Here’s something sort of unusual. I don’t normally publish any of my fiction on this blog, since I am still hoping in vain that some editor will finally recognize its value and publish it. But this particular bit of (extremely short) fiction was written for a specific purpose – the New Scientist Flash Fiction Competition 2010 – and cannot really be repurposed, so my choice is between letting the story gather digital dust or publishing it here.
I was rather sad it didn’t get selected, but at least it wasn’t published in the company of some of the mind-bendingly idiotic bullshit that was. (Sorry, there’s something about the perpetuation of imbecilic stereotypes that really pisses me off.)
Anyway, here is my contribution, entitled Letter to the Editor. To put this in context, the topic of the competition was basically alternate history (with an emphasis on science).
