A short story of mine called "Trial by Ordeal" was published yesterday as a #StorySunday piece on Litro US Online. You can read it here.
This story began life as, of all things, a writing exercise. One of the exercises in Ursula Le Guin's excellent Steering the Craft is to write a scene in which the "viewpoint character (real or invented) is to be somebody you dislike, or disapprove of, or hate, or feel to be extremely different from yourself" and, while doing so, to "suspend your judgement on this person."
This is what I tried to do in "Trial by Ordeal," hard though it was to suspend judgement on and remain fair to a character whose views I cannot respect. I don't know if I have indeed been fair, but if you're in the mood to read it, you can see for yourself.
I never used to do the exercises in how-to-write books. I'd read with interest all the author had to say, but when I came to the end of a chapter or section and saw the exercises, I'd do a mental pfft and turn the page.
When I taught English as a second language, students sometimes asked what I thought they ought to study: grammar, vocabulary, fluency, listening comprehension, etc. I would respond, "Of all those things, which do you hate studying most?" However they answered, I would say, "That's what you need to study."
It was in this spirit that, as I worked through Le Guin's book, I decided to take my own medicine and do what I least wanted to: the exercises. I'm glad I did. At least three of my attempts at Le Guin's exercises turned into stories that either have been published or are forthcoming.
One more thing I owe Ursula.