How to Kill the Sun
The little girl looked down at the floor and chewed on the end of one pigtail, her teeth biting down on the ends of her hair until it was dark and wet. She was quiet for a long moment, at last raising her head to look at her teacher. She said, "Ms. Lawrence ... I know how to kill the sun."
Odd as it sounds given the content, this story is based on a real event. I'm not (and, Universe willing, will never be) a kindergarten teacher like the main character, but I did spend part of a day helping out with a childcare class in my high school where, much to my delight and confusion, I had a young boy come up to me out of nowhere and whisper, "I know how to kill the sun!" And then he laughed and ran back to his mother, leaving me staring.
I'll admit it freely: "How to Kill the Sun" is not a particularly good story. If anything, I rather agree with the somewhat harsh review of it that appeared in Black Gate shortly after its publication. It is, however, the very best story I could write when I was 17. For the record: it was purchased when I was 18 and published when I was 19, and I'll be forever grateful to Dave Switzer because of it. Though I'm a stubborn, determined sort, the sale (my first) came at a time when my teenaged self was starting to think that I was foolish to even consider being a writer; the sixty-four previous rejections had taken something of a toll. This publication not only buoyed my confidence, but helped convince me that I had some shred of ability though the two sale-less years that followed.
Published in Issue #10 of Challenging Destiny, August 2000.
