Story: Flight Between the Red and Blue
Published in: Twenty-Two Twenty-Eight [web]
Length: <1,000 words
Brief synopsis:
(most of the time these are shitposts but this is an actual thing [here’s the Etsy page for it])
How the story came to be: Do you know uma musume lol
I have had many “horse girl” phases in my life, so it has happened again (this time, the horses are girls!). I love the characters’ stories and the world building and just how much stuff is tied to our world and the things the real horses did.
But this was still pretty early into this horse girl phase, so I didn’t have a ton of ideas yet, besides “horse lesbians.” In an earlier horse girl phase, I read some stories from the point of view of real horses (American mustangs, specifically). And, I’m in California now, so I’ve seen the effects of wild fires on the horizons. And also I very recently finished writing “The Negative Serpentine,” which is also lesbians, and I had a lot of fun with that voice and 1.5st person narrator.
So! That’s how this happened. I wrote it for a flash contest and got told “Wow! Send this to Plott Hound!” thanks but I can’t that wouldn’t be ethical lol. Also I really liked this concept/setting, so I ended up making 2….similar stories? Same setting, I guess? I made [a zine] and also [an interactive fiction] about a different herd. You don’t need to interact with any of the other things to appreciate one, but, if you want more horsies! Those are there lol
PUBLISHING THE STORY
Relative Confidence Level Before Submitting: 7? 8? I really like this voice/style and I always think the stuff I write in it is Really Really Good but I have no idea if that’s factual or not.
Rejections before finding a home: 22. Which, for flash, isn’t terribly high! It IS xenofiction so that’s always going to be a hard sell.
The eventual home: Twenty-Two Twenty-Eight. This was definitely a “y’know what who cares yolo” sub, but, hey! They liked it. You miss all the shots you don’t take.
