Succumbing to Gravity- the short story

I thought it might be interesting to those of you new to writing, or who enjoy reading, to have some insight into how a story comes about. The second story I sold, after OB, was Succumbing to Gravity (STG). It had been sitting with an anthology called holy horrors for some time before it was released (and then HH was actually was never published).

I queried Nossa Morte. which was at the time new (and I thought a bit vulnerable to a new author like me). They liked it, but requested a rewrite. I liked their suggestions, made the adjustments and viola, STG made it into the Feb 2008 issue (http://nossamorte.com/magazine/2010/01/february-2008-issue/) . Melissa et al were a joy to work with and I am glad to see the magazine continues to put out great stories.

So, the inspiration for STG? Well I had read 'The Year of War' by Steph Swainston (ISBN 0060753870- I recommend it, except for chapter 22, what was that?). In it the main character, Jant, is a winged drug addict. I thought how very much like a tragic sort of fallen angel he was. And that idea went to work somewhere in the back of my brain...maybe anterior thalamic nuclei.. I'm not sure, but there was nuclei fermentation. Then I was doing some light reading through the Apocryphal book of Enoch and thought those poor angels, what would it be like to live in the grace of God and then be cast out?

Could you help but despair?

Could you find solace...in drugs?

And that's how Greg was born. A fallen angel, walking the earth, avoiding responsibilities of any kind and trying to find solace in drugs. More to come on this one as I liked Greg so much I spent a year writing the rest of his story. Nihilism, drug addiction, demon combat and redemption (of a sort), STG is now a novel-length tale that recently sold to Reliquary Press and should be available summer of 2010.

But the story of that story is a different story. One to be saved for later.