Having met Samuel Snoek-Brown at a Creative Colloquy reading and after reading his great Civil War novel Hagridden, I was anxious to invite him to submit something to the anthology Mud Flat Shorts (mostly fiction). He submitted two stories, “Godsend” and “Til all the Bones Are Buried,”an excerpt from a not-yet-published novel of the same name.
Here’s what Sam had to say about the two stories:
Godsend
When I first drafted “Godsend,” it was in response to a cousin of mine who had quipped on social media that she’d always wanted to be in a story. I replied that I would write a story with a main character named “Jenny,” and later that day I sat down to draft!
The basic premise of the plot came from the 1998 “Friends” episode “The One with All the Haste,” Joey has a neighbor who wakes up every day singing “Morning’s here! The morning’s here!” in a beautiful, operatic voice. Joey’s friend Rachel, however, is NOT a fan of the singing! So I gave that frustration to my character, “Jenny,” and complicated it with her migraines.
Those headaches are my sister’s migraines, which for decades were chronic and untreatable. I’m happy to report that my sister’s headaches are much better now, though, and it didn’t take such drastic measures to treat them!
Til All the Bones Are Buried (excerpt)
Years ago, Sententia magazine produced a special “pitch” issue comprised only of excerpts from then-unpublished novels. I submitted an excerpt from Hagridden, which at the time wasn’t even completely finished, but I figured putting a piece of it out there would motivate me to wrap that novel up. A couple years later, Hagridden became my first published novel.
I’ve been writing and rewriting “Til All the Bones Are Buried” for ages, and when Mud Flat Press solicited my fiction, including possible novel excerpts, I figured it was time to try my luck again. So now the world has met my beloved but beleaguered JW Coe, and I have a reason to finish telling his story!
From Mud Flat Press: We have invited the writers of Mud Flat Shorts (mostly fiction) to write short pieces about their stories to this blog. Stay tuned for more from others of the 19 magnificent writers in the book.