Fox and I have been engaged in a pretty serious poke war for the past couple weeks, but before that he was a contributor to Metastasis. I’d never heard of Fox before he submitted to Metastasis, but his ghost story engaged me and once I accept it I found him to be extremely easy to work with. I can’t tell you how much that meant to me while I was putting together such an emotion-laden project like this one. Fox is also contributor I’m interviewing on my blog today:
Who or what was the inspiration for your story in Metastasis?
I lost someone when I went through radiation treatment for Lymphoma, and I’m haunted—not just by her but all of them. Penn dealt with extreme cases. The Lady in the Doorway is a catharsis, one of my several attempts to try to heal.
How has cancer touched your life?
It’s touched all of our lives. I’ve suffered rare cell type of lymphoma. They didn’t think I’d survive it, and it shattered me when I did. I think about less in myself and more in others now. I worry for them. Cancer survivors have a connection, especially when you had it young. We’re esoteric, maybe even a bit pretentious about it, and we help each other survive each day. You never think yourself cured. You’re always waiting for it even several years later.
When it comes to cancer, what gives you hope?
Beauty gives me hope. I reel in largemouth bass at Peace, and I rejoiced when I release the fish back into the water. I adore the lights at Yule, the smell of pine. When I sell another story, I feel like my life means something. And then I’ll fall in love, and I know it’s going to rip me apart; yet I run into the storm and give it my whole self to rip and shred only to do it anon.
(POKE)
I am honored to be included in this anthology with such a fine and talented group of authors and artists.
T. Fox Dunham resides outside of Philadelphia PA—author and historian. He’s published in nearly 200 international journals and anthologies. His first novel, The Street Martyr will be published by Out of the Gutter Books this October, followed up by Searching for Andy Kaufman from PMMP in 2014. He’s a cancer survivor. His friends call him fox, being his totem animal, and his motto is: Wrecking civilization one story at a time. Site: www.tfoxdunham.com. Blog: http://tfoxdunham.blogspot.com/. http://www.facebook.com/tfoxdunham & Twitter: @TFoxDunham
(Note from Rhonda: *poke*)
