Here are two very different versions of a story. Different enough  to me to be viewed and treated as two different pieces. Cezzane’s Carrot out of Santa Fe was kind enough to publish “Eyes” which is the earlier work. I read “Eyes” at several book store open mic events and people had problems with talking seals.Or at least seals that our central character could understand. While I am not concerned with catering to the “Reader’s Digest Large Pint Edition” crowd, I wanted to maintain a sense of “magic-realism” so communication became all visual and limited for the most part to human people.
All people are people, but not all people are human people is something I believe. Some audience members thought he would become a deer, some thought she would become human. The two central characters are neither man nor deer. They are two halves of something much bigger and far beyond even the concept of the individual.
There is a strong element of redemption in both versions. Oddly I have written several stories of late that involve redemption of one kind or another. In addition, two of these are, “Safe Harbor” which appears in The Boston Literary Magazine, and “Ekphrastic Riff” which may be found at riverbabble.
Peace – Doug Mathewson