Behind the Curtain

Swords and Sorcery just published “Behind the Curtain.”
Most of my stories are ethical/political musings, but this one’s just a romp or bagatelle, sort of a Ruritanian intrigue, if Ruritania had a hint of magic and if Ruritania’s women were something more than merely decorative. In it Dame Asra Thorne, the best…all right, one of the three best… actors in the Kingdom describes the challenges of putting on a play while being closely watched by agents on opposite sides of a brewing civil war, to both of whom she has promised alterations to the script which will rouse the audience to their side.

I wrote this story years ago, and submitted it weeks ago, and it feels rather strange to be publishing fluff in the midst of a crisis.  But I’ve been enjoying a certain amount of escapist reading as well as some other reading that helps me come to grips with the crisis.  And I did have fun writing, and still have fun revisiting, Dame Asra, who is possessed of considerably more savoir-faire and somewhat less deadly earnest ethical angst than her creator.