1967 – A Coming of Age Story
I rolled away from the wall and looked over at the clock. Early enough to get up. I wasn’t sure why, but Dad had promised to take me to a football game in Regina. This would be the first time we’d ever been away together overnight and I was already packed.
I walked quietly down the hall and looked back toward their bedroom, the door slightly open, the room dark since it faced the back of the building. I heard him, as he put it, “breathing deeply,” since he refused to admit he snored.
I liked being up early, all alone. It was as if the apartment building, with everyone fast asleep, was waiting to spring to life like flies on a window sill waking on a warm winter day…
A strongly written, moving account of a young boy taking his first steps to independence and true sense of self. Set in a small prairie town over a one year period, “1967” provides a wonderful portrait of a time and place long gone.
Seen from the young boy’s perspective, devoid of reflection, the reader is pulled along within the frame of his experience – his point of view, his language, and his understanding. It becomes clear that the boy’s “growing up” has less to do with physical development than with recovering a buried memory.
Lacking a real moral centre, the main character is an anti-hero but immensely likeable, for although he is canny and quick-witted, he is nevertheless an innocent child, prisoner of his cultural and social-economic class.
While “1967” provides a devastating look at an impoverished existence, empty of expressed love or gentle guidance, the evocative imagery and power that fuels the writing provides vivid proof that one can survive childhood.
“… a surprisingly moving account of a young boy at a true turning point in his life.”
– Isabel Huggan, author of “The Elizabeth Stories” and “Belonging”
Buffalo – A Love Story
Coming up next!
“Come on, I’ll show you around. Once we step outside you’re not gonna hear much, even when I shout at you. Just nod and look like you understand what I’m telling you. And pay attention! If you don’t pay attention from the moment you step through the front gate ’til the moment you walk out, you can get yourself killed. Understand?”
Harry stood up, went to speak, and instead nodded his head ‘yes,’ to which his escort laughed.
“You can talk right now. I can hear you. What’s your name?”
“Harry. Harry Rowden.”
“What are you? I mean your background.”
“Polish,” Harry said, with a hint of pride.
“Rowden? That don’t sound very Polish.”
“Can’t disagree with you there. Father changed it when they came over. Said he was an American now.”
“Well, Polish or not, it’s my job to give you the lay of the land, so listen up ’cause I’m not going to repeat myself. And there ain’t a test at the end of the tour either. If you’re out there and something happens, well, you’re on your own. Got that?”
Harry nodded as they stepped out into the bright, midday sun and started off at a brisk pace.
A richly detailed, historical fiction spanning forty years and four generations, Buffalo – A Love Story is a family saga presenting themes of work, nostalgia, death, and of course, love. Set in Buffalo, New York, against a backdrop of American and world history, it’s the story of a Polish / Irish family whose lives, loves and tragedies are interwoven within the American Dream.
Beginning in the 1950’s and ending in the early 1990’s, it is an epic novel, celebrating the moments of life from birth, marriage, work and war, events which both binds a family, and tears them apart.
Set against the dangers of making steel, unions, the death of an industry (and by extension a town), the loss of livelihood and identity, it is ultimately about coming to terms with life itself.
As the corporate greed of the 1980s lays siege to the American Dream, it becomes clear the common man (and as a result their families) has been sold out to Wall Street and emerging global interests.
Buffalo – A Love Story provides a window into the outside forces which impact and splinter a family, a love story about the people and the city of Buffalo, NY, and a tribute to the city that lives on.
Twelve Stories about Fire
Available sooner rather than later!
She sat crossed-legged on the bed, naked except for his hat and unbuttoned uniform jacket.
“Just what does the little symbol mean? I’ve always liked the look of it. Reminds me of being a cop, or maybe a sheriff from the olden days.”
He watched as she held the material of his uniform between her hands, her finger circling the metal badge she had referred to as a “little symbol.” In the slice of light that cut through the slightly open hotel curtains he could see her still-hard nipples, and wondered if they were always like that.
“First of all, it’s definitely not a cop’s badge. Or a sheriff’s badge. Everyone gets it confused.
“It’s actually based on the Maltese Cross. Goes back to around the fifteenth century and represents the lands, eight of them, from the Order of St. John. I think the main thing it’s supposed to depict, though, were the eight obligations of the knights.”
“Ooo,” she cooed, “sounds all very romantic. Knights, horses, damsels in distress.” She laughed. “Have you come to rescue me, my fair knight, or have you come to simply rape and pillage?”
She’d leaned back, her breasts flattened and off to her sides, her hair a tangled mess. She ran one hand slowly down her stomach, stopped at her belly ring, and then proceeded down between her legs.
“From the look of things,” he said, “I don’t have to do much to enter your kingdom. Appears to me the drawbridge is down and I can just ride right in.”
Twelve Stories About Fire is a collection of separate short stories, each with fire as the central theme. Underpinning the collection is a full-length novel, spread throughout the book, about two characters (featured in some of the short stories) who meet, marry, and fall apart—relationship wise.
The overall narrative is tied together through a series of flashbacks in an interview format and given by one of the two main characters, a once-successful writer.
“It’s about love – so it can’t have a happy ending”
– R.W.D.
P.S. “Everything is Copy” – Nora Ephron
