Publication Tales: Story in Moving Across the Landscape in Search of an Idea
My most recent short story sale is a unique one. A little while ago, Air and Nothingness Press, a publication I have worked with before, put out an unusual call. Short fiction comprised of a really long title (250+ words) with a short narrative (250-800 words) and rounded out with lengthy marginalia (250-800 words), with the total ending up around 1500 words. Right away, I was drawn in by the challenge of it and wanted to see if I could put together a coherent story under these parameters. With my background in academia, I already knew a thing or two about annoying long titles. I also was familiar with plenty of marginalia studying ancient languages. Oftentimes, the texts are published with more commentary than text. Using this background as a starting point, I knew mine would have to be some sort of textbook/research paper. Pretty straightforward for this assignment, right? I figured I’d do some ancient text discovered by an archaeologist or something. But, that’s when my brain starte...