I’ve had a themed anthology deadline creeping up on me with the grim inevitability of Christmas for a while now. After all the anthology stories I’ve written this year, this one, with a simple, one-word theme, should not have given me this much trouble.
Two false starts, time running out, and I was getting ready to throw in the towel and accept that it just wasn’t going to happen.
Now, I tell that story so I can tell this one. Timid Pirate is doing a Biopunk anthology in April 2011. I encourage you all to check out the submission guidelines and send something in, because it’s shaping up to be a great book. I won’t be editing it, nor even submitting to it. I’m just fulfilling the role of the publisher on this title and letting the very capable Caroline Dombrowski take the reins. And a big part of why I’m not submitting is that I don’t really have any ideas for Biopunk. It’s just not the kind of thing I write.
Imagine my surprise when I found myself at the Wayward Coffeehouse this evening with the intent of doing some writing “just for me,” when a story comes out of nowhere and knee-caps me. I dig in and get writing. A few hours later, I’ve turned out about 2,300 words of a first draft that is not only biopunk, but also fits the theme of the other anthology which had been giving me trouble. All I need to do is knock around the ending a bit, sort of tie it off and brush it off before sending out to a beta-reader.
Then on my way home, at the bus stop right out front my apartment building, I find a giant mushroom growing in the grass. And I mean GIANT. This sumbitch must have been about 8″ across, sort of a flat head, dusty red, speckled on top. It was a beautiful, perfect sight. And since I’ve been associating mushrooms with biopunk lately, I took it as a sign.
It’s going to be a good year. 🙂
Tales from the Ragged Edge 