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.
Favorite line: “Every building is some sort of building.” So true! I’m obsessed with this idea for a blog. I’m going to write to all my creative friends and encourage submissions. You are really on to something here. XOXO
I’m rolling around on the floor laughing at this. Totally awesome! Kids are great. I need to dig out some of my old stuff and scan it… to be continued.
Josh–I would be *so* intrigued to see what you come up with. Please do share if you dig anything up!