Tuesday, May 3, 2011

thoughts in preparation for a story

A married woman with several children goes alone to South America with a Christian group. She stays there for years and sends postcards home. The group is fundamentalist. Her family doesn't share those beliefs. The postcards are ridiculous but she is probably not aware of it.

Why did she join this group? What made her leave? Did she try to convert her husband or children before leaving? I imagine she slipped away without letting them know. I imagine her son's faith being killed entirely. Her mother dumped him for Jesus: that could make a person hate Jesus with unswerving fidelity.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting. Though perhaps you should make the woman American and set the story in Newfoundland instead of South America...you've now got a story for the Cuffer this summer.

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  2. Thanks for the comment! I envision the story as being set in newfoundland and from one of her children's point of view . . . (indeed, I started drafting it today). this is how it goes with me, the entry-point into a story often becomes a minor detail.

    I hope to enter the Cuffer prize this year, but I find the rules ambiguous. I attend school in Toronto for much of the year, so I'm not sure if I'm eligible to enter. I plan to email the organizers asking them to clarify. I'm honored that you thought of my entering!

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