Meet the Intern: Violet McCann

PSA to all who have seen the Jurassic Park movies: Those beasts are not Velociraptors. They are far too large. Utahraptors, they very well may be. Almost. But where are their feathers? “It’s because the genome was completed with other DNA…” Sure. Fine. But first, imagine. A swarm of chickens. But slightly larger, waist high. Long, feathered tails. They are cute. You smile. The one closest to you grins back, revealing scalpel teeth serrated more so on the back than the front. You can place in that throat a bird call, a roar, or simple deathly silence, but the end is the same once the cluster closes in.

Like stone-wielding villagers to an unlucky housewife, they are upon you.

Isn’t that just ghastly? More so than the movie design, I argue. They could have been like land-piranhas. You’ve had a piranha nightmare before, don’t lie. I think that accuracy is a vertebra of horror, right at the curve where the spine becomes the neck.

I am Violet McCann, a multi-faceted rising Junior at Macalester College. Triple majoring in biology, geology, and English, I am driven by open access to information. I grew up in museums, surrounded by bones. From volunteering in the Burpee Museum of Natural History to working in my hometown Batavia Depot Museum in Illinois (pictured left), I have been fortunate to experience history from the icy beginning of the Earth through its industrialization into my modern-day home. I often use science and history, ranging from period tailoring to taxidermy, in my own writing. Most recently, my prose “seasonal allergies” was published in the Spring 2024 edition of Macalester Literary Magazine, Chanter. My short story “He Flew into The Windmill” was also published on the Macalester campus. As I go into my third year of college, I am streamlining my skills to become a forensic scientist.

I am thrilled to be interning at History through Fiction this summer. Not only does this indie publisher combine my passions for history and storytelling, but its values align closely with my own. Though my heart was planted in science, I am growing into an earnest communicator above all. History Through Fiction is supporting authors, new and experienced alike, in sharing both literary art and reliable research. I am looking forward to lending my hand to this summer’s short story contest, and learning how History Through Fiction is crafting the past into crisp pages.

With a coffin-shaped electric bass case, a heavily-stickered laptop, and an outfit with a little bit of lace, I’m starting sink into my new community in the Twin Cities. This place is full of unique and dedicated people, and the air has already begun to smell of home.

Violet’s Favorites:

Book = Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Author = Shirley Jackson

Poem: Alone by Edgar Allen Poe

Album = Obsidian by Paradise Lost

Song = When the Wild Wind Blows by Iron Maiden

Video Game = The Dark Pictures Horror Anthology

Dinosaur = Accurate velociraptors. Think of the land-piranhas… and tremble.