[at-l] welp, and stuff...

[AThiker at smithville.net (Felix)]

rtilkens4359@comcast.net wrote:

>Just wanted to let you know that i (personally) have greatly enjoyed
>your MFW columns, and was dismayed to read recent letters in
>the ATN.
>Of course, being a member of this list, it probably did not escape
>your notice that people seem to have a variety of opinions.
>
>Thanks for your columns.
>
"I wouldn't be a member of a list that'd have me for a member" (taken 
straight off the bottom of one of the Groucho Marx Glasses my dad stole 
for my mom)

Aye.....a can of worms I have opened. I certainly don't want this to be 
a 'Hey, tell me I'm great' campaign. That's not what this is about. And, 
I realize I shouldn't have even brought it up here. I do get asked by 
listers a lot why my stories aren't in certain issues, though. So, I 
figured it'd be easier to explain once. The answer to the question would 
step on the toes of a friend of mine. I don't want to do that.

 I will say this (Does anybody REALLY want me to say this?): I don't 
just sit down and write a story.  The story happens for some reason. 
Sometimes that reason is as simple as a deadline. Sometimes its because 
I feel melancholy and I want to make myself feel better by making 
someone smile. Sometimes it's because I feel nostalgic and find myself 
sitting on Mrs. Purtlebaugh's couch and I want to tell someone about it. 
The stories, the good ones anyway, generally write themselves while I 
drink coffee. I like those.

The point? I can't seem to find a reason to write the ATN stories. I 
don't get a deadline. I don't get a check. I don't get a 'Hey, we had 
five people who liked that last story.' So, where's my 'reason'? And, 
when I am told that the policy is to print ALL non-personal attack-type 
'letters from readers' and the first to my recollection about one of the 
stories is what I consider to be less than flattering, I have to think 
that perhaps the stories aren't doing what I, and the ATN, want them to do.

As for the letter from the guy (am I still talkin'?) in Nashville, I 
don't even remember what happened in the story. I know I was at 
McAfee...enjoying my unstuck-in-timedness...when, some woman annoyed me 
a bit by forcing herself into my realm. (I'm gettin' it right now so I 
can see how I'm an elitist...) (...reading...) well, it seems to me, 
taken at face value, the only hiking the main character mentions is the 
implied couple of miles from the road to the Knob. And, perhaps implied 
day hikes in other areas. An 'elitist' does this make? Perhaps so.  I 
also don't see how I had a critical attitude toward 'her' enjoyment of 
anything except perfume. Why am I rebukin' to you guys?!?

(And, just so you know, the only parts of this story I know to be true 
are that I have become unstuck in time at McAfee Knob...and, Southpaw IS 
a trail legend. )