A little context for this one…
Still a young ‘un (probably 13 or 14), I sent off my second-ever short story to TSR’s Amazing Stories magazine. The story was your basic haunted house tale. I think I tried to put some kind of twist in there, but I’m probably wrong. I was 13 (or 14)! What did I know about twists?
Anyway, the story begins with a description of the façade of the house, which is — of course — ramshackle and decrepit. Except for the front door. For some reason, I thought it enhanced the mystery and general weirdness of the house if the front door was in perfect shape. Brand-new. Everything else was falling down, but that front door was pristine. And so, in my description, I wrote of this tumbling-down house and included the line, “The fact that the front door was still intact was amazing,” trying to get across the sheer improbability of it, given the state of the rest of the house.
Click for a bigger version to read the editor’s reaction. Ouch. I’m sure he didn’t know he was putting a knife through a thirteen-year-old’s heart.
