Packing up and moving halfway around the world

I seem to have this thing for relocating stories lately.

Last week I took the beginning of a novel and relocated it from the northeast to the southwest. (Aside: even though NE and SW are diametrically opposed on the compass, they’re not as far apart geographically as one might expect. Country locations are interesting. Montreal is considered eastern Canada except to someone who lives in the eastern provinces but Chicago is midwest, even though by my calculations, the west doesn’t begin until about Minnesota.)

Yesterday I took a story originally set in Australia and uprooted it to New England. I thought it was going to be a more arduous task than it turned out. I needed a wine district—which I was surprised exists in New England—and scenic outlooks on mountainous highways—no lack of those either. I had to change the way the narrator thinks of certain groups of people, but otherwise that was that. I even left one of the main characters as Australian.

The story was originally written for (and accepted by) a Warren Zevon tribute anthology that folded before it got off the ground. Though I’ve left in a few traces of the Zevon inspiration (the title, for example, is Wake Me Up For Meals), I stripped out most of the elements that tied it to a song. The story’s been sitting on my hard drive for a couple of years. I liked the way it worked out, but didn’t know what to do with it after the antho failed. Then I found a market that it might suit, with a little bit of work. The relocation was one way of de-Zevonizing it. Rereading it now, after all that time, I’m pleased with how well it stood up. I trimmed about 200 words (out of 5000), but haven’t rewritten as much as I thought I’d have to.

Did anyone catch Peter Straub’s bit on One Life to Live yesterday? It was definitely more than a cameo. His one scene was split into about three segments, each with appropriate ominous music at the end as weighty, important information was revealed. Poppy Z. Brite noted that he acted a lot like Peter Straub, and I’d have to agree, but I consider that an accomplishment. He certainly didn’t embarrass himself. He was very natural and seemed at ease through most of it. He was a lot calmer than most of the other characters, that’s for sure.