Looking back on it now, this story was perhaps a bit too influenced by the opening chapter of Italo Calvino’s wonderful If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler, but the editors didn’t seem to mind. In fact, in their editorial note, they wrote:
“We have no idea what genre this one should be classified as, but Scott’s nailed us regardless—a story beyond our genres that just begged to be published. Anyone who has hung around writers, perhaps at conventions or seminars, where invariably are found tribes of hungry wanna-bes interrogating the pros, will be able to appreciate Scott’s sardonic wit.”
This tale told from the point of view of the ideas behind the stories appeared in the Apring 1992 of Figment.