New Short Story: Misunderstood at 365 Tomorrows

I have a new short story that has been published! It’s called “Misunderstood,” and you can read it at 365 Tomorrows. There is also a forum discussion of the story, for those who want to chime in.

“Misunderstood” is the shortest story I’ve ever written. Including the title, it’s only 483 words long. Yet the story also spans an epic time frame–over 4000 years.

Once you’ve read the story (go, read!) here are my author notes:

Scene I. Early in 2015 I did a fair bit of reading on Ancient Egypt, because I visited there in March. Pyramids, temples, tombs–Egypt has it all. If you do ever make it to Giza to see the pyramids, make sure you go to the Khufu ship museum. It’s amazing that you can see a boat that’s over 4500 years old. And it’s huge.

Scene II. In researching for another short story, which, a year later, I am still writing, I read 3 or 4 nonfiction books about Vikings. Vikings are pretty awesome, and Hollywood gets a lot wrong about them. Some of my ancestors may be Vikings. And so they snuck into the story.

Scene III. This is the scene that inspired the story. And it’s actually nonfiction. I went to Albertson’s one evening and saw this exact thing happen. Sure, the guy probably wasn’t named Louis. And while I don’t know what he was actually thinking, his facial expressions made it pretty clear. I just had to figure out what story he was part of–and I gravitated to speculative fiction. But maybe I’m right, and he really was a timesoul.

Scene IV. Not much to say about this scene. I just knew this was the ending, and I hope you enjoyed it.