I Wish I Was Hosey Hitchcock     Publisher: Blue Cubicle Press     Date of Publication: March 2007 SYNOPSIS Following is a letter, edited for compactness, written by Mickey answering questions on an email interview: To: Rachel Haynie Columbia Star newspaper March 9, 2007 Dear Rachel, Thank you for liking "Hosey." I really appreciate your interest and help. About The First Line, http://www.thefirstline.com/ ,that is the publisher in Texas who does 4 anthologies each year. They provide a sentence which has to be the first line of your story. Their slogan, "It all starts the same but". They succeed in jogging a writer‘s mind. Every entrant begins their story with the same first line. I heard about them at a writing group in 04. I have sent them a story each submission date since. I feel stumped about The First Line due May 1, "My first impression of Phillip was that he was blessed with ignorance." Their sentences have given me stories I would never have written otherwise. Whether my stuff is worth reading or not, they were worth trying to write. The First Line took me into areas I would never have thought of. David LaBounty, Publisher-Editor selected my story Never looking Back. He published it in the winter edition of 2005. I had sent David the Hosey story and he replied he hated turning it down but felt the first line was not needed. Shows how smart David is because he was right. I had taken the story from my novel and wiggled in the first line to fit the rules. About 6 months ago David queried me to see if I would rewrite Hosey lengthening it to 15,000 words. He hoped to use it in his new publishing venture Overtime. http://www.workerswritejournal.com/overtime.htm. I took chapters from the novel and stuck them together in an irrational order totaling nearly 14,000 words. David chopped it to about 5000 and gave me instructions the second time asking for only 9500 words. I believed he lowered the word count since he was a nice guy and had cut so much from the original submittal. I rewrote it a second time except I followed David’s instructions exactly. I Wish I Was Hosey Hitchcock was released in March of 2007. David is kind and smart enough to overlook my faults with commas. He handles those items. He looks for a story to make his subscribers glad they are. I hope Hosey does this and boosts his sales. He deserves it. I feel we have similar motives we are both doing what we do for fun. I have recommended to others like me trying to write to submit stories to The First Line You get paid. Entry is free. They are fair people. Don’t worry about your writing credits. Send them a better story than anyone else’s. That’s all it takes. Their sentences will help the writer create stories not normally attempted. If the story is not accepted, you may change the first line and submit them elsewhere. About what you may read? I would be honored for you to read anything I have written. Nothing is published but it’s finished and always needing editing. If you are interested. I would suggest either the novel from which Hosey was taken or the novel set in BC High 1955. I have read these to my writing group and they knocked off some of the rough edges. If you do read them, I would welcome any advice or critique you may give toward their improvement, but that is not necessary. Do it for fun. If it isn’t fun, quit reading. I would be happy to get you a copy. I use working titles to identify each, but these may change if I can think of something better. Following is a description of each: Last First Day is a completed 54,000 word, literary fiction, coming of age story set during the 1950’s in South Carolina. I wrote this story after reading John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem "Maude Muller" and based it on the line, "For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: "It might have been."" Central to this manuscript is the everlasting effect others have on us. It reveals a secret within every human heart, remembered, but never mentioned of a true-love lost. Every life affects another. Sometimes, it’s no more than fumbling with a purchase, delaying those who follow with minor consequence. A lost true-love, like Ricky and Morene’s, marks one for life. Hearts beat scarred, but hearts heal, and we die never knowing how life might have been. Face to Face is a completed, historically accurate family saga of 76,000 words. Peter Moody’s poem, "To a Cotton Mill Worker," published in 1936 inspired me to write this story after having grown-up midst mill workers. Their struggle and the circumstances of their unique human condition in a mill village must be remembered as courageous. Success at any price is expensive and the joy of love is brief, but Will Lovell understands this too late. During World War II ,Will’s twelve year old grandson, Nicky, lives with him and Molly. Nicky finds Will’s journal and learns why his grand parents hate each other and why the cotton mill town, Tugaloo, is three towns: the rich town-folks, the lint heads and the Blacks. Through Nicky’s ramblings, we see how Will, Molly and the town are. From Nicky’s stolen readings of Papa’s Book, we understand why. The story takes place between 1900 and 1944. An excerpt is scheduled for release by Blue Cubicle Press as a chapbook. The Brattons is a completed 56,000 word, adult family saga of one brother’s dominance over the other and harmonious, identical twin sisters. The dominant brother’s failing as executor to distribute an inheritance, and his obsession with the legendary rumor, grandfather stole the confederate gold, are driving forces of the protagonist. An excerpt was published in The First Line during 2005. A Tale of Two Men is a completed 59,000 word story about two men who treat others differently. The bad guy does only for himself. The good guy does for others. The story is based on a killing a 12 year old boy thought he heard. Sixty years later he returns to Virginia Beach and asks the sheriff if a lady was murdered there in 1942. Through the details we see two men’s lives. Mill Girl is a 94,000 word glimpse of the existence endured by a fifteen-year old girl living on a Southern mill hill during the Great Depression. She works second-shift as a spinner until she loses her job. Rachel, thanks again for everything. I hope you ask to read at least one of the first two. I would like to take the other through my writing group first. I’ll email a short story, in the mean time, to see if you wish more. I’m sending David a copy to keep him abreast of what’s happening regarding Hosey. Thank you. Best Regards, Mickey Burriss back