Dear Mother Nature:
On behalf of the writers and editors of the short story anthology The Fall: Tales From the Apocalypse, I apologize for neglecting to write about your wrath as a possible means of destruction if the world was to come to an end this year–2012– such as the Mayans predicted.
Us contributing authors remembered the zombies (Ryan Gaudin and A.M. Supinger) and the possibility of plague (P.S. Carrillo and J. Lea Lopez), as well as ravaging Mother Earth with war (c’est moi–Jean Oram, R.C. Lewis, and Matt Sinclair) as a means to the end of all we hold dear. We even went as far as blaming God (Mindy McGinnis, Cat Woods, and Judy Croome) for our end-of-the-world troubles. We covered societal death, selkies, and robots as possible threats (R.S. Mellette, A.M. Supinger, and Amy Trueblood). Only one of us (Alexandra Tys O’Connor) came close to getting it right with her environmental wrath and destruction (solar flares).
How could we, in our tales of death and destruction forget about you? The real force that holds our lives in the precarious balance between either safety or destruction: Mother Nature. You make us strong. You make us resourceful. You make us survivors.
You hold us in your hands and at the flick of your wrist, despite our arrogance and naivete, we are, always, immediately at your mercy.
We understand that by excluding you we hurt your feelings. How often you must feel overlooked, forgotten, ignored, and scoffed at. You have reminded us of your position of power with your no-so-gentle reminder to The Fall’s publisher (Elephant’s Bookshelf Press) by sending a high-powered hurricane (Hurricane Sandy) through the publisher’s home state (New Jersey) on the morning of the book’s launch (October 29th, 2012) causing the publisher (Matt Sinclair) to lose power, and thus, be unable to publish our neglectful tales of world destruction.
So, on behalf of us all, this fledgling author (Crumbs will be my first fiction publishing credit) and copy editor (I copy edited the stories for The Fall which was my first large-scale editing project) I apologize from the bottom of my heart for not showcasing your power, wrath, and angst in my work.
But wait… while we may have all neglected to showcase your dark side we have all chosen to illuminate and revel in your beauty. Our stories have honoured your ability to uplift us, surprise us, and even shelter us during tough times. Our stories illustrate your passion and beauty, some of them reading almost like a love letter. Wherever we travel in our stories, you are always with us, making our worlds real and visceral. Through you we are able to demonstrate that no matter what goes on within us or around us, life does indeed go on.
Please, Mother Nature, take it easy on New Jersey (as well as the rest of the world) and allow us to publish our anthology of hope and rebirth–something the people of the East Coast will surely need in the coming days.
Sincerely,
A fledgling author
(AKA Jean Oram)
NOTE: This post was originally posted elsewhere and was moved to this blog in 2014.
