[stylist] Update on my publishing progress

[loristay]

Good question.  iT was originally just a letter detailing the incident.  they fictionalized it!  They stuck in things that i never said or did, though they left the core of the story.

Anyway, if I wanted to use the story, I'd just write it again, without theirs or mine in front of me.  Here's the core of it:

When my daughter was about to give birth to my first grandchild, her husband called us at home to say she had gone into the hospital.  It was the eve of a Jewish Holiday, but in June, so the days were long.  (Jewish holidays start at sunset).  I realized David and I had to go out.  We were singing that night.  So I asked Aaron to call back if she had the baby before sunset.  She didn't, and he didn't.  We did sing, but i was hopping from one foot to the other during our concert, and dismayed that I now wouldn't know for two days what she'd had, or the outcome of her labor (a healthy mother and baby).  (Since my daughter and her husband are orthodox, they don't make calls on the Jewish holy days.)

Needless to say, I had trouble sleeping, but I finally did fall asleep, and found myself in a dream.  I sat at my dining room table with my two daughters.  My older daughter was talking about a snood or a wig she used (for religious purposes), when an angel appeared in the dining room.  He wore a skull cap, but had no wings.  He unrolled a scroll and sang, "You have a grandson."  If you have ever heard an angel singing, you know that no other voice can match it for beauty.  I woke up, and looked at the clock.  It was about 5 a.m.  I lay back down, and thought i heard the phone ringing, and a voice on the answering machine, singing, "You have a grandson."  I remember thinking, 'How nice of the hospital to call.'  
In the morning, I realized the hospital had not called, and in fact, we had forgotten to turn on the answering machine at all.
But a call to the hospital confirmed that we did indeed have a grandson, and later discussion with my daughter revealed he had been born at just about 5 a.m.

The magazine story left out the concert, had me saying evening prayers right before bed, and various other things that had not been in my initial letter.  I barely recognized the story!

But it was nice to get the check anyway.
Lori

On Mar 1, 2010, at 12:21:59 AM, "James H. \" <n6yr at sunflower.com> wrote:

Lori,
in that situation where they paid you for your story but hardly used 
it, how much change would you have to make to your original story so 
you could then seek to publish the original the way you wrote it?
jc