Where did the character Dmitri come from?
Dmitri (and the narrator in the first section) is based on a frightening man who wanted a tennis court I was using. He was a great big man, with a thick but well trimmed beard, and a tight t-shirt that showed his enormous barrel chest. He came up to me and said, with a thick Russian accent, “How long are you play?” I was pretty sure he was in the Russian Mafia. So I stopped playing.
Who is the narrator in each section?
1) The frightening Russian mobster, tennis player, short story advice giver, read with a Russian accent.
2) A plumber, read with an Irish accent.
3) A detective, read with a film noir accent, whatever that means.
Was the organization (3 self-referencing sections) part of the plan, or did it come naturally with the telling of the story?
It just happened naturally. I wanted these siblings to transcend time and place, so I set them settings in 3 places, and at least 2 times (the first section doesn’t really have a time).
There is a lot going on here. Can you point out something we might have missed, a secret in the storytelling?
Dmitri’s sister Svetlana is named for Svetlana Kuznetsova, who is a Russian tennis player, to continue the theme.
What other projects are you working on right now?
Just trying to finish my damn novella.
In its third year, The March Micro Marathon will be, as usual, a prompt-a-day whirlwind for 24 days. You’ll exchange drafts of micro fiction, non-fiction, and prose poetry in small groups and gather for a series of online events (all recorded for participants unable to attend live). We’ll finish with 3 competitions, and participants who are not already in SmokeLong Fitness will be invited to workshop with SmokeLong Fitness until the end of April!