“Your Body, My Prison, My Forge”

Lungs. Stomach. Bones. Heart. I will use every piece of you I can in order to craft what I require.

Every so often my brain stops and takes a look at something it’s known for a long time, and sees it in a whole new light.

In this case, it’s the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus. The precursor to that is Zeus swallowing her mother, Metis — and then later Athena emerges fully armed and armored. Clearly, my brain said, that means Metis was forging those items inside Zeus.

I mean, not really. You aren’t generally supposed to think about mythology in such practical terms. But when you do, sometimes you wind up with a story.

A rather weird story that comes closer to body horror than I normally go, though not all that close in the grand scheme of things. Let’s just say that Zeus doesn’t enjoy the process. But the editors at On Spec did enjoy it, and so I am delighted to say that, after an absence of thirteen years, I will be returning to their pages! The story should be out in late 2023 or early 2024; more details when I have ’em.