The Story Behind the Story: On "For Pim, my Dear" from An Odd Sized Casket

The Owl Canyon Press Hackathon is a short story writing contest. They release the prompt on a given day and you have a short amount of time to submit your entry until the deadline. It's a race. They vary the format, but this year, they write the first and last paragraph, you have to write the story in between. The challenge is to match the tone, pacing, voice and style of the given paragraphs. Also, all of the clues in the given paragraphs are then, turned into questions you have to answer at some point in your story. It's a blast. And it's an honor to be included in such a group of excellent international authors in the collection published by Gene Hayworth at Owl Canyon Press.

Being a humanities nerd, I am fascinated with culture. The clues Owl Canyon Press gave us were the size of the caskets... one smaller than a human, one larger, and both enough to fulfill a dynasty. Knowing about the ancient history of Egypt, and admittedly a bit of a geek about it, I felt the voice of the narrator had to be a young person involved in tending to the animals who were cared for royally for burial with the commanders. He was a journalist documenting his life. The documents were unearthed by the archeologist in a future time period. The archeologists, in turn, fought for credit. And of course, we need our translator so we can understand the artifacts. The intimacy of the translator and the document is sublime. The journalist, the translator and her servant, Pim.

Pim is our host. It is for Pim all futures must work, as noted by the translator who was once a forbidden one herself. Pim represents all persons whose languages have been forbidden and whose cultures have been erased from history. Like our Chumash here in California. Pim, the native, the host - "My Dear Pim" she says to him in his deadly tongue. But the word can not be translated here because in Pim's native language the word for "dear" has a multitudinous meaning residing in the infinate - my dear, my reason for being, my purpose, my love. So long as we have those, like the translator, who will sacrifice man's corrupt laws for moral conscience and good will, our cultures will be kept in tact and people's God given gifts will be able to heal and give hope to another.