Hey, thanks so much for asking me about the particular book I’m working on during your latest visit. You were helpful to me with information about kinds of jobs in the area. From types of workers I build characters. One I’m remembering especially is ski slopes and trails-grooming. Throughout these writings I have sought out information on how particular jobs are performed. Jobs provide types for invention. In other words, what role in the community does a character play? I start there and don’t use real people as characters in books for a couple reasons. I do, however, use a piece here and there of someone’s real-life experience, on-the-job or off. It’s kind of like quilting. You take snippets from various pieces of cloth and stitch them into an attractive design. I’m sure, of course, that people will look at certain incidents and say, Ah ha, I know who this character is in real life. But that would not be true in the case of my inventive writing.

They are waiting at the meeting hall. The solstice celebration is ready. You and your fellow participants are grateful and glad, coming from miles around. We’ll worship together what makes it all work. The Season comes into us and we embody it. The season with the longest night happens to be the brightest. The days are brief and still the light finds you, comes into your precarious existence. Go in joy, the joy found in faces of others in this community.