Summary
I'm a level 56 human! Have a party favor.
The last year involved a lot of leveling up. Last year, the word that I chose to aim for during my 55th year was “stability.” It stood me in good stead, even through an unexpected move to Denver (surprise!) and family health stuff, I was able to find pockets of calm and focus on finding was to make the craft stable. Which meant that last year, I finished a new novel and wrote more short fiction than I have since the Before Times. In fact, I had five short stories come out last year.
It felt really good to play in that form again. So, for your party favor this year, I want to direct your attention to Rude Litterbox Space. (free at Sunday Morning Transport)
- Marginalia – Uncanny January/February 2024
- Rude Litterbox Space – Sunday Morning Transport March 3, 2024
- In the Moon’s House – Reactor July 17, 2024
- Infinite Branches – Sunday Morning Transport Nov 24, 2024
- Deep Space Has the Beat – Asimov’s Nov/Dec 2024
What I have for your party favor is the origin story and my thinking document.
Here’s where the story came from. Fran Wilde and I were having one of those conversations at the WorldCon bar in Chicago where you have to shout the entire thing to be heard. She asked me if I would do a story for Sunday Morning Transport and I was like, sure, but I write all of the map, what do you want?
“Whatever makes you happy?”
“So… talking cats, the Regency, and outer space?”
“Perfect!”
I laughed and then later when I was teaching my Short Story Intensive, I decided to use that as my demo. If you are curious, you can see my thought process to get to the story. It’s a worksheet!
I later distilled that to:
Elsie and her valet are on a cruise ship. She realizes that the approach to the jump site is all wrong. She has to go to the bridge to correct this. Problem. She is a cat and people forget that she can do higher math than they can because of the way her brain is wired. She puts on her Regency collar and they take her board to the bridge. But en route, the forces on the ship cause a structural failure. She’s able to get through but her valet and board cannot. She arrives without words to explain the problem so has to just do the correction herself. They try to chase her off the controls, but she manages to evade them and correct the course. The navigation system accepts it and the structural strain on the ship stops. They successfully jump and then her valet finally makes it to the bridge. Elsie tells them that it was a litterbox approach and they can thank her later. With kibble.
And then I organized it so that I was thinking about the movement and frame of the story. Like, what are they actually doing on the cruise ship? How does she realize the problem?
Elsie and her valet are in her cabin on a cruise ship playing laser tag. The laser behaves weirdly. She goes to their porthole and sees the jumpsite, realizing that the approach to the jump site is all wrong. She has to go to the bridge to correct this. Problem. She is a cat and people forget that she can do higher math than they can because of the way her brain is wired. She puts on her Regency collar and they take her board to the bridge.
But en route, the forces on the ship cause a structural failure. She’s able to get through but her valet and board cannot.
She arrives without words to explain the problem — and they are all in emergency mode without an understanding of what to do — so has to just do the correction herself. They try to chase her off the controls, but she manages to evade them and correct the course. The navigation system accepts it and the structural strain on the ship stops. They successfully jump and then her valet finally makes it to the bridge. Elsie tells them that it was a litterbox approach and they can thank her later. With kibble.
The rest of the story, I discovered as I wrote and I’ll note that the actual ending isn’t included.
Your final party favor, is a clean copy of my short story worksheet.
And if you are wondering about my word for level 56? Satisfaction.
