"Too Many Curses is easily my most fairy tale like story and probably my most neglected. It's not as flashy as most of my other stories, and the premise doesn't jump out at you. Maybe that's why I like it as much as I do. Telling stories about tough-as-nails werewolves and super genius space squids is relatively easy. Those types of characters are made to be heroes, but Nessy and the denizens of Margle's cursed castle are exactly everything we wouldn't expect heroes to be. Somehow, despite that, they get by. here's a story where they do just that. "
— Author's Notes
"Death, Dust, and Other Inconveniences" is a Comic Fantasy short story written by A. Lee Martinez and published in the 2013 anthology book Robots versus Slime Monsters. The story is set after the events of the novel Too Many Curses, where the Shadow of Death is seen looming in the castle and Nessy and her friends try to figure out what to do about it.
"Death, Dust, and Other Inconveniences" provides examples of:
- Becoming the Genie: One of the plants in Margles' collection is the Wishing Tree, a cursed tree that grants wishes in exchange for turning the wisher into another wishing tree, this being its method of reproduction.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: While an agent of death stalking the halls certainly raises some alarms, it's treated more like a squatter than something to truly dread-inspiring. Nessy even considers leaving it alone because death is typically something one has to tolerate. Considering all of the strange things wandering Margle's castles on a daily basis, this is a given.
- The Grim Reaper: A personification of death starts wandering Margle's castle, taking the form of a Living Shadow that stalks the halls. He admits to being a servant of Death rather than the capital "D" death, having been sent there to do all of the menial work in the area.
- Our Nymphs Are Different: One of Margle's magical prisoners is a dryad kept imprisoned inside a Magic Staff, its description being not unlike a human skeleton made of wood, flowers and grass spontaneously growing on anything she touches.
