A Missed Opportunity?

As I've discussed earlier on in the life of my blog, I'm a writer. Not yet an author because apparently there is a distinction between the two, depending on whether one has been published. Writer = unpublished, author = published.

I bring this up because I wrote one story that I was sure would sell, only now I'm equally certain that it won't. You see, the story took a classic, popular text (Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, to be precise) and inserted the ever-popular undead into the story.

Now, I can hear the groans already (and not the ones coming from the previously mentioned zombies) but, while similar in description to Pride and Prejudice and Zombie, it is very different in form (to my understanding, anyway). I confess I've nver ready PPZ and only heard of it after I completed my ownstory and was describing it to a friend.

Nor is it the same as Romeo and Juliet and Zombies, which replaces, if I'm correct, Romeo with a zombified version of the Veronan lad. No, my story wasn't like that (well, it does have zombies). Instead of having the plucky couple fight off hordes of the flesh-eating monsters, it places side characters at the forefront of the action and uses Shakespeare's play as a backdrop.

The idea, which I describe as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead meets Shaun of the Dead, came about when I was attempting to teach R&J to freshman. After the character of Mercutio bites it in the third act, the hapless student who read for the character dropped the book and said something like, "Thank God, now I don't have to read anymore." My reply was along the lines of, "Yeah, unless he (Mercutio) comes back to life..." And then the lightbulb switched on.

However, I was only a student teacher at the time and there was no way I was going to be able to write a story, short or otherwise, during that time. But I kept it on the backburner, took some notes on ideas for the story (especially when reading it with students) and left it to simmer until the school year was over.

By the time school let out, the story had already gone through a number of changes (of which I'll discuss at length another time) in my head and I was ready to write). I typed, edited, and fact-checked the story, which took almost six months from start to finish.

I explain this in such length because I thought I had something truly special. That is, until a week and a half ago, when I was wandering around a Barnes & Noble, and happened upon a table of books with similar premises (taking a classic story and mixing it with classic monsters like zombies, vampires, sea monsters, etc.). While they're still not exactly the same, their very presence helps saturate the market and I feel the opportunity to get my story published may have closed.