[Prevailing thought while composing this 200th post: Oh God I better not mess up this post. This is like the title track of an album. I mean, imagine Michael Jackson screwing up Thriller....]
I named this blog after a short story written by Melissa Bank. She wrote The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing and the novel, The Wonder Spot, a book borne from the story.
TWS is not a fantastic story. It is not a story that you will see on an English 101 reading list or even one for a Creative Writing class. But I like TWS because it is one of those stories that leaves with you with a mood.
A sense, a tone, a thickness in the air, a smell.
It did not stir any particular emotion or leave me crying or moved in a dramatic fashion like some other stories do. Instead, TWS has a wistful sentimental tone to it, and after you put the story down, you had it too.
That unique mood, that special tone, that’s what I look for when I read. I expect a certain type of writing when I read the New York Times, a short fiction feature in Esquire, the weather report in a worn newspaper in an airport lounge, a misallete at church. I have certain distinct expectations on how words should flow, and depending on my mood, I need to read different things.
Now call me crazy, but words to me are like food. I can taste them. And when I read something written in the precise style I was craving for, well then, it just hits the spot.
The wonder spot.
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