21 Comments

The alienation, the alternating peace, and the ultimate: the search for self and maybe even meaning. Is hope coming along with the loyalty of Ishmael? You continue to intrigue, Kathleen.

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Thank you Mary 🤍🤍

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Loved Marija's apparition! And loved how our protagonist reacts to it, as if it were only slightly out of the ordinary. And the mirror on the street -- really enjoyed the scene. Beautiful, Kate. :)

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A great chapter, Kate. "The side streets from Westbahnstraße looked like perfectly set up perspective drawings. The lines of all the bricks and pavement stones converged over and over again at the focal point with nothing in its way, nothing moving." I was really struck by this passage and the way it emphasises how the physical city is such a major challenge in this story. Excellent writing.

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Appreciate the kind words, Jeffrey! I’m so fascinated by these aspects of the city.

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I can feel tht interest! I also though you captured the claustophobia of the pandemic era very well in Marie's panic attack.

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Sep 25Liked by Dr. Kathleen Waller

A particularly haunting and dark chapter, Kate. A lot of introspective here. It's very tense, now. The scene was Marija and the mirror was especially strong.

Lots and lots of great lines, but this one really caught me: I always think it’s strange to say goodbyes when you know it’s the last time you’ll see someone: isn’t it a kind of death?

Also, I'd totally gotten it in my head from the very first chapter that Ishmael was a cat 😆🤦‍♂️.

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Sep 21Liked by Dr. Kathleen Waller

Your exploration of Vienna’s haunting streets and the protagonist’s growing disconnection is beautifully written. The vivid imagery you used and her internal monologue conveys the deep sense of solitude felt during uncertain times. I particularly appreciated the subtle shift between the physical environment and the protagonist’s introspective thoughts.

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Thanks so much Jon, and especially for noticing the narrative changes.

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Oct 27Liked by Dr. Kathleen Waller

Finally have a chance to catch up. I loved the image of the street perspective converging to crush her — an intriguingly fresh image of loneliness and anxiety. And the scene where she talks to “Marja.” Wow. Chilling.

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Thanks so much Julie! Appreciate your readership so much; thanks for taking the time to come back to it. :)

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Oct 30Liked by Dr. Kathleen Waller

I’ve been dying to! Weekends are the casualty when you’re packing to move.. . . .

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Oh I hear you! Where are you moving - far? I’m behind on everything! Might have missed it. Good luck ☺️

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Oct 30·edited Oct 30Liked by Dr. Kathleen Waller

Not far geographically, but sorting out 20+ years of life and radical downsizing added to the challenge. Thanks! Good luck with your own settling in.

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That’s huge. Hopefully it will feel really good in the end 💙💙💙

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Oct 21Liked by Dr. Kathleen Waller

"But mainly, he said, humans are social creatures. Even extreme introverts need human contact to prosper." - As an introvert, I concur. Hah! What a powerful chapter, Kathleen. It explores loneliness and the dilemma to open up your heart to others so compellingly. The pandemic brought great hesitation in us to continue opening up to others and loving them when it also could mean we could lose them at any moment. And any loss is already so much pain and weight to carry.

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Oh yes, it was a lot of these things I was thinking about, Nadia. Happy it made those connections for you. Thank you!

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Oct 23Liked by Dr. Kathleen Waller

Thank you, Kathleen! You shared feelings a lot of people experienced and experience.

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"That evening, on a second walk after a few glasses of wine, I saw her again. I saw Marija but from a distance as she turned the corner. I knew it was impossible but at the same time her green coat was recognizable and her hair was just like mine."

I got a strong sensation of "Don't Look Now" reading about her meanderings through Vienna and the green coat. Fantastic chapter, surreal, painful, existential.

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Sep 27Liked by Dr. Kathleen Waller

You capture the madness of that time so perfectly, Kate - and the hallucination of Marija was positively unnerving! And how strange that in lockdown, Marie begins to almost absorb the strange, insular quality of the Viennese she's grappled with, and then feels herself becoming an element of the buildings, a statue or frieze. I'll echo Jeffrey - and maybe I've said this before: the common writing advice to treat the setting as another character has never been so vividly on display!

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After a chapter that holds the reader in a kind of limbo of the 'pandemic-inner-stress', this ending... "it was the promise of live human connection that allowed me to fall asleep" comes as a true relief.

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