Story Acceptance!
The holiday weekend is off to a great start! Last night I found out that Visitant accepted “In All Her Volumes Vast.” At approximately 450 words, the story is both the shortest I’ve ever published and the shortest I’ve ever written. Regardless, the plot moved me many times during the writing process. Finding an incomplete draft in my ‘ideas’ folder over the winter holidays, I knew I had to finish it. And today, I’m trilled that everyone will have the chance to read it in just a few short months.
Finally, thanks to Lord Byron, who inspired the story and provided its title:
“There is the moral of all human tales;”
“Tis but the same rehearsal of the past,
First Freedom, and then Glory — when that fails,
Wealth, vice, corruption, — barbarism at last.
And History, with all her volumes vast,
Hath but one page, — ’tis better written here,
Where gorgeous Tyranny hath thus amass’d
All treasures, all delights, that eye or ear,
Heart, soul could seek, tongue ask — Away with words! draw near,
Admire, exult, despise, laugh, weep, — for here
There is such matter for all feeling: — Man!
Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear,
Ages and realms are crowded in this span,
This mountain, whose obliterated plan
The pyramid of empires pinnacled,
Of Glory’s gewgaws shining in the van
Till the sun’s rays with added flame were fill’d!
Where are its golden roofs? where those who dared to build?”