Ann S. Epstein writes novels, short stories, memoir, essays, and poems. Please use the links or site menu to go to the HOME PAGE; learn about her NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, MEMOIR, ESSAYS, and POEMS; find interesting facts in BEHIND THE STORY; read REFLECTIONS on writing; check NEWS for updates on publications and related events; see REVIEWS; learn about her END-OF-LIFE DOULA credentials and services; and CONTACT US to send webmail.
I’m delighted that 50 Give or Take has published another piece of my microfiction. Check out the story, Feline Believer. Watching birds is instinctive for cats, who regard them as easy prey. Cats often “chatter” when they see a bird. Why? Experts theorize that cats make this chirping sound as a means to mimic their prey, entice it to come closer, or possibly even hypnotize it and make it easier to catch. Is it possible that the sound we hear is actually felines praying? For links to my other microfiction, flash fiction, and longer pieces, see SHORT STORIES.
Do cats chatter to hypnotize birds?A daily dose of microfiction in your inbox
In Rabbit, Run by John Updike, Harry Angstrom, a.k.a. Rabbit, is equal parts terrible husband and father. A washed up ex-high school basketball star who can’t face adulthood, he has an affair and abandons his wife, a recovering alcoholic, which causes the entire family to fall apart. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true value of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
Washed up man washes out as a fatherToronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize
The father of Lisbeth in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series by Steig Larsson is an ex-Soviet spy and crime boss who beats his wife nearly to death and is an even worse father. His daughter’s revenge: She becomes a vigilante hacker. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true value of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
Modern technology and old-fashioned grit bring down a daughter’s evil fatherToronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize
Some of you know that before retiring to write fiction full time, I worked for over forty years as a developmental psychologist at the HighScope Foundation, an early education nonprofit in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where I was the Senior Director of Curriculum Development. HighScope recently celebrated its 50th anniversary and Detroit Public Television produced two short documentaries to honor its work. I was interviewed as part of that process and appear in both videos. The first is a 5-minute HighScope Overview Video about the Foundation’s educational philosophy and practices, and the second is a 3-minute HighScope Historical Video about its origins and ongoing international impact. Watch and learn. Just as a good manuscript editor helps bring voices and images to life on the page, a skilled documentary videographer enlivens talking heads and photos on the screen. Kudos and thanks to Matthew Winne.
Basics of the HighScope CurriculumBest selling book on early education published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children
In Edna O’Brien’s Down by the River, a work of fiction grounded in history, 14-year-old Mary is raped by her father and, after a failed abortion attempt, is forced into an insane asylum where religious fanatics insist she have the baby. Her father avoids prosecution. In another history-inspired bad dad story, The Great Stork Derby, a husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize and, fifty years later, learns the true value of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
History bears out the truth of O’Brien’s novelToronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize
After losing his lucrative New Jersey bank job, John List, a deeply religious man, decided it was better to kill his family than have them go on welfare and turn away from God. He shot his mother, wife, and three children, then escaped to Colorado, changed his name, and remarried. He was finally caught 18 years later. Asked why he didn’t shoot himself too, List said that those who killed themselves couldn’t go to heaven, whereas if he lived and confessed to God, he’d be forgiven, get into heaven, and be reunited with his family. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true value of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
A religious fanatic commits unholy actsToronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize
My Goodreads and Amazon reviews of MFA Thesis Novel by Ian Rogers (Rating 5) – Meta-Lit Hit Job. Midway through MFA Thesis Novel by Ian Rogers, a graduate student says, “If you want original shit you’ve got to hit up small presses, the guys outside the mainstream who put out stuff that’s really good.” Reading this sentence, I instantly understood why this hilarious and irreverent book found a home with exactly the right indie venue. In literary grad speak, the book is a “meta novel,” that is, a novel about writing a novel which the protagonist, Flip, must do in order to earn his MFA in creative writing. The narrative is replete with winking allusions to literary books, journals, and organizations, some real, others snarky inventions of the author’s fertile imagination. It’s a double hoot when you’re not sure whether a reference belongs in the real or fictive category. Lest those who are not MFA candidates or English majors fear the book may he too erudite or esoteric for them, rest assured that the humor is broad — and shallow — enough for anyone to get in on the jokes. Beyond the wit, however, Rogers also grapples with a serious question: How do you produce creative work that pays the bills while also fulfilling your worthy ideals? As a writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I’m fortunate that I’ve never faced that quandary but, like other creative people, I must still resist pressure to churn out what’s “sellable” if it’s not authentic to my vision. I won’t spoil the book’s ending by revealing Flip’s answer to the earnings vs. art dilemma, but I will say that Ian Rogers has created a commercially viable novel that is also an entertaining and satisfying work of literature.
A meaningful meditation beneath the satirical surfaceWhy writers read: “Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.” – Anne Herbert
Richard Williams groomed his tennis daughters, Venus and Serena, from the time they were toddlers. They practiced returning hundreds of volleys, often into the wee hours. He was proud of their achievements, but regretted pushing them into tennis instead of a more lucrative sport. For another bad dad who saw fatherhood as a means to get rich, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena, is the controversial subject of the film “King Richard”Toronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize
From the erstwhile Poet Laureate of camp, dormitory, and office, verses inspired by rain, rain, and more rain during the first week of May in Michigan:
Endless precipitation Breeds rank frustration Storm clouds of hurt As rains wash o’er dirt Wading through mire I fain would expire Oh for a dry-eyed fling Romping with glorious spring
Without Franz Kafka’s papa Hermann, the term “Kafkaesque” might not exist. In one famous wintry anecdote, the father shut his young son outside on the balcony in his nightshirt for daring to ask for a glass of water. In his mid-thirties, Kafka wrote his father a 100-page “lawyer’s letter” citing years of intimidation and emotional abuse, but, true to the genre, he never sent it. For the story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
Father Hermann was the seed for his son Franz’s nightmaresToronto, 1926: A husband pressures his wife to have babies for a large cash prize
