Golly, Mr Switter. This is the most beautiful story you have ever posted - the language, the dialog, the characters, the setting - the entire concept- wow! It would make a hell of a short film.
From you, Sharron, that is a grand compliment. As I said above, part of it was based on a story I heard as a kid, and then I decided it was a love story, a hard, relentless kind of love story, the kind of love that comes from absolute loyalty, endurance, and unselfishness. Based on your comment, I’m happy the ideas survived my bungling attempts at writing.
Very real, phenomenally powerful and sad. You so aptly articulated the challenges of life itself which are typically surmountable until juxtaposed over human - induced tragedy. And then, there's no winner in sight.
A magnificent gift of a story. Thanks for sharing it. Your writing is so vivid that I can almost smell the horse, the barn, the burning straw and feel the blizzard in my face.
Switter! You’ve written a heart-wrenching western beauty here. You might consider sending this to a journal. Jeeminy, I’m glad he made it back from the storm, so at least she didn’t have to just wait until the thaw and find his body then.
Thank you, Tara. The first half is an aggregate of my paternal grandparents, and the last half is an exploration of how far we can push ourselves as the shoring we depend upon starts to break away.
I hadn’t even considered sending it off for publication. I’ll try that. Thanks for the idea.
Your comment about finding the man after the thaw reminded me for no reason I can think of about the bizarrely amusing plot twist in Hemingway’s “Alpine Idyll,” which I’m not going to retell on Christmas Eve, but which is so off the wall in a I-wonder-if-I-should-laugh-or-pretend-I-didn’t-hear-it way that it’s worth going back and rereading it, if only to decide whether to laugh at it or pretend you didn’t hear it.
Golly, Mr Switter. This is the most beautiful story you have ever posted - the language, the dialog, the characters, the setting - the entire concept- wow! It would make a hell of a short film.
From you, Sharron, that is a grand compliment. As I said above, part of it was based on a story I heard as a kid, and then I decided it was a love story, a hard, relentless kind of love story, the kind of love that comes from absolute loyalty, endurance, and unselfishness. Based on your comment, I’m happy the ideas survived my bungling attempts at writing.
Very real, phenomenally powerful and sad. You so aptly articulated the challenges of life itself which are typically surmountable until juxtaposed over human - induced tragedy. And then, there's no winner in sight.
A magnificent gift of a story. Thanks for sharing it. Your writing is so vivid that I can almost smell the horse, the barn, the burning straw and feel the blizzard in my face.
Thank you for the kind words. The story is based in part on a true story I heard as a kid and I wanted to do it justice.
I can't weigh in on doing it justice as far as accuracy, but you are very talented writer. Kudos!
His story was so captivating, that it was easy to forget that we weren't living it.
This is absolutely beautiful. Pulled me along with grace and power to the horrid end. Thank you.
Thanks, Sue. I don't write much fiction and when I do, I usually like to takeoff from an actual story I heard, which is about 3/4s of this story.
Reality is where the best fiction comes from.
Switter! You’ve written a heart-wrenching western beauty here. You might consider sending this to a journal. Jeeminy, I’m glad he made it back from the storm, so at least she didn’t have to just wait until the thaw and find his body then.
Thank you, Tara. The first half is an aggregate of my paternal grandparents, and the last half is an exploration of how far we can push ourselves as the shoring we depend upon starts to break away.
I hadn’t even considered sending it off for publication. I’ll try that. Thanks for the idea.
Your comment about finding the man after the thaw reminded me for no reason I can think of about the bizarrely amusing plot twist in Hemingway’s “Alpine Idyll,” which I’m not going to retell on Christmas Eve, but which is so off the wall in a I-wonder-if-I-should-laugh-or-pretend-I-didn’t-hear-it way that it’s worth going back and rereading it, if only to decide whether to laugh at it or pretend you didn’t hear it.
That was a really hard read.
Did you recognize anything from the first third of the story?
Ooohh