Withersin recently made that issue available as a free PDF, so out of curiousity, I downloaded it. I've read the version of "Apt. #2W" that appeared in More Frightening Than Fiction, one of my free Nicky downloads from Lulu, and I wanted to see what an editor had done to it. When Nicky's "Observations of an Abandoned Seminary" appeared in Tales of the Talisman, the editor of TofT went over it pretty thoroughly and turned Nicky's dreck into passable, if still rambling and boring, prose.
The answer here is...nothing.
To my vast amusement, the following disclaimer appears in a box at the top of the first page of the story:
"The following autobiographical account has been left completely unedited in order to retain the author's original voice, intention, and mood. Withersin accepts no responsibility for the content."
In other words, the poor editor couldn't figure out how to salvage the writing so she didn't even try. I still wonder why she published it at all.
6 comments:
Out of curiosity do any of the other contributors to the inaugural issue have a link to Nicky?
How does he talk these people into using his work (well I could just stop there) without editing it!??!
Lewis, I'd have to look through the issue again, but the only one that jumped out to me was that there was a nice interview with Brian Keene a few pages before Nicky's story. I wouldn't say Keene was connected to Nicky, though, so much as harrassed by Nicky out of jealousy/whatever.
Why was he published in Withersin #1? I think the answer's quite simple. It's the same as every interview he's ever been given. His story was printed to give everyone else someone to laugh at.
Well, I don't want to put words into the editor's mouth, but if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck...
Maybe she was afraid that he'd start stalking her if she did anything to it.
Sarah, you have a good point. We all know how protective Nicky is of his writing.
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