8 Comments

This story was a delight to read. I especially loved the first short line, how it links with the longer title, leaping the space of launching and sparking the brain for connection.

I grew up on the lake and these two lines are perfect for what they encompass in mood and visuals: "...water looks like quicksilver. Sometimes you cannot tell where the water ends and the sky begins."

And it was fun to read the story and compare it to the entry in The Dictionary of Canadian Biography.

And I absolutely love the woodcut print ...captures the eeriness of the story beautifully.

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Thank you. The image of the woodcut is not as pretty as the thing itself. Ah, and thanks also for what you say about that first line. It also launches you into the comic intimacy of the mad voice. Like I am telling you this and we all know what I mean because, you know, like me you all obsess on witches all the time, too.

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Great! I love how you inhabit the character. To me, the best thing about turning history into fiction is the moment when historical truth gives way to the imagination.

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Yeah, he's my paranoid superstitious side. But you're right. The best thing is when you turn off the "facts" and start to imagine history from the inside, from the person living inside it. Wonderfully liberating.

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This is so great. What an amazing character. I wonder what he would do in a novel?

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My sense is that this is about the right length. I never think, Oh, this is a good story—I should turn it into a novel. I think when people say something like this, they really mean, I liked that story (or character) so much I wish it would go on. I wish there was more. But that is precisely one of the effects of a good short story. It carves itself out of emptiness and makes you conscious of that emptiness. Story form is poignant by its very nature. I really like that.

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Love this Doug, so much story in such a small space.

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Thanks, Steven. Nice to be in touch. Always good to see your name pop up.

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