Kitsune was the second story I wrote in the series about Master Shichiro and his servant Ken'ichi.  I started this one with no idea of a plot, I just wanted  to keep writing about Master Shichiro and Ken'ichi, two characters I had a great deal of fun with.  So I put Keni'chi on his master's shoulders outside a country house and mentioned they may have to kill everyone inside.  There.  Now I had to find out why.  I backed up to the beginning of the day and let them recite poetry to each other while working in the garden.  This could have gone on for some time, but before long a messenger showed up.

And lucky for me, he brought a plot with him.

 The story got picked up by Paradox, the same magazine that bought The Three Truths, and I just got my copies (June, 2006), so it should be on shelves soon.

 Update 7/25/07

Kitsune has received an honorable mention in Gardner Dozois's 24th Annual Year's Best Science Fiction, an anthology devoted to the best short fiction of 2006.