Your Life in Golden Highways

cover

Page 3 + illustrations

{capsule} This tale is pure exposition, three pages of everything you need to know about the magical land known as Golden Highways. On one island (from what I can tell, GH is a series of islands, connected by a bridge that “would take you a million years to get across”), the currency is gem stones. On another, a “small Western town” where the “people are as small as the dot on a I,” the locals fear “creaturs” with clay-bar bodies and party-mask faces. Nothing really happens, but the details are rich and alternately charming and creepy.

{notable excerpt} The most interesting place is at Paradice descover the land where it is very warm where the sunsets is red where it is soft and quite and the only light is the sun set and the shining green blue lake that you can swim in for hours. You have a modern condo with wiaters who serve breakfast in bed while you watch the sunset. It never storms there it always is hot burning hot.

{comments} This story is one artifact (the lone recovered one) from an imaginary world I created and nurtured as a child. I remember sitting in the walk-in closet at my dad’s apartment in Rhode Island, dreaming up the minutia that would make up these plot-less stories. I was clearly obsessed with details then, much as I am now. I enjoy movies where nothing happens–but in which the sense of place is so sharp. I like books with loads of thick, superfluously descriptive language (hello, Tom Robbins’ Jitterbug Perfume). Reading this, I see the onset of my writing style (what my husband has once referred to as a “Sunday drive” when what’s required is “a sharp turn.”). At least I have learned to punctuate.

{author} Christine (Tyler) Sisson wrote this around 1987-1988, around the same time as Marsha’s Problem. (It was a prolific period, marked by many a pencil and marker stain on her left pinky finger.) She proclaimed her goal to be an author at age 6. Twenty-two years later, she has veered off path a bit, pursuing a career in communications.

Water Adventure

{capsule} John wants to go swimming, but his father says it’s too late. Angry with dad, the boy takes matters into his own hands, sneaking out of his window one night and embarking on his “water adventure.” From swimming to rowing a boat to finally climbing on a ship, he becomes disoriented. John later finds out he has been gone longer than he thought. In that time, tragedy has stricken his family. [Editor]

{notable excerpt} He didn’t know where he was going. In the morning he found out where he was going. He was going to Liverpool, England. When he got there he found his house burnt down. He was away 2 weeks! His mother was dead and his father was in the hospital and would never be well again. His aunt said she would adopt him.

{comments} I wrote when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade, during the height of Beatle-mania. The year was 1965 or 1966. You will notice that the hero winds up in Liverpool, England. I think that was the only city I knew about in that country. Or, I wanted to appear “hip” or “hep” as we said back then. It is mildly disturbing to read that the hero is orphaned. I liked my parents, so I don’t think I wanted to leave them. Probably I was just trying to imagine the most traumatic event that could happen to a youngster. My teacher at James Buchanan Elementary School liked it. I earned an A+.

{author} Chicagoland-based journalist Jim Carper has covered home furnishings, hotels, construction and more for a variety of trade magazines. He reflects: “After [writing this], it was all downhill. I graduated from journalism school and embarked in a career in trade magazines. I no longer write in pencil but rather in pixels on my blogs.” (giftandhometoday.blogspot.com and beelohgee.blogspot.com/)

Marsha’s Problem

Cover

Page 4 + supplementary illustrations

{capsule} Marsha the Monkey, who lives in the Enchanted Treashure [sic] forest, is upset because her friends work all the time (“they got up bright and erly to start thier jobs”). When she answers the phone, expecting it to be her friend, Ronda the River Fish, she rather rudely quips, “All right now Ronda…I’m not answering any of your old busy business questions from you.” It turns out to be a magical “Life Saver” leprechaun who has heard she has been having trouble. When the two finally meet at the Patch Work Swamp, he offers this sage advice: Tell her friends how she feels. Marhsa does, and “they undersood. The End.”

{notable excerpt} Marsha had to be very brave to go to patch work swamp. But she did not know this life saver lepercon. What will I do? she said. Right that secent there was a knocking from her celler door. How quere said Marsha as she was getting the door. Why its you. Marsha said when she was looking down to find two small creachers. It was Jakie the jumping frog and Mileasa the mole. What are you doing here. You live in the rainbow forest.

{comments} I find it humorously coincidental that my protagonist is seemingly unemployed and frustrated by a lack of time (“Know time, know time!” she snaps to one friend). Though the leprechaun who “watches over [Marsha] every night” is mildly creepy, the happy ending suggests I wasn’t too disturbed. I do wonder if certain dialogue (Leprechaun to Marsha: “Don’t cry so we can get started”; Marsha to Leprechaun: “You mean you don’t want me to keep it inside, right”) might have been inspired by therapist-speak. My favorite detail is the utter lack of punctuation, which makes the quotes that much more entertaining. Also, I seemed to be fond of alliteration, animals and bright colors—none of which has changed.

{author} Christine Sisson, née Tyler, wrote “Marsha’s Problem” at age 7. In her communications-centric career path, Christine has worked in both editorial and PR, with an emphasis in design/home/lifestyle. Currently, she is blogging, taking low-paying freelance assignments and dreaming up crazy ideas as she searches for the perfect full-time position. She is also drinking lots of wine at networking events and, subsequently, revisiting old novel ideas.

Learn more about Early Ink here.