THE BEST STORY I'VE EVER WRITTEN IS ALSO THE ONE NOBODY WILL PRINT (And I Think I Finally Know Why)

There’s a story I wrote years ago. I called it Dragon Hoard, although in my heart I’m pretty sure I spelled it Horde the first dozen times, because spelling is a competition I will always lose. It is, no contest, the best thing I have ever written. It has also never been published, and at this point I’ve made my peace with the strong possibility that it never will be. I’ve sent it to the fancy-pants fantasy journals more times than is dignified. Twice I got a personal reply — which, if you’ve ever submitted short fiction into the void, you know is basically a parade. And both times the reply boiled down to the same gentle little knife: “We liked it. We just don’t know where it would fit." We liked it. We just don’t know where it would fit. I’ve thought about that sentence more than I’d like to admit. The actual story Here’s the bones of it. Benjamin is a dragon. He hoards electronics, because that’s what dragons do now — gold is for amateurs. To be a proper dragon, he decides he needs…