J. Tynan Burke’s story “The Bagel Shop Owner’s Nephew” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 3 August 2018.
Late last year, an acquaintance recommended the documentary ‘Obit,’ about the obituary department at the New York Times. I was struck by the frazzled archivist who runs the clippings morgue. At the same time, I was flipping through Borges’s ‘Book of Imaginary Beings,’ and found an entry on the Tzadikim Nistarim (which Borges called ‘Lamed Wufniks’). So I thought it would be interesting to write a story combining the two, about a frazzled archivist who runs an obituary-shop-slash-apocalypse-prevention-directory.
As for the rest of the story, I honestly don’t know where these things come from. A surprisingly high percentage of my good ideas come to me when I’m trying to fall asleep. Very few come in the shower.
Finally, I have my lovely beta readers to thank for a few details and story beats, as well as for making the story much better than it would have been if they hadn’t given me notes.
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