I used to belong to a writer's club--we met once a month and anyone who wanted could share a bit of their current writing and have it critiqued.

Well, one of the members phoned me and said she had a sponsor to provide the funding to start a magazine focusing on southern writing and asked if I could write a short story to be featured in the first issue. Of course I said yes. I was writing for the paper at the time and had some cachet in our writing world.

So I wrote this really good short story and the format of the magazine was laid out with my name on front as the featured writer. There was a catered launch party with hors-d'oeuvre's and a bartender making cocktails etc. People shook my hand--heady stuff. The backer with the funding was there as the hero. His wife wasn't with him--there was a rumor they weren't getting along.

Then unexpectedly the sponsor, the hero, the funder, the backer, died of a heart attack. His wife immediately stopped all money going into the magazine business, and it folded before the first issue got published. Very disappointing. Que sera, sera.
susil