I think every beginning writer writes at least one deal-with-the-devil story; in fact, the difficulty of selling them is a cliche because everybody tries it, and most of them are either lousy, or too much like a classic written decades earlier.

I was no exception. I know I wrote at least two, neither of which sold, back in the 1970s. In a staggering bout of lack of imagination, both of them were entitled "Raising Hell."

Neither of them sold. They didn't deserve to.

But then in 1993 Mike Resnick invited me to contribute a story to an anthology with the straightforward title Deals with the Devil, so I hauled out my old stories and looked them over.

The first "Raising Hell" wasn't worth saving, but the second wasn't as bad, so I rewrote it stem to stern, retitled it "For Value Received," and sent it to Mike. He bought it.

Alas, the anthology, which was a fun little book, appears to be long out of print and pretty much unavailable.

I did include "For Value Received" in my collection, Hazmat & Other Toxic Stories.