So, is Helzibab like sleep paralysis? Or is the heaviness that loss that comes with Helzibab’s dream eating?
I read once this idea that as the universe expands, matter, atoms, become more dense – that as humans we are slowly moving further and further from the original source and our ability to connect with it. My husband never remembers his dreams, whereas I dream vividly – something I find incredibly intriguing – and I thought it would be cool to play with the notion that dreams were the last grounds left for humankind to regain that connection. Helzibab I guess then is the face of that loss, the biblical agent speeding up the process.
Helzibab seems to carry a sadness with him as he works. Is this a sadness due to the work he does, how weary he is, or both?
I think definitely both. He is a slave to his task but there is a human element to him as well – his bones worn by his conscience not just his labour.
Have you got any writing plans for 2019?
Not to stop, hopefully!
If you had a message for readers about this story or writing in general, what would you say?
This story came out of a prompt that I completely twisted to my own ends. Always good to know that even the most benign threads of inspiration can lead to something dark and delicious.
Do you have any previously published pieces you’re particularly proud of?
I have quite a documented obsession with ruins (just click on my website… www.allthefallingstones.com) and spend a lot of my free time traipsing the hundreds of amazing sites that dot the Irish countryside. I love the idea of bringing these places to life and have taken to writing with more of a historical bent of late. Athenry, a short story published in Crossways Literary Magazine last year, is one I’m particularly proud of. https://crosswayslit.com/446-2/
You can read Claire Loader’s new piece “Where Dreams Once Danced” in Issue Nine of The Ginger Collect!
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