Category: Literary Fiction Publisher: Main Street Rag Publishing Company
ISBN-10: 193090729X
Type: Fiction
Pages: 189
Copyright: Jan 1 2003
Short Fiction Anthology edited by Bill Wesse, in which my short story, "Avon Calling" appears
Fiction Editor Bill Wesse has selected 23 stories to appear in this short fiction anthology. Featured stories by:
Margaret Drummond Allegrucci, James Breeden, Glen Chestnut, Christopher Cunningham, Carlo Danese, Peggy Duffy, Sue Friday, Karon Luddy, Joseph Mattson, Ashley Thomas Memory, Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz, Ruth Moose, Mimi Moriarty, Valerie Nieman, Frank J. Pisano, David Plumb, S. Craig Renfroe, Jr., Steve Silkin, Nancy Simpson, Art Taylor, Gerald R. Wheeler, Jeff Williams.
Excerpt
Excerpt from "Avon Calling"
It was never my life’s ambition to be an Avon lady. I didn’t even know Avon was still around until I started looking through the classifieds one morning and there it was, right at the top of the page. Avon Sales . . . Your Path to Opportunity. Earn money from home. Set your own hours. Be your own boss.
I tore up the page and ripped out a rectangle of paper slightly larger than the ad, careful not to cut off the phone number. Henry looked over the top of the sports page from across the kitchen table. “What are you doing to my paper?” he said. We’ve been married thirty-three years and barring something unusual, like the birth of a child, he follows the same routine every morning: a cup of black coffee, the sports section, the classifieds. Normally I read the supermarket ads and Dear Abby and sip my tea.
“Just clipping a coupon,” I said, the small white lie sliding out on its own. Not that I’m in the habit of lying to Henry.
In this eccentric tale set in a small town in northern India, Pawan Mishra masterfully weaves ingenuity and sarcasm in a manner that’s simultaneously hilarious and tragic.
A teenage boy struggling with the coming-of-age issues of sexuality, religion, and peer approval is overwhelmed, but soldiers on. After several years, he comes to understand the family forces that have left him so deeply troubled, and the process of
High school student Kevin Borden has a secret and his name is Louis Lannegan. He also has an overbearing mother. A tale of coming out in the shadow of parents and friends. Award winning novella.
