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Commentary on “Never Happened”

Tom Gartner

“Never Happened,” though I hope it works on its own, is also part of a story cycle that’s gradually evolved and come into focus over several decades. The first few stories were written as complete stand-alones, and were very different from each other: a romance between a waitress and a restaurant manager in the wine country; a fatal climb in the Teton Range; an artist’s suicide on the Lost Coast. But I eventually figured out how those events might be connected, and started writing stories to fill in the gaps between them and construct a larger arc.

“Never Happened” is placed about midway through the cycle, at a key turning point, and it’s possibly my favorite of all the stories. I’ve put these two characters through a lot, but this might be their defining moment.

Once I thought I’d finished the cycle, and gotten most of  the stories published, I started to think about turning it into a novel. That’s turned out to be a bigger job than I expected, as new questions, new themes, and even new characters keep presenting themselves.

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Tom Gartner’s fiction has appeared in numerous journals, including Madison Review, Headlight Review, Kestrel, and Summerset Review. He lives just north of the Golden Gate and works as a buyer in an independent bookstore in San Francisco.

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