Circumstance of Victims

The folks at Danse Macabre are most accommodating. I’m pleased to announce the appearance of my latest short story, “Circumstance of Victims,” In Danse Macabre 72, Oubliette.

This is an experimental piece, but, if read with patience, it makes sense. It is also, like most fiction, somewhat autobiographical. If you would like to learn what that means, I would encourage you to read my story. Those who hold power over employees don’t realize just how awful that responsibility is.

I’ve been alive long enough, and with a personality strong enough, to have lost a job or two. It is never shy of anything but devastating. The first novel I attempted (unsuccessfully) to publish was about just this. I suspect the editors who threw it on the slush-pile had never experienced it.

I sent the manuscript to my friend Sluggo to read. S/he said that it was pretty long, but the parts about what it feels like to lose a job were spot on. Authentic. Compelling. Sluggo had been there too.

It’s not that writers can’t make things up out of whole cloth. I’ve written stories with no basis in any reality in this universe. Nevertheless, if we don’t show a part of ourselves, the lack of authenticity will show through. I try not to be too shy.

Being unemployed is all about being naked. Your pain is so obvious that anyone can see it. Anyone, that is, who is willing to take the trouble to look. And if it fucks you up in the head, well, nobody who’s been there should be surprised.

So as I cast my seed out there in the internet, hoping that someone may someday notice, I am pleased to find the fertile pages of Danse Macabre. It is nice to know that all the work these weary fingers do sometimes stands a chance of being noticed.

It should be clear that we are all circumstances of our own victims. They know I am.

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K. Marvin Bruce

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