I Pulled a Book Out of Thin Air Miss-Spelled: Tales of Misplaced Magic

By Lori Perkins

My publishing company has a collection of 50 short Halloween stories that were edited and ready to publish for this Halloween season when the editor informed me that there were issues with the contributor contracts. It became pretty clear we were not going to be able to get this book out into the world for the season.

But I LOVE Halloween and I really wanted to have a new book on sale since it had been a while since we had published something new (I am downsizing from the home I have lived in for three decades and took a little bit of personal time).  I would usually reach out to my dependable writers and ask if they have anything in the tank, but then I remembered that when I started dating again after my divorce I wrote what I thought was a funny story about a magic spell that goes wrong.  I had never published it, and I knew where it was because I have been packing up my life, so I found it.  But it was only about 1,000 words.  Certainly worth a $.99 stand alone, but I really wanted something more than that.

And then I remembered that I had written another unpublished short story before that about a young woman who had been a magician’s assistant and can’t keep her mouth shut about how the tricks are done.  I found that one too.  I had written it in my 20’s.  It was one of the first short stories I ever wrote.  I think it still works.  But, again, only a few thousand words.

And then I remembered I had written a story about some black magic in Vegas under a pseudonym, so no one knew it was by me.  It’s actually one of my most creative pieces.

So I had conjured up a collection of three dark short stories about magic that goes wrong.

And that is how you have Miss-Spelled: Tales of Misplaced Magic.