Story Behind the Story: Under a Rock

Like a lot of writers, I have many random notes for story ideas, most of which go nowhere or sit in a notebook for years before they actually become a story. "Under a Rock" started as one of those: I had the idea of an inexplicable gigantic tooth showing up in someone's backyard, and them charging admission to see it, a la "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings." I plucked the idea out of my notebook after seeing an anthology call that had something to do with sharks and dinosaurs; I decided the giant tooth I'd imagined could be a cosmic-sized version of either. After looking into the anthology a bit more, I discovered it was actually a revenge market, something put together to get back at/make fun of some other editor or author. These happen from time to time as manifestations of publishing world drama—the recent Cocktales and The Cocky Cockers anthologies which were reacting to the CockyGate "trademark" fiasco are prime examples. But considering I didn't know or have any stake in whatever this shark-related drama was, I decided to just be grateful for the prompt that helped me get this idea on paper, and submit it elsewhere.

I wrote this story just after I quit my "day job," which I'd been working at the same time I took over management of World Weaver Press, and I was feeling pretty stretched thin and out of touch with the rest of the world. This was one of the first stories I'd written in nearly a year. All of that exhaustion and disconnection got poured into this story, the sense that remarkable things were happening all around me and I couldn't even look up to witness them. I guess "Working Like a Dog" and "Brain Child" have similar themes—I'm just not a writer who deals well with the drudgery we so often need to pay our bills.

The character in this story ends up at home from her overbearing job because she's suffering from a cold. It was a convenient way to take her out of her element, but it was also an idea I'd been wanting to explore for a while. Protagonists are usually healthy and ready to run, or else they're suffering from some sort of severe trauma or disease. So much of my life has been spent in sniffles, or in not-great-but-not-fatal health, so I gave my character a cold to see how she'd face this adventure with a tissue in her hand.

Here's an excerpt of "Under a Rock":

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A giant dinosaur tooth sat smack in the middle of our un-mowed back lawn. Truly giant: a good eight feet tall, and twelve or more from root to tip.

“Who put this here?” I yelled. The strain on my throat brought on a coughing fit.

“What?” Abby yelled back.

I recovered and went back to the living room so I wouldn’t have to yell again. “Who put that thing back there?”

“No one,” she said. “It just showed up.”

“Giant dinosaur teeth don’t just show up in people’s yards.”

She gave me a look like I’d just said the Earth was flat. “Yeah, they do.”

“No, they don’t.”

“Oh,” she said. “Are you one of the shark people?”

“The what?”

“Most people think they’re dinos, but there are some people who insist they’re the right shape for sharks.”

“A bit big for a shark, don’t you think?”

She shrugged. “That’s why more people think they’re dinos.”

“Want to tell me what the hell is going on?” That sent me into another coughing fit. Abby looked curiously at me.

“You really don’t know? Have you been living under a rock?”

Read the rest of the story at Silver Blade Fantasy Magazine: www.silverblade.net/2018/06/under-a-rock/