Abstract:
Since the inspiration for the short stories in this collection were ordinary happenings
in ordinary people’s lives, readers should not expect to engage here with unusual
characters or happenings of any kind; instead I invite readers to consider ordinary
people’s experiences of sorrow, joy, conflict, contradiction, and change. “The Date” is
about the disappointment of a middle-aged woman’s great expectations for the outcome
of an encounter with a stranger. “Pas de Deux” is about the relationship between a mother
and her young child at the time that child threatens to run away from home. “The Drive”
is about the resentment a woman feels about the high prices dentists charge and what she
decides to do about it. “Remembering Bert Easterly” is about a father and daughter and
the origins of a gift-giving tradition. These short stories are not yet in final form but are
merely drafts that I might one day develop into finished works. They are exercises in
which a beginning fiction writer practiced fiction-writing techniques.
