Description
Boy falls in love. Boy gets dumped. Boy brings back two African gods from Botswana to heal girlfriend’s fickle nature and arthritis . . .
Read it here, Listen to it on Far Fetched Fables
Publication
- Originally published in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, Vol. 1, 2005
- Audio production on Far Fetched Fables #44, 2015
Background
It all started with one sentence.
I was generating ideas, brainstorming, and out popped this line: “Bill had two African gods in a Smucker’s jelly jar in his trunk.”
That was the trunk of his car. And these were, of course, live gods. But what would fit in a Smucker’s jelly jar? How did they get there? What would they do? And what was going to happen with Bill?
I loved the sound of that line, the image, the situation, but one snippet of an idea is not enough to build a story. I toyed around with the idea now and again. And then years later I was listening to O is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton. The voice of one of the characters was exactly what I needed. He was all hick. And as soon as I decided that’s what my character would be, the story began to hum with electricity. Very soon after that, I finished it.
Orson Card published it in the debut issue of Intergalatic Medicine Show.
