I Don't Write Fiction About Fairies, Faeries, Fay, Fey, Or Any Such Thing. Honest.

csecooney told me my last post was the beginning of a short story. Just what I needed, I thought, another project to get in the way of the manuscripts that I've been pushing on continually since having my kids. And now the story's haunting me.

I usually stick to third person, past tense, because that's where the magic is. You don't see Homer or the anonymous talespinners collected by the Brothers Grimm telling stories in first person or present tense. And definitely not stream of consciousness. Stream of consciousness is a johnny-come-lately technique, about a century old, and there's a reason nobody bothered to try it on long narratives before that, right? Leave it for short lyric poems, where it belongs.

Okay, little story, you win. Stretch me new. It's been a while.