Katherine Vaz made a brave leap by including her religion in her writing, since many people are skeptical about discussing any religion. However, Vaz went about writing these short stories with such grace and life that it is hard to focus on anything other than her realness as well as her great imagination. The use of imagery and constant strings of emotions captures readers from the beginning of this collection of short stories until the very end.

While reading through the first short story, “Taking a Stitch in a Dead Man’s Arm,” I found myself relating to a lot of what Vaz wrote. From dealing with loss to being afraid of the dark. The part about removing the stitch from a dead man’s arm to get rid of fear of darkness was interesting to me because I have heard many superstitions, but I have never heard about that one. The phrase, “Do not wait. Fear nothing.” really stuck with me because fear in itself can be enough to hold one back from pursuing what they need to accomplish in life. It is a powerful statement and a reminder that no one should ever let fear rule their life.

I noticed that much of Vaz’s writing has to do with death and tragedy and I am very much interested to find out the reason why. I am eager to question her when she comes to talk to the class on Thursday. After seeing Katherine at the reading today I see that she looks like a happy and lively person. The mood of her short stories does not seem to match her personality or appearance and that is why I believe she has a great imagination.