Some years ago I told the story on this blog about the time I wrote a series of columns for the New York Times, and received as payment not money but—wait for it—pie.

No, I’m not kidding.

I’m not talking about pie in some metaphorical sense, if that were even possible. Nor am I referring to the mathematical pi.

I’m talking baked goods. A delicious pastry crust packed with fruit or a custard fashioned of otherwise savory gourds, or what-have-you.

A literal fucking pie.

I revisited that story for the SleuthSayers mystery blog last Friday. Since most of the readers and contributors of that blog are short story writers, I thought they’d get a kick out of the story. And they did, judging from the comments. Folks weighed in on other bizarre payments they’ve received over the years for their work, such as T-shirts, sweatshirts, restaurant coupons, free copies of the publication they’d written for, and so on.

By far, the weirdest was the writer who shared that he’d once received a can of air freshener as payment. Why? Because the anthology he’d written for had a murder-in-a-bathroom theme. Air freshener, bathroom…get it? It would almost be funny if it weren’t so pathetic.

I’m older now, so these types of stories tend to enrage me more than they did when I was younger and desperate to break into publishing. Speaking to that rage, I also shared a video of the late great SFF author Harlan Ellison talking about why the world thinks writers should write for free, and why it pisses him off.

I think this retelling of the pie story is deeper, richer, fuller, better than the one I shared here back in 2012. I know it has funnier photos, starring yours truly. I’ve been trying to mention these posts the day they appear, but I had a, uh, complicated week last week, so I didn’t have chance to mention it until today.

Please go check out the article, which is entitled:

Eating My Words!

That said, we have a busy week coming up. My wife, Denise Kiernan, will be on tour promoting her latest book about Thanksgiving. (This one is what most people would call a chapter book for young readers.) I’ll share some details about that tomorrow, but you can check out her tour schedule in the meantime. She’ll be doing events in Charleston. SC; Winston-Salem, NC; Knoxville, Tennessee; and the always charming village of Southern Pines, NC.

All images (except the book cover and SleuthSayers logo) by me.