I’m entering my short story collection Between the Wars in contests and submitting it to prospective agents and publishers. The collection’s fourteen stories span the years from World War I to World War II (1911-1946) with narratives that go beyond the battlefield to examine how extraordinary events change ordinary lives and how, conversely, minor happenings can affect actions, feelings, and relationships. For example, “Jamming” pits the journals of an overbearing husband and his stifled wife at the founding of the Women’s Institute in Wales during World War I. In “Undark,” a budding artist paints her family’s reluctant acceptance of her older sister’s poisoning as a “Radium Girl” in the mid-1920s. A woman scriptwriter in “So I Did” battles sex discrimination and family disapproval to break into 1930s radio. Set in the Capone era, “Blood and Sand” portrays a girl’s confusion upon discovering her adored Uncle Al is behind the killing of her best friend’s father. Five of the stories have been published in journals (see STORIES) but I’d love to see the entire collection in print.
