Excited to share with you today that my short story, The Tale of the Necrobotanist, is now available to read at Grim and Gilded as a part of their 18th digital issue. You can access it on their website, here.
This was such an important and fun (though sometimes challenging) story for me to write, and I learned so much!
I initially wrote the story for a contest prompt. I believe the prompt was something dark and weird. Dark and weird, I thought, that’s right up my alley. I wrote the story and submitted it, and shocker, I didn’t win. I did, however, get some editor’s notes.
When revising and editing the piece, I decided to seek out some more advice, particularly from my writing partner who is non-binary. You see, the piece is written from the perspective of someone who uses they-them pronouns. In my initial draft, I had not named the character, calling them “The Adventurer”. As a result, the ambiguous pronouns ended up being just that — ambiguous. I wasn’t using they/them pronouns just to conceal the identity of the protagonist, or just to make them a neutral canvas on which to project the reader. It wasn’t a metaphor either. The feedback I received was to flesh out and create a full character, one that feels whole, more than just their pronouns.
This was such good advice, and it really made me question and figure out why I had chosen to write a non-binary character. Of which there were multiple reasons!
There are long, winding trails through the dark forest. Undergrowth cut back, trees removed, dangers abated. This is not one of those trails.
As a person who came to queerness later in life, I wanted to write a story about how that felt. The potential for loneliness, for being ostracized, for being misunderstood. I wanted to write a non-binary character into a period setting, billed as an “adventurer” because, hello! Queer folks have always been here! What does that look like in this setting?
When I was writing, it was a cathartic piece on many levels. Both about queerness, and about the immense solitude and loneliness I was feeling at the time as I underwent a divorce during a global pandemic.
I hope some of that comes through! As I’ve been shopping the work around to various anthologies over the last couple years, it underwent extensive edits to hopefully make those feelings more clear. In the end, it’s about the human experience. And I hope that it creates opportunities for deeper understanding in those that read it. At this time in our world, we are seeing horrific treatment of our trans and non-binary family. I hope that this work feels like a small contribution to the message of love and inclusion and understanding that we so need.
Kait Petry 