Delia and Phil is a story I wrote while riding Toronto Transit Commission trains to and from work back in 2003. It was originally part of the novel Drive-by Saviours, a story within a story, imagined by the protagonist Mark while he was riding the subway to and from work, sketching people. The manuscript turned out to be too long for most publishers, at least for a first-time novelist.
So Delia and Phil became a short story, eventually published in 2010 as an Earlit Short by Newfoundland and Labrador’s Rattling Books, edited by Janet Russell and Susan Rendell. It was a thrill to learn my story would be published alongside some of my own favourite writers, like Leslie Vyrenhoek, Joel Thomas Hynes, and Kathleen Winter. It was an even bigger rush to hear my words performed by renowned Newfoundland actor and director Charlie Tomlinson, who beautifully interpreted and brought to life the story.
A decade later, it was a joy to see it on the page, slightly reset in the Maritimes, in my short story collection, Boy With A Problem (Pottersfield Press). It’s fun to read along with Charlie, though the words have been slightly modernized, tightened, and relocated.