“Wailing Station”’s setting was inspired by the abandoned whaling station on Deception Island in Antarctica. This shot of the Provincetown dunes covered in snow was the very first thing I saw when I pulled into town in winter of 2010—and all I could think of was how stunningly it matched my mental picture of “Wailing Station”’s landscape. If you’d like to know more about Deception Island, visit here: http://www.ecophotoexplorers.com/antarcticadeception.asp

My short story “Wailing Station,” which was a Toasted Cheese contest winner and was included in a syllabus for a course at Wolfeboro, NH’s Brewster Academy last year, has now been added to the syllabus for Composition II: Introduction to Literature at North Shore Community College in Danvers, Mass.

I don’t think there’s an honor as high, at least for me, as this: one of my short stories is being used as an example in the classroom (“Doors” and “Paisley Surprise” were also added to syllabi last year). Every time I hear something like this, I think my Dad the English teacher would be proud.