Spider Worlds – A Short Story That Wouldn’t Die!!!!
In fact it was eventually expanded into three novels — a surprise to the magazine editors that rejected it, no doubt. I was also told by one “literary critic” that there was no way to expand a story like this into a book. Fortunately HarperCollins didn’t agree.
However the three spider tales novels spun (pun intended) from this short story were still more or less an accident. When I was asked to send in three proposals for a trilogy aimed at intermediate readers, I had two good ideas — but not a third. Time was running out, so I dusted off this short story, expanded the idea, and transformed the character into a young man. I knew the editor’s wouldn’t go for it; it was a throwaway that got me the third story idea.
Tags: Short Story, Spider Worlds