If you are a subscriber to Caitlín R. Kiernan's Sirenia Digest, by now you will have received issue #124, which among other things reprints my short story "Chez Vous Soon," originally published in Not One of Us #35. If you are not already a subscriber, please consider picking up a copy.
"Chez Vous Soon" was the last story I wrote in New Haven. I worked on it in between studying for my comprehensive exams and teaching undergraduate Latin and finished it just after one in the morning on January 1, 2006; I did not know then that it would be my last story before my physical health crashed and my life went cartwheeling off in a different direction from graduate school entirely. Like many of my stories, it aggregated around a disparate handful of inspirations: Catullus 83, the nonfiction of W.B. Yeats, the fictional band for whom I had written eight songs since the start of 2005. With one exception, all of the lyrics quoted in the story are of my own creation (Nobody's Home) or John Benson's (A & W). There is a tangential connection to my short story "On the Blindside" (Flytrap #4, 2005) which may not be visible to anyone but me. My primary writing music was Michael Penn's Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947 (2005), especially the opening track "Walter Reed." I knew from the start that there would be a death in the narrative, but I did not expect to have to attend the funeral of one of my oldest childhood friends while I was writing it. It is dedicated to the memory of Nora Tosti.
It was eventually superseded by "The Salt House" (Sirenia Digest #22, 2007) and then "The Boatman's Cure" (Ghost Signs, 2015), but for years I considered "Chez Vous Soon" the best piece of fiction I'd written. It has never been reprinted anywhere before and now appears backed with the second part of Caitlín's "Souvenirs," her first story arc for The Dreaming. I am very pleased that it can be found in such company. I must run off on errands. Check it out.
"Chez Vous Soon" was the last story I wrote in New Haven. I worked on it in between studying for my comprehensive exams and teaching undergraduate Latin and finished it just after one in the morning on January 1, 2006; I did not know then that it would be my last story before my physical health crashed and my life went cartwheeling off in a different direction from graduate school entirely. Like many of my stories, it aggregated around a disparate handful of inspirations: Catullus 83, the nonfiction of W.B. Yeats, the fictional band for whom I had written eight songs since the start of 2005. With one exception, all of the lyrics quoted in the story are of my own creation (Nobody's Home) or John Benson's (A & W). There is a tangential connection to my short story "On the Blindside" (Flytrap #4, 2005) which may not be visible to anyone but me. My primary writing music was Michael Penn's Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947 (2005), especially the opening track "Walter Reed." I knew from the start that there would be a death in the narrative, but I did not expect to have to attend the funeral of one of my oldest childhood friends while I was writing it. It is dedicated to the memory of Nora Tosti.
It was eventually superseded by "The Salt House" (Sirenia Digest #22, 2007) and then "The Boatman's Cure" (Ghost Signs, 2015), but for years I considered "Chez Vous Soon" the best piece of fiction I'd written. It has never been reprinted anywhere before and now appears backed with the second part of Caitlín's "Souvenirs," her first story arc for The Dreaming. I am very pleased that it can be found in such company. I must run off on errands. Check it out.
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