I’m very pleased to report that my short story “Ghost Puppet” will appear in the Sword & Sorceress XXV.
So this is the fourth time I’ve had a story in Sword & Sorceress. Amazing! I feel most fortunate – no, I am most fortunate. And Caina, spy, assassin, and Ghost of the Emperor, is now the most-published fictional character I’ve ever written.*
But “Ghost Puppet”, let me tell you, took blood, toil, sweat, and tears.
Four stories I wrote for Sword & Sorceress XXV, and three stories I discarded, before I found one that was good enough. The first was in August. I discarded it in disgust almost at once, for after re-reading it, I utterly loathed it. A second attempt in September. Not quite as bad as the first, but not good enough.
I thought on it for a while.
In January I tried again. A little better this time. One new character, Lucan Maraeus, son of the Lord Governor of the Pale, stood out. But the rest of the story…bah. No good. Still not good enough.
But…in March I remembered there was another story I had written, eight or nine years ago. Never published. Not good enough to be published. But there were parts in it that were good. And if I took those parts, combined them with the characters of Caina and Lucan and a few appropriate villains…
Yes. That might work.
But when I wrote “Ghost Puppet”, it came out to 7500 words.
Agh! Far too long. I rewrote it, cut out big sections. Then I rewrote it again. And again a third time. And then the deadline was upon me, so I polished it up and sent it in, and now “Ghost Puppet” will appear in Sword & Sorceress XXV.
-JM
*Sorry, Mazael Cravenlock, and Rosalyn daughter of Ambrose, but you’ve been beaten.
Posted by JM 
