quote:The story seed for "In the Fading Light of Sundown" was a fabulous picture located by our contest coordinator. The picture showed a boat, pulled up on a sandy shore, with roots sprouting from the planks and gnarling their way to the ground. That picture became the basis for the Livewood and the central speculative premise of the story. In choosing a character to sail my boat, I consciously chose to use an old man. Why? Because I was in the middle of writing several stories with young, spunky female protagonists, and I wanted to stretch myself. With Tobis I was forced to tread new ground, look at life from a new angle and discover a kind of story I wouldn't otherwise have written.