Hi, Kerry,
Well, I always feel compelled to apologize for making people cry, but thank you so much for your kind words about "The Grieving Plain." I appreciate it very much that you took the time to comment, and it was a pleasant and unexpected surprise to find your post when I logged on here at my own job this morning.
Actually, in mentioning my incorporation of Annie Proulx's imagery, you touch on what has been my approach to this whole fanfiction thing. I haven't had the inspiration--or the time--to write anything for awhile now, but all along I have made a deliberate effort to imitate Annie Proulx's turns of phrase, or to write things that deliberately evoke memories of scenes or lines that we know from the story or the film. Perhaps it's not very original or imaginative of me, but I didn't create Ennis and Jack, and this is how I'm able to "see" my own stories in my own mind's eye.
Of course, it's also true that I have added things from my own personal experience. For example, in "The Grieving Plain," the pot of red geraniums from the southward-facing porch comes from the fact that my late mother always planted geraniums in the southward-facing flower bed, against a brick wall, in front of the house where I grew up. The sun against the brick wall kept the flower bed warm enough that it wasn't unusual for those geraniums to be blooming as late as Christmas.
Thanks again for your kind words about the story.
Jeff