Afterword:
This story began with my finding out about the drowning of chained illegal Chinese immigrants by the ship captains bringing them to the United Sates in the 1800s. In fact, that impetus was the beginning of Jack’s creation in my mind, and the one that set me thinking about how to use historical events that fascinated me in a contemporary setting. Being a writer of fantasy and science fiction gave me the obvious answer: I would use a tale of ghosts and other supernatural figures from folk history.
I read about the keilin and also found artistic renditions of it. As a creature from folk myth, of course, it had a variety of presentations. Some versions had deer antlers; some had a furry face reminiscent to me of a Scottish terrier; some had a face more bovine than deerlike or cani
