Author notes

The Ride 5

usedbooks

on July 31, 2018

One of the ongoing themes in this story is that of comfort zones. This is a fact that I only just discovered revisiting and illustrating it.

When I was first writing the story as a teen, the setting was mundane and boring and my idea was a weird animal is causing a stir because things are so dull in a little town.

Revisiting it as an adult, who has lived in a number of places, the setting is nostalgic and comforting. From my perspective (writing this a few months ago), this scene is a nice calm picture of a pair of similar people meeting for the first time on a lazy country road. But as I came to draw a picture for it, it dawned on me that Connie's perspective is unique to her. For many, her entire lifestyle would be disturbing. She handles wildlife that many find frightening, lives in a place with limited connection to the outside world, and now she's accepted a ride from an older male stranger on what can be described as a desolate country road. Any of these things are fodder for someone else's horror story.

And the point of Strange Creatures is that it isn't a horror story – but maybe ONLY because of the point(s) of view. It could be *someone's* horror story. (The current setting takes several characters well outside their comfort zones, and by contrast, Connie would probably find a big city terrifying and disorienting.)

In any case, whatever emotions this winding and empty road evokes, I hope it evokes *something.*