15 Comments
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Nick Buchheit's avatar

This is fantastic. Feels so real even though it’s through the POV of a ghost which I don’t necessarily believe in. Great poetry and imagery in this. Bravo!

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Sandolore Sykes's avatar

Thank you, Nick. I am not necessarily a believer in ghosts but I am fascinated by the idea of a self without a body.

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Nick Buchheit's avatar

No doubt there is something "out of this world" about it.

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Emil Ottoman's avatar

This is out-fucking-standing. No notes worth discussing, send it. A fantastic short, dealing with so many of my favorite themes as well. (Also weirdly echoes of Our Year... the universal subnet is strange.)

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Sandolore Sykes's avatar

Hey! I noticed that and wondered if it was a wink!

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Emil Ottoman's avatar

Maybe we just got some weird similar vibes. the ending to Our Year has been the same since first draft 8 years ago. Most everything ELSE in it changed in that timeframe, but if nothing else the ending with the deer became a bigger deal. (I've had this experience so many times I barely believe in coincidence anymore.)

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Tom Schecter's avatar

Fuuuuck I love this.

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Elizabeth Lamont's avatar

Where was this story when I was at an all-girl's summer camp? Stunning.

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Sandolore Sykes's avatar

Thank you… I do have a girls camp history… wish I was going there now!

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Elizabeth Lamont's avatar

I loved my girls camp in the mountains of VA. Ghost stories mandatory. We'd have loved yours. “Oh, wow, now I can't sleep, read it again!”

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Nick Winney's avatar

awesome love story....great idea...almost makes me want to be a ghost! 😎

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Brandon North's avatar

First piece of fiction that I read on Substack that I think will stay with me. But I do want to ask: is there something I'm missing or is there a contradiction in the story regarding how the narrator has no atoms at first but also later seems to say she opens her molecules? I could've just read this too quickly or am blockheaded about it, but I was wondering if that contradiction was intended (as in, a ghost has no atoms but has molecules, somehow).

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Sandolore Sykes's avatar

First of all, thank you for the huge compliment and secondly, I think you have caught an error! I think I got carried away with loving the idea of “opening her molecules”… but didn’t fully screw in the bolts. She both has and does not have matter or atoms or molecules… thank you, Brandon, I will get back to the workshop to find a simple but hopefully elegant solution to this contradiction!

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Brandon North's avatar

No problem, I get it. A story often is a ghost like thing itself, and sometimes doesn't want to make sense, even if we have to force sense to some degree. Thanks for writing this one, regardless. It's brilliant

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Sandolore Sykes's avatar

Exactly. But I am striving for each story to have its own cohesive world… its own strange logic—so thank you for the note!

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