The Festival of the First Frost — Behind the Story

Though it seems like a dream to me now, The "Festival of the First Frost" is how I landed in Cozy Vales just less than a year ago.

On December 22nd last year, Susan and I had just finished our last day of teaching before winter break and went out to celebrate at a local cafe (that's right, Sweet Tooth in Gloucester, VA, shout out to you again!). I had been reading (and really enjoying) the first Cozy Vales Winter Anthology, when out of the blue, this idea hit me for a story set in Cozy Vales! Almost complete, right then and there, in the middle of the cafe.

For the next eight days, I wrote and wrote in every spare minute, until December 30th (pretty much through Christmas, itself). When I was done, on a whim, I sent the story to L.A. Scott.

Before long, I was being introduced to the other scribes. I wrote another story, this one set in the summer, and “The Baker’s Daughter” was born. Not long after, I submitted that new story to the Cozy Vales scribes and then suddenly *poof*, when they approved it, I was on my way to having the story in the first Summer Tales from Cozy Vales anthology. (Okay, with a lot of editing.)

The finished story of “The Festival of the First Frost” as it appears in Winter Tales-2 is quite a bit different from the one I sent to L.A. Scott on spec almost a year ago. It’s much, much better now. While trying to learn the craft of telling a story through print medium, here’s a truth I have learned: writing can be fun, but editing is work. But editing is never an isolated event, it takes a team. Which makes this a great time to thank every early reader and editor that has helped me improve this story. I'm incredibly grateful.

As always, thanks for reading,

—phillip