In the “Contributor’s Notes” at the end of the anthology,
it’s casually mentioned that Annick is a writer and filmmaker who lives in
western Montana. Additionally, “She was the executive producer of Heartland, a
feature film about a woman homesteader’s life on the Great Plans, and helped to
develop Robert Redford’s forthcoming film, A River Runs Through It, based on
the novella by Norman Maclean.”…”this is her first published short story.”
Okaaaayyyy…
Smith writes: “The heart of “It’s Come to This” is true to
my life; the rest is fiction.”
It’s worth your time to read this story. I struggled through
it but was rewarded at its conclusion.
Honestly, I’ve found it very difficult to get through these
stories, and this one really threw up a huge speed bump in my path. I had such
high hopes for the stories of the early '90s
…but I think the problem is not with
them but with me.
I have lost my way.
As I mentioned above, one of the purposes of reading these
stories and the writing that I place here following the readings has been mostly
about self-discovery. Looking back to the introduction of this volume, I see
that I uploaded it to this site on Feb. 20, 2020. Since beginning this volume, I’ve
only read and written about 15 stories. I’ve found it hard to focus and
concentrate on reading fiction over these past three years and nine months. I
haven’t stopped reading, but I noticed that most of my reading has to do with
work or current events. I’ve paid close attention to make sure that this
reading hasn’t impacted my mental health. I believe that I have been able to
pull away from the news when I need to, and there are times when I can go a
couple of days without reading it (weekends) and not miss it.
Now, I do feel that there has been a huge impact on my
attention span and the ability to focus on reading at length – both fiction and
non-fiction. I have started to adopt some behaviors that I hope will allow me to
regain my focus. One of those behaviors is an attempt at picking this writing
back up on a more regular reading and writing schedule.
I need to get back on the path.
