New story in Schlock

The title gets it wrong a little. I got a story published, but it’s actually not that new. Though it hasn’t been published before, it’s actually a story I wrote back in 2018, I think. I really like it, and despite some positive comments from various markets I’ve sent it to, I’ve had some trouble placing it (a couple of editors have said they love it, but it’s not the kind of thing their readers go for!).

Back in 2018 I was doing mostly very short stories, so this one clocks in ever so slightly over 1000 words. It’s called ‘Megafauna’.

There are a couple of points that make this story stand out in my memory:

1. It’s pretty much the only thing I’ve written in a comedic style. While I’m an admittedly daft person, I’m seldom drawn to read nor write funny stuff. To be honest, I don’t think I could write comedy no matter how hard I tried. I kid you not!
2. It was first written very differently to how it stands now, with a big cast-back into past perfect tense to explain the backstory… but then I learned that this is dreadful style so scrapped the whole first half of the story and worked in the salient information here and there as the story progressed. As such, it marks quite a big leap in my learning how to write.

Here’s the link to my story, Megafauna, at Schlock webzine (volume 16, issue 15, April 2021). Hope you enjoy.