Fire Up The Email

[Stephen Brayton]

Let me start at the beginning which is as good of a place to start as any. Last year, around October or November I was in the midst of promotion for my third book, Alpha, as well as continuing promotion on the first two books. Part of my strategy was to contact different companies and businesses related to fitness and martial arts. So I came to look online for various martial arts related magazines. There are plenty out there, each with their own niche. I made a list of four or five but began with Taekwondo Times magazine because they preferred to be contacted solely. In other words, similar to some publishers, they didn't want multiple submissions to other magazines from the submitter.

In my email, I introduced myself and explained what I was doing and asked if they would be interested in an interview conducted with me by a fellow martial artist. I had a list of questions describing my training and my writing.

The business manager of the magazine wrote back and said, yes, they were interested and also asked I give him a call because he had a proposal for me. When I did we reviewed the acceptance of the interview. He then wanted to know if I would be interested in submitting short stories to the magazine on a regular basis. I thought it an interesting idea, told him I'd think about it, and get back to him. I did some thinking, wrote some questions for him to answer and made a second call.

Without going into too many details, we agreed on a deal where in exchange for advertising my books, I would submit stories to be serialized over several issues. The topic and the length (within reason) were left up to me. So of course I kept with my main heroine, Mallory Petersen, featured in the novels Beta and Alpha. My deadline was February 27 to be able to make the May issue.

The magazine is published every two months and my interview was in the March 2013 issue. I thought about what type of stories I wanted to write. Martial arts related, certainly, but I wanted a 'theme' similar to my using Greek letters as titles for the novels. So I decided to write stories with the different colored belt ranks as part of the title. Part one of the first story, White Belt Weapons, was published in the May issue. This was to be a three-part story and part two was published in the July issue.

In late July, I submitted the second story, a two-part short entitled Orange Belt Opportunities.

However, when the September issue was published, the third part of the first story was missing. When I called the magazine, the editor mentioned that staff had changed in the last year and records were lost and somebody had decided not to publish part three and I think it became lost. She also had no idea where the second story was.

Disappointed? You bet. In the last few months I had finished the next three stories, Yellow Belt Youth, The Camouflage Caper, and Green Belt Greed. All they need are several rounds of editing.

I sent part three and the second story to the editor and am waiting to hear the fate of my efforts.

When I mentioned the situation to a friend she offered to write the magazine and plea for the continuation of my stories. What a great idea. Here's my proposal to you, my fans, friends, and supporters. Television shows get un-canceled if enough people write the network. So let's start a writing campaign to return Mallory Petersen and her adventures to the pages of Taekwondo Times magazine. If enough people write to request the return of my serialized short stories, maybe the staff will be convinced to give it another go. My last communique with the editor had her saying she was tied up with the November issue. Which means we still have time to make the January issue.

May I have your support? The email doesn't have to be very long, just enough to convey the message. Would you take five minutes out of your day to do this? I offer a low bow of thanks.

The email address for the editor is: Lori Carlson - [e-mail]

Kyle Franklin is the director and his email is – [e-mail]

Again, I thank you in advance.