Sometimes I'll get a sentence stuck in my head, and the only way to get it out is to write a story around it.
That's what happened when I wrote "Stab," and it's what happened when I wrote "The Note Beside the Body." I was just starting home from buying a batch of comic books at a now-defunct shop called Collectors World when I got the sentence "If you let me in I'll kill you" running through my head, over and over.
I recognized the phenomenon, and knew I had to write the story, so I started composing it before I even got out of the parking lot. By the time I got home I had most of it in my head, and I went straight to the computer and started writing. Two hours later it was done and ready to submit.
It took me awhile to find a market; it's not the sort of story that goes over well with the mainstream SF/fantasy mags, and there weren't any appropriate anthologies open at the time.
But then I ran into Angela Kessler at the World Science Fiction Convention, and it occurred to me that Dreams of Decadence was the perfect place for it. So I sent it to her, and she bought it.
And then she and Warren bought it again for The Best of Dreams of Decadence.
And here we are.
If you'd like to read the actual story, I've now put it online as part of my Misenchanted Tales project.
Or you can purchase In the Blood
I can also point you to my Horror Bibliography, which might be of interest.
Here's where "The Note Beside the Body" has appeared:
- Dreams of Decadence #11, Summer 2000
- The Best of Dreams of Decadence, edited by Angela Kessler, Roc, March 2003
- In the Blood, Misenchanted Press, August 2011
That's it; here's your list of handy exits:
The Misenchanted Page
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