Rosy Lenses

The online magazine Breath and Shadow is carrying my story "Through Rose Colored Lenses" in their current Winter 2013 issue.
My friend who is most involved in my writing was surprised. He thought this story was non-fiction, so was a bit surprised by the content.
I wrote the story in 2010, targeting for an anthology about life in the near future. I was disappointed that the editor did not take the story. He was working for a small time publisher I had worked with. I didn’t take the rejection personally, but some factors added to the feeling of rejection. I had read a bit of work by that editor and thought the edge was right, and that the story worked on at least two interpretive themes of the anthology’s proposed title.
A rarity for me, I followed the project. I discovered another minor published story by the editor and read that. It eased me into an appraisal that the editor was what I deem a Harlan Ellison Wannabe; failing that in writing he was turning to editing. When the contents were announced, I felt a little bad for the publisher for having financed a project that was almost exclusively composed of stories by friends of the editors. Only one of the writers in the anthology had been written by someone now personally known by the editor on some level. I wasn’t angry by the circumstances, but they left a sour taste in my mouth. I shelved the story for two years. The publisher has printed at least one other story by me since then.
Things worked out well enough. Breath and Shadow pays more than the anthology, and they were only the second submission of the story.
Those who know me well enough will recognize by many aspects that the narrator of "Through Rose Colored Lenses" is not me. The story was inspired by the things that set my disabling circumstances in motion, but is not really about them. It’s a satire on the pharmaceutical monopoly and its machinations.
The story’s narrator pretty much gave up while I’ve been stubbornly fighting on.
The story can be read at http://www.abilitymaine.org/breath/win13f.html
It’s open online, a free read courtesy of Breath and Shadow.