In the Origin of the Story series I’ll be sharing insights of how some of my stories came to be. What inspired them, and what kind of process followed it. All of that spoiler-free, so you can still enjoy the story if you didn’t have a chance to read it yet.

Today, I’m going to share a story of the piece that I’m particularly happy with, the quasi-steampunk (or magical realism, if you prefer) short story, Mr. Roache’s Drummer (Polish: Bębniarz pana Roache). It was first published, long with its counterpart story, Seven Percent Chance (Siedem procent szans) in a Polish anthology by RW2010. Its English version is available as a part of my collection, Scourges, Spells, and Serenades, and you can get it for free. (more…)