"Mountain Panic" by Suzanne Adams
– I began to pass little crosses made of sticks and string.
It was fully dark outside now, a blackness unrelieved by any shaft of human-created light.
Suzanne Adams has been an actor, director, teacher, and archenemy of Mountain Pine Beetles in the Rockies. She didn’t take writing semi-seriously until moving to Charlotte, in this “writingest state.” Her stories have won a few prizes in literary contests and have been published in Litmosphere, Main Street Rag, Memoirs Ink, and Minerva Rising. She is an enthusiastic member of Charlotte Writers Club, Charlotte Lit and North Carolina Writers Network, and is delighted to be included in this anthology.
Author’s Talk
Suzanne Adams
The events described in “Mountain Panic” happened during the year I lived in Switzerland, when I was young and foolhardy. Living in a foreign country is always illuminating. New customs shake old expectations. In the little village where I lived, people carve TURNIPS for Halloween! And women’s winter coats, at that time, were all black, brown or gray. When I wore my long red one, children followed me on the street yelling “Sami Claus!” More significantly, I made discoveries about myself. I found that the person who felt self-reliant and invulnerable in a safe little midwestern suburb was far from invulnerable alone on a foreign glacier in a snowstorm. It’s humbling. I think that’s a good thing.
But these notes were supposed to be about writing. I’ve enjoyed writing ever since at age 10 I felt compelled to rewrite James Thurber’s “The Great Quillow” in rhyming couplets. I don’t know just why I felt Thurber needed my help in this matter, but my teacher, rather than tell me how silly I was, had the class memorize my rhymes and perform the play for the whole school. In fifth grade that’s as good as a Pulitzer.
I don’t have an impressive set of writing practices. I write something, look at it, think it’s a disgrace to pen and ink, worry it until I’ve developed a certain proprietary fondness for it, send it off, and then if allowed, revise it till the cows come home. I deeply appreciate good editors. And good teachers.
