"Dreams of Summer" (I & II) by Zadown

[Wyvern]

Zadown,

 

I read through both of these this evening out of curiousity to see how they read back to back, and I liked them both. :-) You'll have to give me a late pass for the original "Dreams of Summer," it's a very nice vignette that's quite worthy of the praise it recieved back in 2003. I particularly liked the detail of the "Alaska" refrigerator magnet and how it ultimately hinted at the man's fate. Still, I think that "Dreams of Summer II" is the better of the two shorts overall, as I really like how you based most of it in the woman's Summer fantasies and then revealed her accident at the end. The heat within her (motorcycle?) helmet seemed to compliment the things she was dreaming about, and the fragmented stream of conscious style of imagery worked very well for her situation.

 

Neither of these pieces was what I was expecting given the positive-sounding titles, but both of them showcased escapism well... and with plenty of great details to boot! ;-)

[Zadown]

Thanks, Wyvern - glad you enjoyed them!

 

I am pretty pleased with both pieces, which for me isn't all that common. The "Alaska" magnet I had on my apartment of the time's fridge - I shamelessly mixed reality and fiction in that piece, walking around my room and trying to distill the feel of winter into the text. I remember pausing in the writing to gently touch the window, to stand in the middle of the room, looking out.

 

Part II was complete fiction, on the other hand. I didn't actually have the same idea about what happens in it as you did, but since I don't want to freeze the possible interpretations into one single possibility I'll pass on giving out the "official" plot. Poke me in IRC with a PM if you want to know what I thought I was writing about at the time.