Look what I found! The December 1981 issue of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine. Look at the cover carefully and you’ll see my name.
It was my very first published story. It was called “The Bun Man.” I went on to write several more stories that editor Charlie Fritch published, but “The Bun Man” was first. And I forget how many stories I had to write before I sold one. You wouldn’t believe how incredibly difficult it is to get a story published! I don’t mean self-published. I mean somebody pays you for your work.
Alas, there is no more Mike Shayne. No more Alfred Hitchcock’s or Ellery Queen’s, either. So many short story magazines gone exinct… as reading itself prepares to join them. What can a writer do but sigh? And pray that maybe someday people rediscover reading. Before we go extinct, too.