In the Wings

G'day, everyone! I'm back. Soon after my last entry here I got the writing bug, desperately, and insatiably. But it did indeed become satiated, myself now having around two thirds of my 2019 book ready for submission, a collection of short stories. But let's get back to the current collection in hand, Aberrant Selected.
     I thought we'd spend a while, quite a long while, in each week looking at a particular story from Aberrant from the wings, seeing the machinations that led to its publication. We'll start off, of course, at the beginning, My Dear Psychiatrist.
     This story was basically created as the result of one of the many idle notes in my literary notebook, which I always have on me, as well as a pen, a pencil, and an eraser. The note was discovered by my youngest brother, Chris, who was staying with me for a little while. When he discovered it, he laughed uproariously.
     'What is it,' I asked him. 'What's so funny?' I was very excited that he had discovered such a funny note, hinting at great potential.
     'This note,' he replied. '"I think my psychiatrist is crazy."' From there we learn of one of my former psychiatrists, who appeared to me as ill at ease in his profession.
     The story was originally published in my first book, Bearing All Gods and Goddesses, but in a shorter form, and under the title, My Psychiatrist. Whenever I change a story, no matter how little, the new story always gets a new title. In the title under discussion, the addition of Dear is also meant to allude to Deer, reflecting the good psychiatrist's fundamentally innocent nature. But this allusion isn't pushed.
     I have also shown this story to a few psychiatrists and they've always thought it was hilarious. Even the subject himself laughed throughout its reading, which I asked him to do to gain his approval for its publication. It is such a funny story that I am certain that you shall enjoy it too.