Story Behind the Story – Subsume (plus some other news!)

It’s been a hot minute since a new piece of original fiction came out, huh! Not counting the zine, since that was self-published.

Anyways, there’s three additional bits of news to go along with the announcement of this new publication:

1. The Application of Lycanthropy as a Novel Treatment for Gender Dysphoria will be out later this month on the The Voice of Dog podcast and later in the Dudes Rock! anthology. You can probably guess what it’s about.
2. Carcinographic Classifieds will be out in Androids and Dragons this fall! It’s mostly about dragons, but there’s also some crabs.
3. I have a third piece to come out in another place at another time! I’ll officially announce it once the contract is squared away, but take my word on it.
4. Also! Did you know I have a telegram channel? Yes, like all the other furries. Technically, I am advertising my own stuff, but mostly it’s where I save inspiration and references. So if you like birds, dragons, history, and other cool stuff, you can check it out [here].

Anyways! Onto the post!

Story: Subsume
Published in: Inner Worlds [free]
Length: 500 words
Brief synopsis: You and i have a brief chat about current anxieties.
How the story came to be: Well, you know what they say! “Write what you know,” so I did!

PUBLISHING THE STORY

Relative Confidence Level Before Submitting: Like a 2 or 3? lol Originally it was just 429 words, which is the shortest thing I ever finished (and considered “whole”/finished). But even then, I wasn’t totally sure if it was finished. I was still really new to flash fics when I wrote it, so I didn’t know if there was enough stuff for it to be “good.” Also: I do some weird things with pronouns and punctuation in it (see: the synopsis). Very short, very weird, I doubted anyone would ever actually want it.

Rejections before finding a home: Oh boy, I know it’s a lot. Lemme boot up Excel to check. 38! That is not even the most, but it is a lot.

The eventual home: Inner Worlds is a zine about the “inner lives” of folx with neurodivergences, mental health things, and etc. Which fits this story very well! Like I said, it used to be <500 words, but Inner Worlds’ min is 500, so I had to bump it up. It worked out! Which is neat.

I’ll see all y’alls again later this month with the werewolf piece!