More than one person has told me that I "must" write a book with triathlon in it, since I know it so well and because it is so interesting. For some reason, I have never had even the slightest twinge of an urge to do this. The closest thing is the beginning of a manuscript about a swimmer, maybe because I was a swimmer in high school and triathlon is entirely part of my adult life. Also, as a teenager I was so convinced I was not athletic that there is still a part of me that feels like my success in triathlon is a dream.

But then I read a very interesting letter to the editor in Runner's World Magazine. It was from a woman whose husband had been in a bad car accident. His leg had been crushed and they had saved it, but he couldn't run on it anymore. He'd tried and tried and it just had been damaged beyond that use. So, after reading an article on Oscar Pistorius and his success running with prosthetics (he sued to be allowed to go to the Olympics, and won!), the man decided to have his leg amputated. His wife was so happy, I guess because he wouldn't be in pain anymore.

There had to be a story in there somewhere, I thought. There had been this article on how unfair it was for Pistorius to be in the Olympics, supposedly because prosthetics were so much more "efficient" than real legs. (To which I say, uh--so why is it that no one with prosthetics has ever actually competed in the Olympics?) Then Runner's World sort of apologized and explained that one thing the article on efficiency had left out was the whole issue of pain, and how much pain management an athlete had to have to run on prosthetics.

What if there was no pain? What if in the future prosthetics are what people want? What if people voluntarily get their legs amputated so they can be faster and better athletes? Thus began a short story about the doctor who is asked to amputate a perfectly healthy leg on a boy who just wants to compete with the other kids with prosthetics. And what does he do with the leg afterward?

I found out yesterday that I sold my first profession short story, "Pi," about a mathematician who gets his power from reciting digits of pi, and from perfect circles he makes. This was a great experience for me because I have believed for so long that I was only a novel writer, after literally a hundred rejection letters for short stories I wrote in the early years of my career.

But this story, I just sat down and let it flow out. I didn't have a plan for it. It just sort of created itself out of my head. I'm not saying I didn't do revision. I did. I revised it myself over a few days, then sent it off and the editor sent back some revision thoughts, and I looked at it again and fixed it the way I wanted it to be fixed, then sent it back. The necessary revision wasn't a simple, do this kind of thing. It was rather subtle, but somehow I figured it out and got it sold.

I feel much more confident about myself as a professional and as a storyteller. There is something great about the speed of response in short story sales that I like. I mean, a novel is a huge project and a wonderful thing and there is nothing quite like seeing a hardcover with a beautiful picture on the front and your name on it. But what short story lacks in flash, it makes up in automatic feedback. You can tell immediately if what you're doing is working--or not.

I recommend it highly to authors who need a break from novel writing, and who want to stretch themselves with a new form. Also, readers, look at short stories. Sometimes you get the same emotional hit from a short story as from a novel, and the same sense of wonder and world building, too. I've been enjoying reading short stories more lately, and I regret that I neglected them for so long. The market is struggling, so go buy an anthology or a magazine today!

By the way, I sold this to Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, an online zine and it should be out in Fall or Winter of this year.