"The Sabbatarian"
(Horror -
vampire/vampire hunter)
 Issue #5
of Night to Dawn (also the final issue of the magazine in that
incarnation) apparently went horribly
wrong. There were a number of glitches in the layout that appeared to
affect three stories. One had a small section duplicated (it appeared
twice in a row). Another had some amount of text missing.
But the hardest hit was my story The
Sabbatarian. The whole story was messed up. Huge sections were
missing. Several were duplicated. Pages were not in order, the story not
flowing from one page to the next properly. The entire story was
completely and utterly unreadable. Nobody could make sense out of it.
Hell, I wrote the damn thing and even I couldn't figure out what was going
on.
This was unfortunate and quite painful for me; I really
enjoyed writing this one and, after three vampire tales in N2D, I
thought it would make a nice final piece in that short-lived, retiring
magazine. The 'zine was changing hands, and I all but begged the existing
editor to correct her horrible mistake and rerun the story. She had every
excuse in the book, but it all boiled down to basically not being her
fault. It was reproduced exactly as I had sent it to her, she said, which
was ridiculous; had I sent it to her that way, she wouldn't have accepted
it for publication because she wouldn't have been able to read it! She
then blamed it on Microsoft Word--yep, blaming Microsoft is always a good
fallback. Anyway, she refused to accept any responsibility for it, nor
would she talk to those taking over the 'zine about making good on it. And
surprise! When I contacted them, their argument was that it wasn't their
responsibility!
The whole thing was frustrating and
disappointing, and a great example of how all small press 'zines are not
created equal. There was nothing unprofessional about the editor of that
magazine, and apparently nothing professional about those taking it over.
I chalked that one up to experience and remembered not to submit anything
there again. My talents are far better spent with 'zines that care.
To confused readers: Although it was
quite out of my control, I'm sorry for the mishap.
The story is about a man who is
approached by a dying vampire hunter who tries to convince the man he is a
naturally powerful vampire hunter with special resistances against, and
power over, vampires. The vampire hunter wants the man to help him go
after and finally destroy the oldest and most powerful vampire. The man is
unsure what to do until that vampire also pays him a visit.
At this time, I'm not reproducing any
portion of The Sabbatarian here. I'm hoping I can
re-sell this as a reprint... although considering the terrible shape the
original printing was in, one can hardly term it a "reprint." The original
was so unreadable it hardly seems sensible to consider that it ever was
printed at all.
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