Massachusetts Renaissance man Ben Shattuck tells me a creative life is like a river — he’s just paddling down tributaries as they come.

Put it this way: When I first interviewed Shattuck, over a decade ago, he was a painter, working at his family’s Westport gallery. The second time, he’d zigged to found the Cuttyhunk Island Writers’ Residency .

We talked when he zagged to publish his nonfiction “ Six Walks” , about tracing Henry David Thoreau’s footsteps around Massachusetts. And when he zigged to become a general store owner, purchasing the oldest in America: Davoll’s in South Dartmouth , est. 1793.

He’s zagged again. Or maybe zigged. Either way I’m not surprised that while I’m calling to talk about his move into short fiction writing, with “ The History of Sound, ” we end up

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