“The Buried Heart”

Ichtaca ran through the forest as silently as she could, mouth hanging wide to quiet her panting breath, but she heard nothing.

I’ve had the concept for this story in mind for ages: something in the same setting as “A Mask of Flesh” and “Chrysalis”, riffing off the fascinating detail that Mayan temples were ritually “decommissioned” when they were abandoned, because they were seen as conduits to the realms of the spirit. (Naturally, Writer Brain immediately says, “What if you . . . failed to do that?”) For whatever reason, though, it didn’t start to cohere into an actual story until years later — probably over a decade — and even then, I got about a thousand words in and paused.

In a display of serendipitous timing, however, not long after that I was solicited to write a story for the Labyrinth anthology, a stretch goal for a very successful Kickstarter. That unfinished piece fit the brief for what they wanted, so I had the kick in the pants I needed to push it through to completion! I will update here when the anthology is out.