Eva, Jack Chalker’s widow, told me of an anthology of Well World stories, and suggested I write one.
To my dismay, most of my Well World books are missing, but I started rereading one, and found a character that I wanted to work with.
Turned out the anthologist wanted something different, and had a full book, but is planning another anthology, and the story I told him about is one he’d like to see.
Meanwhile, I finished it last night (assuming you call 01:10 “last night”), about 3100 words in a day, a complete short.
Not only do I think it’s a good story… now I’m thinking it was a good thing to write outside of my universe, or other worlds. I have an unusual fantasy that’s been bouncing. Unusual, in that it’s set in Kursk in 1200, and involves Jotun, and Asgardians, and you will not see the climax coming…. This morning, I had some thoughts, and just changed the whole beginning, and I think it’s better.
One criticism I got on a rejection was that the reader couldn’t tell whether they should side with the Jotun or the half-Jotun in the prolog (about a page or so long). Um, er, they’re both monsters, and they’re killing/torturing a human. You’re not supposed to like *either*.
Anyway, the rewrite I just did makes it mostly from the bound, human’s view, and adding in his dying curse works very nicely.
Now, to find someone who’ll either let me resubmit, or who I haven’t submitted to yet….