I wrote “Duet for a Soloist” as part of a series of short stories set in the same fantasy world, a world where everyone has a magical bond with an instrument they call their Harmony, and they use their Harmonies to create Resonance, which gives strength to the Phoenix who carries the world. “Duet for a Soloist” is the fourth of these stories to be.
I wrote my first story set in this world, “Dissonance,” more than ten years ago for a creative writing class in college. In 2016, “Dissonance” was published by Abyss and Apex. By that time, I written a second story, “Harmonies for Cadence,” which was published by the Voyage YA Journal in 2021, and I was working on an epic poem about the mythology of the world, “A World in Seven Flames,” which appeared in the 2020 anthology Twilight Worlds, the Best of New Myths Volume II.
I’ve always loved the concept of interconnected standalone novels set in the same world, along with the idea of writing short stories in the same world as longer works. Back in college, and to this day, I approach many of my writing projects with this in mind. But when I wrote this first story, and even the second story, I didn’t intend for them to become a broader series of connected stories. I thought of “Dissonance” as a single story, a story and a world I loved, yes, but I didn’t have ideas for more. When I wrote a second story, “Harmonies for Cadence,” I viewed it only as a companion to “Dissonance”: “Dissonance” was about a girl who seemingly had no Harmony, while “Harmonies for Cadence” was about a girl who seemingly had too many Harmonies. But once I wrote that second story, the gears in my head started turning, and the project suddenly seemed much bigger. I had a whole world to explore, and I had so much freedom to do it.
The benefit to writing connected but standalone short stories, I discovered, is that there is always more to explore. Because each story is so short and focused, there is always more to the world, tucked around the edges of stories and waiting to be uncovered, or not even present in earlier stories. Over the years, my world building has shifted, and if I look back at “Dissonance,” I find elements of the world building that I might recognize as inconsistent with what I’m writing now, but are in fact simply a different way of looking at the same aspect of world building. It is so fun to just be able to play around in this world, creating it more fully with each story. In addition to the four pieces that I’ve had published now, I have seven other stories in various stages of revision and submission, and ideas for many more stories. My goal is that all of these stories stand alone, showcasing different pieces of the world and different moments in these characters lives, but I also eventually hope to put these stories together into a collection that will reveal a larger story of this world at this point in time. I’ve even been working on a novel, though that’s set five hundred years after the short stories, when the world is very different. This means that while much more of the world building is nailed down in the novel, I still have so much to explore in the time of the short stories.
“Duet for a Soloist” specifically came about as part of a mini-arc of stories about kids in this world who don’t fit in, but unlike the characters in “Dissonance” and “Harmonies for Cadence,” they don’t find a way to fit in and instead decide to build an orchestra of their own. I’m also revising a story about Po, the deaf boy Nina meets in this story who inspires her to take action. I’m also working on stories in this mini-arc about other characters who feel disenfranchised from the world, because of disability, sexuality, class, and so on, who will come together and bring their own unique experiences and come together to try to build a better world for everyone.
I hope you enjoy reading “Duet for a Soloist” as much as I enjoyed writing it. You can find links to my other Phoenix world stories and more background on the world and the other stories on my website, www.jameyannefuller.com, and I hope I will have more of these stories to share with you soon.
Thanks, Jameyanne Very interesting!
Be sure to check out "Duet for a Soloist" and all the rest of the stories on February 28, 2023!
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