Ding, dong, the story’s dead

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“The Deaths of Christopher Marlowe”

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Okay, so it ended much more quickly than I expected.

I don’t know, at present, whether the story works. All I know is that I’ve written a story with nary a speculative element in it, and I’m not sure what to do with it. I mean, I can only think of one other time I’ve done that, and it was on commission for the Microsoft Intern Game. I guess enough writers read this journal now that I can ask: where does one send such things? (Other than Paradox, the obvious one). Are there any other spec-fic markets that are friendly to non-speculative historical fiction? What about non-speculative markets?

I should, by the way, record my gratitude to Peter Farey, for applying Occam’s Razor to the Le Doux theory and finding under the surface, not a Marlowe/Shakespeare conspiracy, but Anthony Bacon. For someone who had made a fairly scholarly and thorough argument for Marlowe as Le Doux as Shakespeare, it’s impressive to see a follow-up where he sighs and demolishes his own argument to kindling. It saved me from this turning into a Marlovian story, hence the gratitude.

Anyway. It’s written, and it can bloody well sit for a while before I deal with it again.

0 Responses to “Ding, dong, the story’s dead”

  1. mallory_blog

    markets

    Pop on over to Duotrope and let your fingers do the walking ::smiles::
    http://www.duotrope.com/digest/ they have listings for ALL kinds of stories.

  2. cheshyre

    I know of at least one short story on Marlowe’s death that was published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (“Death of a noverint” by William Bankier, 1992).
    Only 3 other short stories on my Marlowe list – Connie Willis’ was in IASFM (authorship-ish), an AU and Bear’s SF “This Tragic Glass”, which probably aren’t terribly relevant. Plus there’s been a poem or two published in more literary magazines.

    Depending how straightforward it is, maybe a YA market would have an opening for historical fiction?

    Anyway, I don’t know much about writer’s markets, but when you want a beta, I’m all eyes.

    • Marie Brennan

      Is that offer to read still open? The story’s still just a first draft, but I want to try and make myself get it out the door.

      More than anything, I’d want fact-checking, to make sure I haven’t tossed in any glaring historical errors.

      • cheshyre

        How long is the story, and what kind of timeframe are you thinking for turnaround?

        • Marie Brennan

          3300 words, and I didn’t have a firm deadline for getting out there, though of course I’d rather do so sooner than later (having sat on it rather uselessly for half a year).

          • cheshyre

            Yes, I would like to look it over.

            My mother’s coming for a visit this weekend; if you can email it to me before about 2pm EST, I’ll try to print it from work before I go, so I can have it along. Otherwise, I may not get to it until she leaves on Wednesday

          • cheshyre

            Oh, duh.
            lis @ osmond-riba.org

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