History That Never Was

Image via Aakash Kumar (https://pixahive.com/photo/rat-in-the-cage/) CC0

“Despite All My Rage” started out as a misheard statement, and then turned into a bit of a dare. I had written a story that I characterized as nothing more than an angry rant, but my friend Torrey misheard it as “an angry rat.” When I clarified, she stuck with the assertion that maybe what the story needed was an angry rat.

So I ran with it.

Jeremy came up with the title for this one, shocked that I hadn’t already thought of it. (In case you don’t understand the reference, it’s part of the lyrics to “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” by Smashing Pumpkins. “Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage.”) It fit the story pretty much perfectly, so I ran with that too.

“Despite All My Rage” originally appeared in A Punk Rock Future, and it’s reprinted in Intercity Illusions, along with other urban fantasy stories, some silly, and some more serious. This one is a little of both; though it stems from a silly premise, it is about people who are downtrodden and overlooked.

And an angry rat who’s not going to take it any more.

Tags: affiliate link, despite all my rage, intercity illusions, urban fantasy

This entry was posted by dawn.vogel on Thursday, November 18th, 2021 at 6:00 am and is filed under Publishing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.