A Short Interview w/ Sheldon Birnie
"Bonus material" for Birnie's short story, “Not Dark Yet,” published on Tuesday, 2/18.
If you haven’t already, reading Sheldon’s amazing story, “Not Dark Yet” now… and then read our short interview about the story!
"Not Dark Yet" by Sheldon Birnie
Mitch stumbles into the pub that was attached to the motel, which doubled as the town gas station, late Friday afternoon, breathless and sweating despite the frigid cold, after riding a snowmobile that wasn’t his the nearly 20 klicks in from Rose Isle.
Holy shit, boys, we’re in a fuck of a mess here, is what he says, pulling off his balaclava, gasping for air. Then he kept on talking as if his life depended on it.
Aaron Burch: I’m kinda always curious where stories came from and what the seeds of idea were. Can you tell me a little about the genesis for this story?
Sheldon Birnie: The image off the hop, of a slightly manic snowmobiler rolling into a rural bar/gas station/motel with a dire warning of something sinister coming came to me pretty much as is in the story. I typed it into my phone — then it sat there and sat there, as it took me a while to figure out just what the old guy was so worked up about and how he was going to get his story across. Once I figured the guy to find himself in something of Richard Matheson I Am Legend by way of rural Manitoba situaish, with the oncoming early nightfall and the blizzard like weather that comes to northern latitudes around the winter solstice adding to the urgency, the pieces started to fit together for me. Of course, whether or not the barflies listening believe such a tall tale from such a sketchy character is another thing altogether.
The story has this really great, unique structure where it is told in these flip-flopping sections of 3rd person narrative and then first person Mitch telling the guys in the bar his story. Was that always the structure and voice? Do you remember when or where that came from, or what it helped with or opened up for you in the story while writing it?
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