Tension hovered over the campus the next few days. Picketers approached any car that wanted to enter the grounds. Professors didn’t attend classes. Good students worried about the status of their year, while bad students partied and drank. I could feel the stress crawling through the residence hallways like a lurking monster. The only respite I found was to walk by myself through the grounds, or to go off campus.
Fortunately, our school was in one of Toronto’s nicest neighbourhoods. Off the Bridle Path, most homes were worth millions. There were trees everywhere. Our own campus had been a wealthy family’s estate, bequeathed to the university for educational purposes. The manor house, with its large rose garden, was now home to a student pub, art gallery and offices. I enjoyed the crisp autumn air and the firework display of the leaves on the many trees almost as much as I had hated going to class.
A lot of students were vacating the dorms to go home until the crisis was over. Those that could. Many lived in the residence because home was in another province or country. Teri had been gone most of the week, and as a consequence, Daniel was grouchy. As I came back from my walk, I spied him down the hall talking to a girl I recognized as Melody, one of his flings from earlier in the year. She was laughing at something he said, and then brushed her hand down his thick arm. I shook my head and went back to my room.
By Friday I barely remembered the week. I think that I spent most of it sleeping, catching up on the lack of rest from the past few months. The residence was eerily quiet, like a ghost town. I was bored stiff, having caught up on my readings and few assignments. Going home for the weekend to work seemed a welcome break; at least I would be doing something, instead of just wasting time.
My uncle drove up at the bus station. I noted his grim expression immediately upon entering the vehicle.
“What’s wrong?”
“I guess you don’t need to worry about going to church this week. It’s cordoned off for a police investigation. Someone set the church school on fire.” He sighed, his fingers tightening on the steering wheel.
“Who would do that?” I asked, my voice loud with outrage. I felt my heart squeeze in my chest. I put my hands on the dashboard for balance, trying to catch my breath. My uncle watched this in silence. I felt a roll of vertigo: a mixture of rage, frustration and nausea. When I came to my senses, he was watching me, quietly.
“There are times in our lives where everything changes.” He said unexpectedly. “Sometimes we lose ourselves in those changes. Sometimes we are tempted to become someone else. And sometimes we find parts of ourselves that we never knew existed and become more fully what God made us to be.”
He grew silent, and I realized that this was the longest speech I had ever heard him make. I thought about asking him what he meant, or why he was telling me this. Then I realized that part of what he was telling me was that I was responsible for figuring it out for myself.
11 comments
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March 23, 2008 at 2:49 pm
nomananisland
Dear Readers:
You all know (I hope) how much I appreciate your commentary, suggestions and support. It is very meaningful to me that my story has people that care about it, and that we interact together.
But we need more of you! Spread the word, help me think of ways to build an audience, anything. Also, write a review for Pages Unbound (if you haven’t already) which you can find on my blogroll. If you like No Man an Island, tell someone about it. I’m becoming a better writer because of you, and the book is becoming a better story, I think.
Thank you all for being here.
March 24, 2008 at 12:53 am
Fiona
Thank you for sharing your imagination with us.
I guess it’s a mystery to me how web stories find audiences. I got here through Tales of Mu which I found out about through an ad AE had at the website of a webcomic, Clan of the Cats (which I think you would enjoy if you don’t already know it). So, ads do work. But there’s been many ad’s I clicked on and few stories I actually got into, which is a good thing because this is about all I have time to read!
March 24, 2008 at 3:53 am
sonjanitschke
Well I have No Man an Island linked in Fiction Murdered, Mutants, and the zombie wordpress. So…
Erm.
I saw your Project Wonderful ad once at the bottom of the comments. Those don’t do so well usually I’ve noticed, unless there’s a little bit of heat in the comments. I’d try to go for the square or try to catch the mini banner at the top before it soars to outrageous prices.
About the ads — I hate to be harsh but it just…wouldn’t want to make me want to click it. That drawing that you used wasn’t your best. I would recommend using a picture of Genevieve (that’s a cool picture) and keep the background white (a lot of folks said they liked AE’s simple ad for ToMU). Have her face on the right or left side and in the blank space write No Man an Island blah blah blah. Even Mara or the female demon would work equally well.
(Now I’m nervous that that ad I saw wasn’t yours…oh well, I’ve stuck my foot in my mouth before and survived, once more won’t hurt — either way, the advice still stands).
You can also try it on the forums — there’s a bulletin board there though I think I saw a plug for yours already.
Another thing I’d attempt if I were you is to create a Live Journal blog that has the link in it (maybe even link your updates back like I do for my personal blog) and try to find some sort of writing community. I failed in finding one — didn’t look too hard though — but I did find a community devoted to fairy tales so I gave them the links to the ones I re-wrote.
Some of them checked out the rest of the site and stumbled onto Mutants.
Well, good luck.
p.s You could try to find other supernatural stories/comics via a google search that have advertizing prospects.
March 24, 2008 at 1:54 pm
nomananisland
What’s harsh about good advice? I didn’t like that ad much either — I’m playing with Paint to see what I can do, since I don’t have better programs to work with.
How is a Live Journal Blog different than the wordpress blog I started a few days ago?
I joined writingforums.com awhile ago, but it seems like they’d rather read postings there than read links. Oh well, I’ll keep trying.
Thanks!
p.s. (Sonja, you’ve done a lot for this book, you don’t need to worry about that. I’m grateful that a story as cool as the Mutants links to NMAI)
March 24, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Fiona
Back to comments on the story. I’m glad Ethan had the chance to catch up on sleep – he was showing some serious effects of sleep deprivation there. The worst thing about insufficient sleep is you don’t have time to dream – that can drive you mad.
“Now that my head had cleared a bit, and I had time to walk and think, I was able to take the time to figure out why I was at University, what my goals were, and whether this stressful lifestyle was sustainable and worthwhile. With this clarified, I was now able to face the future with renewed courage and hope, knowing what I needed to do.”
No?
Nor me either at that time in life.
March 24, 2008 at 10:06 pm
sonjanitschke
Technically, it’s not.
However, if you create a Livejournal blog only for No man An Island and join say….writing communities, supernatural communites, or stuff like that — and post your blog in that community (because you can’t join an LJ community unless you have an LJ blog), then that’ll get more people interested.
Basically, you’ll be netting LJ people and WordPress people.
Make sense?
More later.
March 24, 2008 at 10:31 pm
nomananisland
Thanks Sonja, I’ll see about starting one as soon as I can — I didn’t know that about LJ.
Fiona — While all authors invest something of themselves in their work, No Man an Island is deeply personal to me, and the “Rewind” is the closest to my own life. When I was in university, a lot of my experiences were a lot like Ethan’s, and I certainly wasn’t able to do the clear thinking you describe until about third year. Second and first were a little too chaotic. I’m glad that resonates with you, as it seems to.
March 24, 2008 at 11:26 pm
sonjanitschke
Let’s see if my coding works.
I had some spare time. Feel free to use if you want.
March 24, 2008 at 11:28 pm
sonjanitschke
and my coding didn’t work. Bugger it all!
Mara ad
Astarte ad
Genevieve ad
March 24, 2008 at 11:29 pm
sonjanitschke
P.S … moderation, I see.
Anyway, I used white because it’s easier since it’s was a pencil drawing. I did try a darker background but it was giving me a headache (I’m not that great at adobe obviously).
I used dark blue text because of the blue in your old ad.
Oh, I hope I didn’t offend by just taking your drawings like that.
March 25, 2008 at 12:34 am
nomananisland
I don’t know why it went to moderation.
Thank you for that — they look amazing! No offense taken, I appreciate the time and effort.