The Opium Eater
I'm really happy to report that my short story, The Opium Eater , has been accepted by Grim Corps Magazine , and should appear in Issue 2 later this year. I wrote The Opium Eater in 2008, shortly after completing Trajectory . I picked up a small volume of De Quincy's essays from my bookshelf that I had purchased from a used bookstore in Toronto sometime around 1970. I read a good portion of his essay The Spanish Military Nun and then wrote the story. I wanted to work in some historical family details as well. As an example, my great-grandmother, Agnes Blizard, founder of the YWCA in Canada, makes a brief appearance. It's a dark, twisted tale with elements of horror and ghost stories in it.