Twist of Fate? report by stand-in reporter Antigone Nicks

Peculiar goings-on after authors participate in Lit Select's Legendary Stories: What Went Wrong anthology.

Strange reports have been coming in that contributors to Lit Select's Legendary Stories: What Went Wrong anthology didn't know what they were getting themselves into when their work was accepted for the anthology.

Time Out for Teachers

Our correspondent from Northern California reveals that middle school teacher and writer, Jan Flynn, has developed an alarming disability. "I began having trouble with my right thumb," she confessed earlier this week. "At first, I thought it was a minor complaint due to the sheer weight of marking and writing I have to do." But when she developed an odd, hard lump near the distal knuckle, she knew things were not quite right. "It tingles with pain when I type on my keyboard; when I write in longhand, it obliges me to adopt an odd, claw-like grip on the pen in order to write at all." she says. "I fear this developing and spreading until both hands will operate like grasping claws, and that lump on the right thumb is developing alarming attributes, something like a third eye. I have taken to wearing gloves to conceal my affliction, and find myself drawn to dark, watery places. It all started when I submitted "Itself" to What Went Wrong."

Not only that, nothing has been seen of EFL teacher and writer N.O.A. Rawle after she submitted her work "Balancing Act" to the anthology. Her worried relatives reported that the last communication they had from her was just after she arrived at the Spring Fair, "She called me to tell me that she had encountered a travelling salesman by the name of Monsiuer du Monde and was about to pass through his mysterious machine, the Equiliberator." her husband told me earlier. "That was the last I saw of my wife. Our Children are distraught." A spokesperson for the Hellenic Police said "No one else can recall having seen such a travelling salesman at the fair, but investigations are on-going."

Mystical Texts Under Examination

Author Bryan Nickelberry, who wrote the "Misfire" story about the Cthulu cult gone wrong, related his experience. "A friend of mine gave me a copy of the Necronomicon years ago, and I began reading it in the car on the way home. Things got very strange after that, and have never quite been the same. On a relatively consistent basis we'd have things like me mentioning a phone ringing or a knock on the door; only to have a phone ring, or a knock on the door in real life. Strange circumstances like that have always been a part of my life; but this put things into overdrive. I think most things are back to normal now; maybe; but to this day my friends and I will randomly say,  'The phone rings' and we all know what it means."

Green Around the Gills

Author Larry Lefkowitz, whose story "Sanctuary" appears in the anthology, saught hypnotherapy for a strange aversion he developed to the colour green. "I am sure that I wasn't really under," he says "I heard the suggestions of my therapist but I was fully conscious. This strange magnetic pull/revulsion relationship I have developed with the colour green has really become overwhelming."

Read It If You Dare. . .

In an attempt to get to the bottom of this, I contacted Lit Select directly. However, inside sources report that editor Cher A. Starr has been curiously absent during these final phases of the anthology. Lit Select staff is said to be concerned about Mr. Starr's well being. The editor had taken to wearing a amulet with ancient symbols in the past several weeks. Staff members deny having seen the amulet before.

Questions sent to media contact, Harley Easton, were replied to by an email stating, "Believe office haunted or possessed. Being malevolent. Can't call. Must keep chanting."

Designer, Teresa Conner, was contacted by phone, but only a strange howling was heard before the line went dead.

I will bring you further updates if, and when I hear anything. All that remains to be said on the matter is that things go wrong when you least expect them and in ways that you can never imagine. If you think you can solve these publishing mysteries, I advise you to get your copy of Lit Select's Legendary Stories: What Went Wrong today. Available from Smashwords, Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. Read it if you dare...

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