You know by this time (I hope) that when suggested changes are really for the good of the story, in my opinion as well as in the suggester’s, I will do my utmost to make the changes, or at least effect a satisfactory compromise. Sorry, Gallows is one of those cases where I find that the suggested changes would destroy the tale, and prefer not to see it published at all rather than published in a weakened, tritened, debilitated version that does not reflect its author’s vision.
* * * *
Considerably more than five years have gone by, and, while somewhat amused by the vehemence of my younger (unmarried and virginal) self in these matters, I find that I still feel the same way about the quality of this novel as it stands, and the inadvisability of tampering with it at any great length.
—Phyllis Ann Karr
Barnes, Wisconsin
First Day of Spring, 2001