"The Sabbatarian"
(Horror - vampire/vampire hunter)

Issue #5 of Night to Dawn (also the final issue of the magazine in that incarnation) apparently went horribly wrong. There were a number of glitches in the layout that appeared to affect three stories. One had a small section duplicated (it appeared twice in a row). Another had some amount of text missing.

But the hardest hit was my story The Sabbatarian. The whole story was messed up. Huge sections were missing. Several were duplicated. Pages were not in order, the story not flowing from one page to the next properly. The entire story was completely and utterly unreadable. Nobody could make sense out of it. Hell, I wrote the damn thing and even I couldn't figure out what was going on.

This was unfortunate and quite painful for me; I really enjoyed writing this one and, after three vampire tales in N2D, I thought it would make a nice final piece in that short-lived, retiring magazine. The 'zine was changing hands, and I all but begged the existing editor to correct her horrible mistake and rerun the story. She had every excuse in the book, but it all boiled down to basically not being her fault. It was reproduced exactly as I had sent it to her, she said, which was ridiculous; had I sent it to her that way, she wouldn't have accepted it for publication because she wouldn't have been able to read it! She then blamed it on Microsoft Word--yep, blaming Microsoft is always a good fallback. Anyway, she refused to accept any responsibility for it, nor would she talk to those taking over the 'zine about making good on it. And surprise! When I contacted them, their argument was that it wasn't their responsibility!

The whole thing was frustrating and disappointing, and a great example of how all small press 'zines are not created equal. There was nothing unprofessional about the editor of that magazine, and apparently nothing professional about those taking it over. I chalked that one up to experience and remembered not to submit anything there again. My talents are far better spent with 'zines that care.

To confused readers: Although it was quite out of my control, I'm sorry for the mishap.

The story is about a man who is approached by a dying vampire hunter who tries to convince the man he is a naturally powerful vampire hunter with special resistances against, and power over, vampires. The vampire hunter wants the man to help him go after and finally destroy the oldest and most powerful vampire. The man is unsure what to do until that vampire also pays him a visit.

At this time, I'm not reproducing any portion of The Sabbatarian here. I'm hoping I can re-sell this as a reprint... although considering the terrible shape the original printing was in, one can hardly term it a "reprint." The original was so unreadable it hardly seems sensible to consider that it ever was printed at all.
 

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