Quinn Suydam -- Sheldon and Martha

   The idea of a mother who loves fish so much that she is tricked
   into eating one of her children who has been metamorphosed into
   a fish, and allowing the god who did the transformation to have 
   her other child as a lover, is just creepy enough to make a very 
   effective metamorphosis story!  Yours is generally very good, but 
   I have a few comments and suggestions:

     (1) Your title is too bland; it doesn't quite do justice to the 
         story. "A Taste For Fish" just occurred to me as a possible 
         alternative.  

     (2) More seriously, setting the story along the St. Lawrence River 
         in Canada, while making Poseidon a key character, creates a big mismatch 
         in the details.  These stories are most effective when the details
         fit together in realistic ways until the supernatural influence
         intervenes, I think.  For example, the story of Actaeon and Diana
         that you cite features a very realistic hunter minding his own
         business in the woods until he runs across the goddess bathing,
         by accident, and the plot is triggered by that chance encounter.
         The problem with your story is that Poseidon has no natural 
         connection with Canada(!)  So when he enters the story it 
         just creates a disconnect--the reader asks, ``What's Poseidon
         doing in this story, anyway?"  You might have set the story 
         along a river or seashore in Greece to make the fact that
         Poseidon plays a role more palatable for the reader.  And then, 
         of course, the fish would not be a salmon since there aren't
         any salmon in the Mediterranean Sea.  Any other large fish
         -- for instance the tuna that are fished in Greece -- would do 
         just as well, though.  I don't see that the fish has to be
         a salmon for your plot to work.  It just needs to be some
         type of fish.  

     (3) A smaller point -- nymphs in the Greek myths are specifically
         female.  So Poseidon wouldn't disguise himself as a nymph to 
         seduce Mary (that is, unless Mary "played for the other team;"
         Was this intentional?)

     (4) With respect to a point in your comments, I don't see that this
         story is that close to the Actaeon and Diana story from 
         Ovid.  Of course, that might have inspired you in some
         way that is less direct.  But then, what exactly was the
         connection?  This is not too clear. 


     Content:  B+

     Mechanics: A