My third story of the year is out now.

https://dailysciencefiction.com/hither-and-yon/alternate-history/susan-taitel/date-and-time

The idea for this one started out with me noticing that one of my favorite speculative genres is when a mythical or historical figure gets transplanted into mundane settings and scenarios often without much explanation for how they got there. Neil Gaiman’s Chivalry is a good example of one such story. So I’ve had in the back of my mind that I wanted to try my hand at it. But first I had to come up with both a figure to use and a situation to put them in. I don’t remember how I decided on Lady Jane Grey goes on a blind date, but once I did I knew it should be a good date. Her real story is such a sad one, it was cathartic to show a fictional Jane a good time.

The park they go to is a real park in Minneapolis that does host a holiday fair most weekends leading up to Christmas, though not these last two years because panini.