My short story One Hand Washes the Other is now out at Abyss and Apex , an online fantasy magazine.
I started it two or three years ago with something quite close to the opening scene of the finished story: A teenager bargains with a wizard to save his best friend (whom he’s in love with—not reciprocated) from dying of cancer. The deal they settle on is for him to perform one favor for the wizard, whatever she asks (with a few limits like no murders).
This then lay fallow until I decided I was ready to give it a shot. The rambling adventure that resulted from Tranh trying to carry out the witch’s favor is surprisingly close to the finished tale in tone and in plot, though it took multiple drafts to refine the details of the quest.
What did change was the protagonist: I decided it would have more punch to turn Tranh into a 35 year old (he was also no longer Vietnamese), someone who’d carefully mapped out his life plan only to lose the woman who was supposed to be a part of it. Worse still, Ryan couldn’t seem to let go and move on (I drew a lot on personal experience from a few years earlier for that bit).
That worked much better for me. Then my good friend Dori pointed out Ryan was being so noble in all this, there was never any doubt what would happen when the time came for a moment of decision. I rewrote him to be much more selfish, and apparently it worked: The last magazine I submitted to told me he was far too unpleasant a lead for them to accept the story.
I’m very pleased with the finished product, and I found myself quite fond of the leads; it may be there’s at least one more adventure in store for Ryan and Clothilde. We’ll see.

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