State Secrets

  • Title: State Secrets
  • Genre: Science Fiction
  • Length: 2838
  • Written: October, 2005
  • Published: Beyond Centauri, July, 2007


    • Excerpt:
    There is a door in the science building that I've never seen open. Rumor has it that the government pays one of the professors to run experiments in there--a sort of state-supported mad scientist program. I had some guesses on who the mad scientist might be. (Dr. Randel in chemistry was a strange fellow, and Dr. Price in biology was just plain creepy -- the perfect image of a mad scientist.) The rumors also said that anyone going in that door never came out.



    Discussion
    This story was originally written to compete for a slot in the John Scalzi edited issue of Subterranean Magazine. The premise of the issue was "big honkin' science fiction cliche." Obviously from the excerpt, I chose the mad scientist.

    When the story was rejected by Scalzi, I thought it might never be published--being cliche and all, but it seemed to be a good fit for the children's magazine Beyond Centauri, and Tyree Campbell bought the story.



    (c) 2005-2007 by Rick Novy

    Last update: 24 March 2007