It is now a bit difficult for me to recall just what inspired “All the Lamps Are Lit,” which is the lead story in DAOwen Publications Unbound III: Goodbye, Earth. Yes, that is an Amazon Affiliate link. This anthology does not appear to be doing as well as the others, so if you can spare some loose change for the ebook, I would much appreciate it.
Going back to what inspired “All the Lamps Are Lit,” I can recall that I had wanted to get to Confession for some time. I had the germ of the idea before I went, and it had been trying to sprout in my mind for some time beforehand. On the day that I finally made it to the Sacrament of Penance, it broke through. Being very grateful, I promised the Lord a story out of gratitude, holding out the base idea as an offering.
“All the Lamps Are Lit” started maturing rapidly. In fact, it proceeded to grow longer than this author originally intended. My original idea was for the story to be around a thousand words, but I ended up with a seven-thousand-word tale that went in directions which I did not anticipate when settling down to write.
From the start I knew the heroine would be a girl dying of cancer. Additionally, this author knew the heroine (Shawnee) would not be the POV character. That role would go to the nurse, though it took some work to find her name. Given the degradation of popular culture going on and my desire to save some part of it, deciding on the key to Shawnee’s strangeness was not difficult.
The story was written at a time when this author was learning just how deep the rot in pop culture ran. Denial was a factor, in retrospect, but so was defiance. These things that had been and still were good, in their original forms, could not be allowed to go into the night unsung. They should be recognized for the venues of grace they had been and which some still were.
That dogged insistence on recognizing the good of the present pop culture was also tinged with some nostalgia. My favorite anime had been much on my mind at the time, and I wished to pay homage to it as well. After all, if that series had not aired when it did, had not drawn me in and fired my imagination, then I would not be a writer.
Those of you who have followed my writing will know the series I mean. Zoids: Chaotic Century was, for this storyteller, one of the many tales she studied to create good stories. In addition, it was that show which put a fine point on her refusal to simply abandon the fight for pop culture earlier than she did. Chaotic Century emphasized not giving up, striving always to find – or make room for – a miracle where none was thought possible.
Looking back, the real miracle is that “All the Lamps Are Lit” was published at all. I have been told it is a very human story. Someone who read it told me that it made her cry. Those are heartening compliments, to be sure, and I treasure them. But sometimes I wonder just how good this little tale really is, in the long run. Whether it is the seed God planted, that I offered back to Him, and that He helped me nurture through a rather uncomfortable series of drafts.
Perhaps it is not for me to know how good or poor “All the Lamps Are Lit” could be considered. That is fine, if it is so. The story does its job, and that is enough. It was a gift freely given and freely returned.
In the end, that is enough for this author.
Should you have enjoyed this post, be sure to subscribe to my Substack and/or my blog, www.carolinefurlong.wordpress.com, for more. Make sure to check out my other published stories through this Amazon Affiliate link as well, and stay tuned for more to come. Writing proceeds apace, though not necessarily in the directions this author anticipated.
But then, it’s no fun if you can predict the route your story will take, is it? 😉