Back in 2006, I had an idea for a short story.

Back in 2006 + 15 minutes, I had an idea for a novel trilogy, and the short story concept was lost for good.

But I didn’t sell that trilogy right then. It went onto a back burner . . . and then, year by year, it got shoved further back until it had basically fallen behind the stove. Every so often I’d peer down at it and contemplate putting in the work to fish it out, but it seemed increasingly not worth it.

Except. There were things about the idea I really really liked, things that still excited me even more than a decade later, and I was reluctant to give up on those entirely. Unfortunately, they were too central to the whole project for me to cannibalize them for some other tale; it was really all or nothing, and “all” didn’t feel like where I was as a writer or where I was going.

. . . then I read some Borges for the first time, and had the bright idea of copying that thing he often does: find some angle that lets you write the Cliff Notes version of a much larger tale.

The result is “Embers Burning in the Night,” free to read online now at Sunday Morning Transport! As indeed are all of their January stories, so you can also check out Nibedita Sen’s “Agni”, a story of religion and control, and Yoon Ha Lee’s “Cuneiform,” a dystopian look at where generative AI and writing could go, along with a story from Benjamin C. Kinney next week. And if you like what SMT’s putting out, do consider subscribing; they are a really high-quality market, but things like that need supporters to thrive. You can sign up for free to receive the one public story each month, or pay monthly or annually to get the whole shebang.