This is probably not the best time to announce this, considering half the internet is riveted on the Hugo Awards announcements (I’ll probably post about that tomorrow or the day after), but I have a new story out.
Like the two crime shorts collected in Spiked Tea, this story is another which originated with the July Short Story Challenge proposed by Dean Wesley Smith. The goal was to write one short story per day in July. I played along and actually managed to complete the challenge (I’ll blog some more about that soon).
Hangman’s Wages is one of the stories to come out of that challenge and the only historical romance among the lot coincidentally. Most stories were one of the many flavours of speculative fiction, a handful were crime shorts.
Hangman’s Wages
Germany in the Middles Ages: Ulrich, executioner to Count Dietmar of Finsterwalde, finds his workload unexpectedly doubled, when Count Dietmar orders him to hang Anna, a young thief caught picking pockets during the public execution of a notorious bandit.
Ulrich feels sorry for Anna, but orders are orders. And so he leads the terrified Anna to the hanging tree, determined to make sure that she suffers as little as possible. But as he places the noose around Anna’s neck, Ulrich finds that she touches his heart like no one before her.
But how can he save Anna, when the merciless Count Dietmar has already ordained her death?
More information.
Length: 3300 words
List price: 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP
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