2025 fantasy-romance epistolary short story. The Wild Witch of the
Withering Woods writes to the Wicked Wizard of the Westering Waste in
order to get back the package that's been delivered to him in error.
The epistolary form is tricky for a modern writer: while it was
quite usual in earlier centuries, most writing now focuses on
portraying the characters and their actions, and here we are not only
restricted to what they say but to what they say to a specific other
person to whom they have no intention of showing weakness. Of course,
it's the progress of that feeling on both sides that makes the core of
this story. I've found Burgis a solid writer at everything from short
story to novel length, but I get the impression that something like
this which doesn't need the world-scaffolding that would be required
to grow any larger may be the form in which she's able to be most
actively creative.
The first five letters are
available
at The Sunday Morning Transport where the story was originally
published, though you'll have to give details for their free trial if
you want to read more there. I would expect this to be in a future
anthology of Burgis' short stories.
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