From the Vaults: Rebecca Rosenblum

Rebecca Rosenblum, subject, gazes at object, out of frame.Rebecca Rosenblum, contributor to Issue VIII of The Puritan, remembers a time when the line between “crush” and “stalking” wasn’t so clear."If This" ran in the Fall 2009 issue and was actually written long before that, so it's definitely a "young" story. Even when I wrote it, I felt it was young—about being free and strong and alone for the first time. It's also about a time of life when the line between "crush" and "stalking" isn't too clear—I'm far from that now, but I remember it well. That sort of love-from-a-distance is always more about the subject than the object, but what would happen if you reached across that distance? That's what I was thinking about, I guess. I was also thinking a lot about these characters around when I wrote this piece, and since. They have been in every book I've written, albeit sometimes in minor ways. This piece was the my beginning with them—it's like looking back on the day you met someone who is now a good friend.This story is written in an effusive, elliptical style I can't access anymore—I'm way sparer now, which is probably a good thing, but I do miss the hyper-lyrical more-more-more way of writing. Maybe someday... I also can't write a piece this short anymore, so in that way I'm not spare at all. It's funny, I like to think I'm getting better as a writer—and I really hope I am—but in some ways I'm just different now than before, and I could no easier slip back into old styles as leap ahead. Weird.Rebecca Rosenblum is a writer and editor living in Toronto, Ontario. Rebecca’s short fiction has been short-listed for the Journey Prize, the National Magazine Award, and the Danuta Gleed Award, longlisted for the Relit Award, and she was herself a juror for the Journey Prize 21. Her first collection of stories, Once, won the Metcalf-Rooke Award and was one of Quill and Quire’s 15 Books That Mattered in 2008. Maclean’s blog called Rebecca “Canlit Rookie of the Year” in 2008. Her second collection, The Big Dream, was published by Biblioasis in September 2011.