Snowbird Gothic Stories 8 - Jeremy's Castle
“Jeremy’s Castle” was originally written for a Yard Dog Press anthology called Flush Fiction, a smorgasbord of flash fiction pieces from the various folks in the Yard Dog stable. Yard Dog, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it, is a regional Spec Fic press run out of Arkansas by the marvelous duo of Selina Rosen and Lynn Stranathan. YDP published my first non-tie-in fiction (about which you’ll read more later) and I have been told with some seriousness that I am, and I quote here, YDP’s “token Yankee”.
I, of course, resent this, and prefer to think of myself as their token carpetbagger.
“Jeremy’s Castle” is also, surprisingly, my mother’s favorite story of all the ones I’ve written. My mother, who stands 4’11” and used to teach English in the New York public school system, has spent years asking me when I was going to write “something nice”. As you might have noticed by now, I generally don’t do “nice”. Not for lack of trying, mind you, but the sum and total of my stories that are not either slapstick or with an attached body count of some sort or another is two: One a fairy tale I wrote for a friend’s daughter, later published in Worlds of Their Own , and the fairy tale that opens Changeling: The Dreaming 2nd Edition , with gorgeous illustration by Rebecca Guay.
My mom, for the record, loved that story.
But she loves this one, too, and I don’t know why.
Oh, it’s not that I don’t like it. I think it’s one of the best I’ve ever done. I don’t know what deal Jeremy made, but I know that thinking about it gives me chills. I touched enough of that kid’s mind when I was writing him, just those few hundred words, to be very afraid of what would happen if I gave him a few thousand. And yes, this is one of those stories that emerged fully formed, inspired by nothing I could see but determined to crawl onto the page in one fell swoop.
I think I was wise to let it out. And not just because Mom likes it.
But that helps.
***
And as always, if this piques your imagination you can find Snowbird Gothic for sale at amazon or at NECON E-Books' site.
I, of course, resent this, and prefer to think of myself as their token carpetbagger.
“Jeremy’s Castle” is also, surprisingly, my mother’s favorite story of all the ones I’ve written. My mother, who stands 4’11” and used to teach English in the New York public school system, has spent years asking me when I was going to write “something nice”. As you might have noticed by now, I generally don’t do “nice”. Not for lack of trying, mind you, but the sum and total of my stories that are not either slapstick or with an attached body count of some sort or another is two: One a fairy tale I wrote for a friend’s daughter, later published in Worlds of Their Own , and the fairy tale that opens Changeling: The Dreaming 2nd Edition , with gorgeous illustration by Rebecca Guay.
My mom, for the record, loved that story.
But she loves this one, too, and I don’t know why.
Oh, it’s not that I don’t like it. I think it’s one of the best I’ve ever done. I don’t know what deal Jeremy made, but I know that thinking about it gives me chills. I touched enough of that kid’s mind when I was writing him, just those few hundred words, to be very afraid of what would happen if I gave him a few thousand. And yes, this is one of those stories that emerged fully formed, inspired by nothing I could see but determined to crawl onto the page in one fell swoop.
I think I was wise to let it out. And not just because Mom likes it.
But that helps.
***
And as always, if this piques your imagination you can find Snowbird Gothic for sale at amazon or at NECON E-Books' site.
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