"The Butcher's Heart"
Hi y’all,
Happy November! Are we happy? I would describe myself more as “nearly sick with anxiety” than happy for what are probably obvious reasons. I won’t get into that more than to say that I hope you have all voted or will vote today – I mailed my ballot in from Spain a month ago.
Anyway, if you’re looking for a distraction, “The Butcher’s Heart” is out today in Strange Horizons! I believe there will even be a podcast of it at some point! I’m thrilled that this story found a home in Strange Horizons, where I volunteered as a first reader in college and where I learned to lean into the weird. (I had one other story with them in 2022 – “Objects of Value,” a personal favorite.)
“The Butcher’s Heart” is a story that is hard to describe. I will say that if you don’t like blood, maybe skip this one. The main character is, well, a butcher. And that comes up.
Here are some fun facts that may shed some light on this story:
1. I wrote the last 2/3 of the first draft of this story in the summer of 2022 with “Cruel Summer” by Taylor Swift on loop for about 5 hours. Shocker of shockers, “Cruel Summer” was my top song on Spotify Wrapped for that year.
2. The ending of this story sparked a fierce debate among some friends over what counts as “romantic.”
3. I wrote this story because my friend Fae saw my butcher paper outline of a novel (never written, let’s not get into it) pinned to my wall and challenged me to write a short story/cute gay rom com based on the words “Butcher,” “Pinning,” “Flesh,” and “Internal.”
It’s up to you to decide whether I succeeded in that challenge.
News
I had a story come out in Julia Rios’s wonderful Worlds of Possibility last month! There will hopefully be a full newsletter dedicated to that story, “Fix It, Remember It, Undo It,” once it’s free to read online, but I highly recommend subscribing for early access.
Short Story Log
“Linden Honey, Blackcurrant Wine” by M.R. Robinson in Beneath Ceaseless Skies is exactly my kind of story. There’s longing and regret and dancing with a beautiful inhuman girl in the forest – what more could you want?
I really liked “Homer and the Mosquito” by Cindy Withjack in Banshee. I’m trying to read more lit fic these days (with decent success! Yes, I do have thoughts on Intermezzo), and I enjoyed the way this story played with narrative and let the writing within the story converge with the story.
Love,
AnaMaria