I’m still fairly new to the writing game, so it still surprises me when I see my story mentioned by people I don’t know.  Michael Haynes runs a feature on his website called short story dissections*, wherein he takes a published story and delves into the craft as well as provides a review.  I’ve read his site several times since finding it last summer because his dissections are often insightful.  He dissected my story “Observations on a Clock” on January 20th.  While the story wasn’t his “cup of tea” he made some interesting observations and picked up on some of the things with structure and language that I was experimenting with.  Most rewarding to me, however, was Mr. Haynes’ final assessment:

“[Observations on a Clock] sort of put me in the mind of aspects of the movie The Fountain.  I thought that movie was good enough when I watched it, but wasn’t blown away by it.  However, I’ve probably thought about it after the fact more than just about any movie I’ve seen in recent years.  Which means I may end up coming back to this story in a month or two to re-read it and see if I get something new out of it.”

Ultimately I want to write stories that linger in the mind and make people think, so this was particularly gratifying.

*My story will be the last one dissected as Mr. Haynes revamps his site.  I hope this feature returns at some point in the future.