Nuance 16

I have just, yesterday, uploaded for publishing on Kindle a collection of ten of my short stories. This is a free self-publishing service that I never even knew existed until a friend who works in IT told me about it and sent me the link and information. He is one of my language exchange partners and lives in Mexico, but his English is already fluent and he decided after reading some stuff on this blog that I should give it a go. Can't hurt, I guess, and I do appreciate the interest he has taken. There aren't many friends like that, and I have really done badly with some really self-centred idiots, whom only by courtesy I still refer to as friends. But time will tell. This has also caused me to search my archives and hard drives for all the short fiction I have written, but done nothing with, really, apart from some of it appearing on these pages. But even if I will be getting but a whopping seventy percent on three dollar ebooks of my stories, it is still better than nothing, and who knows, Gentle Reader, I might even be able to retire early. Maybe two weeks early. Maybe three. Wow! In the meantime, I cannot think of anything really original to write about this morning, except that I resist the temptation of perfectionism, which has become the new neurosis, thanks to global capitalism. There used to be special programs for underachieving students. Now they are trying to work in something similar for overachievers, which rather makes sense, even if it is still a bit of a hard sell to get some of those privileged little boys and girls to elicit much compassion or pity. In my case, I have resumed writing this post following an hour and a half nap, which I was needing, from having just more than five hours sleep last night. Which means that I can just get this blogpost finished with little time left, except maybe for a little work in my sketchbook, but the other stuff I will have to leave till later, and all because, well, I am not a perfectionist. Rest and self-care always come first in my life. I have had to learn my lesson the hard way. Here is the synopsis for my short stories: This a collection of ten of my short stories. These are all contemporary tales about people who live on the margins and who find strength and victories great and small in the challenging circumstances of their lives. Some live with mental illness, others are poor, dealing with many diverse circumstances of disempowerment. Some are gay, lesbian or transgendered. Others don't fit any pat or easy description, but have still found creative ways of living life, if not on their own terms, then at least on the terms that life has mandated for them. This collection of stories begins with a woman, Anne, from Canada vacationing for the first time alone. She is middle aged and has sought to keep ageing at bay through a series of cosmetic interventions, thanks to her Venezuelan ex-boyfriend and business partner, a plastic surgeon practicing illegally in Canada. Her twin sister, who has opted to age normally, has challenged her to try to give up her privilege while on this trip. She finds herself encountering and being challenged by her own inner shadows as she becomes unusually aware of the needs of the poor people around her and while trying to negotiate a romantic tryst with a young Mexican man. This is followed by Ducks, a story about a young woman, Denise, who is caring for her mentally ill mother who is also a concert pianist. A Sad and Ugly Tale chronicles the demise and untimely death of an arrogant radio broadcaster who hates the poor and homeless. Monster gives a glimpse into the life of Adrienne a young woman losing her fourth baby to family services as she spirals downward into mental illness, and how she comes into a better place in life thanks to the intervention of her long-lost mother.. In One Perfect Rose, a woman is reflecting on the suicide of a friend of hers as she is attending his memorial service. As well as being her neighbour, he was a professional mental health worker who for a while was supporting and caring for her during some stages of her mental illness. Violet Green Swallows is an exploration into the mind of a man confronting his own subtle homophobia after his son is convicted and imprisoned for participating in a gay bashing, His father winds up seeking out the male couple victimized by his son, to apologize and seek understanding. He is a bird-lover, and the nesting box he is building for a certain species of swallow has brought out in him a particular tenderness, started by his encounter with the young gay male couple. Persephone involves a retired Classics professor implicated in the untimely death of a young veteran from the war in Afghanistan. As a penance, he tries to support him while he is dying in hospital. In Rite of Spring an older woman who has lived most of her life with mental illness goes through a kind of personal rebirth. Lonnie's Mom tells about a fifteen year old drug dealer, Raymond, who is finally busted and has to reckon with more than just the law. The first story, La Tigresa Negra, involves a Canadian woman in Mexico. This final tale, Copper Beech, is a suitable conclusion as it is about a wealthy Mexican woman living in Canada, and her work with refugees, and of the suicide of her Chilean husband who was a survivor of the torture camps of Pinochet, and the life she has built for herself and her stepson. I prefer to let my characters speak for themselves as they make their way through the many challenges and obstacles in their lives, some finding a sense of inner reconciliation and growth, and others not doing so well, but still navigating the choppy and sometimes violent waters that all of us must confront: relationship and marriage failure, poverty, mental illness, discrimination, and even death. Each person becomes a kind of student of the universe, and even if their lives seem a confused and incoherent jumble, each is able eventually to make a little bit of sense of things and to even find and embrace a sense of purpose in their lives.