Anton‘s Bark - One

Welcome to the third series in the Otto Loser Mysteries podcast.
This is the first Otto Loser Mystery to be told by Otto himself.
From the outset Otto’s position is that he is able to speak
independently, rather than as a character in a series of novels.
The story he tells is called Anton’s Bark. It is about the
obscure Austrian writer, Anton Matins, creator of the fictitious
Otto. We learn that Anton has begun to write his third and final
novel about Otto’s life. The writer is working as usual, at his
regular table, in his favourite café. As he drafts Chapter One of
Otto in Flames, Anton is struck by the vision of a beautiful
muse, reading a book in his café. As she sits there, the muse
grants the writer a single, extraordinary gift. It dawns on him,
after a time, that everything he imagines comes true. It is the
real Otto who recounts these events. He explains that he himself
came into being, as a real person, through a dream Anton imagined
him having.