I really like this story – what I find most interesting is that it builds a really strong image of location in my mind, without ever laying out much detail.

I feel the coffee shop is in Canada or the USA – there’s a few small things in the writing style and dialog – ‘patrons, rather than customers’, ‘lassie’ as a term of endearment, and ‘fire code citation’. The seasonal descriptions gives me more – a small-town vibe, with snow on the ground, and gruff men and women working off the land – maybe even a forestry setting. Perhaps I am getting carried away here, but I’d love to know if this was accidental or deliberate, and if any of it is how you pictured the scene?

The aim is to set the scene in North America. If you go back a couple of prequels, you’ll find that it’s a coffee shop in a gentrified ex-industrial area. (Think something like Docklands in London, or the Distillery District in Toronto.)

I hadn’t come up with much of a character for Isaac until I got to this point, and because of the nature of Ficly, I might not get to describe him again.

He’s a displaced Scot. He’s also Jewish. But he has a Gallic soul, and a love of coffee.

I asked him why he named the coffee shop Mario’s and he responded,in an accent like a youngish Sean Connery, and with another of those brilliantly expressive shrugs, “Who’d come to a coffee shop named Isaac’s?”

I’m really pleased you get strong visuals from the story though. It’s part of my aim with these truncated shards of story.

You really have a way with moody. I get a really quiet and contemplative vibe from this story.

I also adore guitar music.

The story transports me to the coffee shop and surrounds me with the atmosphere there. You can’t say better than that in 1024 chars.

And there’s the cliffhanger again.

Top marks.

Having just gone back and read the prequels (I keep missing them!) I feel the atmosphere of this place even more. Can’t wait for the series to continue…