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When I was much, much younger, I had a friend, a young Dutch-Canadian boy. He and I shared a love of soccer, played on some school teams together and watched soccer matches at various ethnic clubhouses in London Ontario. These were places where German-Canadian, Polish-Canadian and Italian-Canadian men and women socialized. They had the best pitches in the city and also sponsored matches between local teams and travelling teams. My friend John died one rainy night in the fall. He was carrying a soccer ball and walking home down an unlit road in East London. This was written in homage to him.
A totally fictional children’s story of the relationships among the children of “The Crescent”, an isolated community in East London. Those long ago winters of bumper-jumping, outdoor rinks and skating to school were a part of my childhood. So were the immigrant kids, myself included, who populated that single street. Someday, I hope to write a more complete account of “The Crescent”, a great place to grow up.
A kind of fantasy story about bullying, the transforming power of music and the lessons learned along the way. This, and “Pigs …” were based upon children I knew as a teacher. Having seen plenty of bullying I wondered what a world with different values might look like.
As a young teacher I met many children from difficult homes. I appreciated the challenges they had in living with the parents, or often just the single parent, they were unfortunate enough to have. I watched them struggle with their darker demons as well. The story came to me one day as I stared out across the school yard and noticed a boy we all considered to be “the school bully” sitting by himself contemplating the sky. I worked half time in the school library back then and was surprised when he asked me for a book on paper planes. He went on from there to books about fighter jets and young adult novels in which flight and escape were dominant themes.
My mother, newly separated from my father, once lived in a very exclusive apartment building in North London. Riding down in an elevator one day, we were joined by an older woman who was very haughty. My mother commented upon her when we were alone by telling me the story of her unfortunate marriage. That started the wheels turning. Around that time I heard about a species of wasp that stung spiders into submission, paralyzing them so that her young would have food when they hatched. Somehow the two came together.
The Dave, the Bob and the Default Setting
This came about when I learned, to my dismay, that, months earlier, David Foster Wallace had hung himself. I put that together with a Bob Dylan concert we attended and a trip to a corner variety store and this non-fictional thing came together. It would seem that I love books, libraries, music and observing human behaviour, including my own. I have given away copies of “This is Water”, by David Foster Wallace, to people who deserve it.
Your Questions Will Soon Be Answered
An excursion into science fiction and nanotechnology. I have no idea whether the terms used are real or accurate. I made them up, I think! Anyway, this came about because one of our boys was writing science fiction novels at the time and I thought I’d try it. Not sure if it worked, though.
Probably the most successful of all of these stories, “Red Mustang” came about as a kind of real life speculative piece in which a character ruminates about how things could have gone differently in his life, if he had made a single different choice early on. Wesley Davies hooked me up with a fellow who produces and sells science fiction anthologies (Dr.Samuel Peralta). Before I knew it, he had bought it and paid me handsomely for inclusion in his anthology, The Time Travel Chronicles. If you like “Red Mustang” please consider purchasing the whole anthology or another in his “Future Chronicles” series.
*** Breaking News! Dr. Samuel Peralta has secured a place aboard the Peregrine Lunar Lander, the first unmanned return to the moon’s surface in decades. The story “Red Mustang” that appeared in his anthology, will be in a time capsule located on Lacus Mortis. Forever! Stay tuned for updates concerning the launch at NASA and the touchdown date.
*** October 2025 UPDATE: The original Lunar Lander mentioned above took off, had technical problems and turned back to earth. It burned up in our atmosphere in January of 2024. Since then a new attempt was made and was successful earlier this year. The “Red Mustang” has a new home on our moon.