Cicada publishes "The Boys Are Back in Town" (again)

The excellent young-adult literary magazine, Cicada, has just republished my Zelazny-esque urban fantasy story "The Boys are Back in Town" in their Nov / Dec 2013 issue (cover at the right). This is the sixth appearance for this story, which first appeared in...uh...Cicada way back in 2000. I think it was the seventh story I'd ever sold at that point.

And yes, it is unusual for a magazine to reprint a story that they'd originally published. It's never happened to me before.

But it makes sense from the magazine's perspective. First, it saves them money. They pay less for a reprint than for a first rights sale (but they still pay very well for reprints—more than most markets pay for first rights). And since Cicada is aimed at teens, their current readers are not going to be the same group who read the story when it first came out twelve years ago.

And finally, hey, it's a good story. If you're interested, you can read reviews of the story here and check out the ebook version. "The Boys are Back in Town" also appeared in my collection, Chimerascope.