or so years after I chanced sideways into a volume two. I should add that I have no insight into the S&S publisher’s intentions for the series. There may be a Volume Four someday, or more, and I will happily continue writing and submitting Kellan Oakes stories for as long as the opportunity presents itself. But for now, I’m deeply content to have a footprint in the first three volumes, come what may.
Dale W. Glaser 
