Patrice publishes her first story: BurialBurial
As was Bereft, our previous short story publication, Burial will be offered free on Amazon.com for the five days (20-24 July 2013) during its publication month. Click on Burial on those dates and download it for free.
“Robert Olen Butler long ago encouraged Patrice and me to write stories in the style of his novel, The Deep Green Sea in which two people attend to the same events from their own perspectives. This is what Patrice and I are doing in this experiment.
Michael Walker, a disgraced soldier, divorced, separated from the military, estranged from his daughters and grieving over a lost son, has returned home. Here, he had once been innocent.
Charlotte Fine, a therapist, in a crisis of loss has taken up residence in an absent friend’s farm house to tend to her own long neglected wounds.
Word-of-mouth is crucial for any author to succeed. If you enjoyed the story, consider leaving a review at Amazon, even if it’s only a line or two; it would be very much appreciated.
The preceding paragraph is not written lightly. We know where we want to go, but are uncertain how to get there. That’s the fun of creation.
Writing group critiques have helped a great deal. I carefully read my critiques on Amazon. I like an ‘atta boy’ as much as the next guy, but when a reviewer takes the time to read the work, and then, OMG!, write a comment, even if critical, then I am obligated to read it with gratitude and care.
Anonymous Authors
Literary criticism is tough stuff to listen to. I’m not sure why, but written, even bitter and rage-filled, critiques little bother me. I suspect my brother taught me to listen carefully, to discern the sense within nonsense. He became schizophrenic around age twenty-five and often chattered nonsense incessantly. It drove people batty, but I could listen without listening to his disconnected stream of consciousness until at a unanticipated moment he spoke a clear, articulate and sense-filled sentence, and I would perk up until he lost the thread and returned to nonsense. I suspect I recalled those times before the schizophrenia unwound his circuits, when he was my older brother, knew a great deal about many things, and taught me those things.
Or perhaps it was the rural folk around Gleason, Wisconsin, among whom I grew up and who tended to be practical and blunt. I think of Carole from Dudley Graded School, one-half my size, who confronted my bullying ways. Linda of Merrill High School then challenged my chauvinist certitudes, although Linda unlike Carole did not rake my face with her long nails.
Patrice’s stories delight me. I suspect many others will share my sense of their charm.
Patrice, however, inhabited a different world and has a different sensibility, where words spoken feel as if they are meant to maim, injure, kill. Thus, I preview. Write your critiques truthfully, as you see it. You must. I will read them and screen them for an undetermined period.
or add your take as a comment to these blogs.
All the best,
Robert
