The Patchwork Witch

 There are some stories that begin and just develop a life of their own. This is one of them.

Now, I had the idea of the Patchwork Witch at this point already, a consideration at the time for a story "Outside the Circle of Midnight Black". False starts and bad ideas left this as nothing more than one of the vague haunts barely seen amongst the host that crowded for attention. There was still something missing to realize this particular individual.

One element I think I should set forth here, something which connected as I was wondering aloud (to the annoyance of those around me) about this uncertain personage. That was a hint dropped in "The Witch of Pitt's Junction" about the tragedy the Kearns Family left behind in Baird's Holler the night they fled through the ore tunnel to Pitt's Junction. All I knew for sure, drawing on this and what little existed at this point on Jonathon Kearns, was that after he left Baird's Holler, Delores Jackson and her boarders were no more.

I had not aligned this incident in any considerations at this point to that haunt eluding me. She remained without any anchor, anything to connect her soul to so that I may learn who she was. She was just an empty skin until that inspiration filled her full and complete. Fresh off the completion of "Tears in Green Satin", I was yet miffed at the attempt that had been made at my daughter and her mother. The filling of that flesh was immediate and I knew who was waiting to have their story told.

I gotta confess, the name hearkens back to a story I wrote in college, a short little tale of a young man trying to build up the courage to ask a girl to the prom as his buddies urge/egg him on. There was a line which existed in that, with the girl's name being Dawn, wherein I described her coming into the room in a manner exhibited by a rising sun. Well, as this Tale I was now embarking on, that name, that line sparked in my head at the appropriate time.

Now, I'd relied on almanacs before, mostly checking to see when there were full moons. Hunting up lunar eclipses was a little deeper down that rabbit hole. I swear, I don't know what it is, but I've gotten into some really lucky situations here. To make her the right age, to tie significant events to her life to, to even attach by luck a lunar eclipse to the year the widows in Mrs. Jackson's house burned, I just kept getting lucky. I couldn't bring myself to just call them lunar eclipses though. That's just kinda boring. Oh, you can check these too. I don't want any astronomers pissed at me for screwing something like this up.

This really did help expand and explain what has been going on at Mrs. Jackson's better than any story yet. While Dr. Raymond Paulk and Col. William Nesmith both have stories they've hinted at, and so has Percy Clark insofar as Delores' character, "For the Dolls Had Eyes" was the closest I've peeked yet through those drawn, lace curtains into what is going on in that house. Trust me, I am still very interested and even now, over two years from the finishing of this Tale, I have only been given glimpses through those curtains laced with the stain of animosity.

As I've mentioned, this Tale, "For the Dolls Had Eyes", once I found the voice and knew what was whispered at her birth, the story just poured out. My research was intense, mostly though in chasing moons and looking at google earth images of the Green Mountains in Vermont so as to make sure no one there would get pissed reading this. Got lucky here as well.

"For the Dolls Had Eyes" established what has become to this date one of my most visible characters, even though that thought would not sit well with her. This Tale, at 4,652 words, was finished in the first half of December, 2018, bringing me now to 14 stories completed. With this Tale, I was able to establish a timeline within the town's history, as well as connections which would come back immediately to haunt me. Ultimately, the importance of this Tale, both in the threads which connect it to some of the more important events in the history of this town, has grown significantly. It has established a pattern and timeline for the filling of the Widow's House as well as the seeds of its destruction. It has given me a magnificent character, one whose fate extends into a potential that only tempts. Seriously, what can a sawbuck get you on a good day when luck is high?

"For the Dolls Had Eyes" was published by Madness Heart Press in their Trigger Warning : Body Horror anthology. This was my 6th acceptance and trust me, I was beyond excited. Having come to know this publishing company and those behind it, I am now pleased as punch to be in such company. Again, luck keeps playing out for me in these little Tales of mine... Someday soon I'm going to tell you a (mostly) true story about a man who hitchhiked with his two young children during the Great Depression all the way from Florida to Arizona.

I just needed to make some Necessary Arrangements to get things right though...