My first original short story of 2008, “Petrified,” was published last weekend in Desolate Souls, the souvenir program book for this year’s World Horror Convention.

Since the convention took place in Utah, the editors were looking for desert-themed horror stories, so I set mine in Petrified Forest National Park. The book includes a mix of original and reprint stories, with a list of contributors that includes F. Paul Wilson, Orson Scott Card, Dennis Etchison, Yvonne Navarro, Linda Addison, and others.

As I was flying home from Salt Lake City, however, I discovered that due to a publishing glitch, the story didn’t appear entirely as I’d intended it. Because of that, I’d rather “Petrified” not be judged by how it appeared in Desolate Souls.

So if there’s anyone out there who would like to receive a PDF of the story as it was meant to appear, please e-mail me and I’ll send one along.

Unless there’s a shake-up to my publishing schedule, my next story to come out will be “A Very Private Tour of a Very Public Museum” in the Worldcon 2008 Special Issue of Postscripts magazine.