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.
Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, was a proper Scottish Victorian who believed in the supernatural. Houdini, a cynical Hungarian-American, was an escape artist who exposed mediums as frauds. Yet they became friends and toured together. They split when Doyle’s wife claimed to have made contact with Houdini’s late mother and reported many erroneous things about her. By 1923, the pair openly feuded in letters to The New York Times. Houdini wrote, “There is nothing that Sir Arthur will believe that surprises me.” Read The Sister Knot about two resilient women, orphaned in WW2, who defy fate to sustain a lifelong friendship. A compelling novel about the power of sisterhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
Doyle’s belief and Houdini’s skepticism drove a wedge in their friendship
Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship
In the beloved books by A. A. Milne, honey-loving Pooh and small timid Piglet are best friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. In their adventures, Piglet conquers his fears and Pooh is forever loyal. The trust between them is an enduring mark of friendship. Read The Sister Knot about two resilient women, orphaned in WW2, who defy fate to sustain a lifelong friendship. A compelling novel about the power of sisterhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
Piglet and Winnie: One fearful and one rash, they find a happy compromise in friendship
Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship
My Goodreads and Amazon review of Ashes, Ashes by Fred Soukup (Rated 5) – Above the Smoldering Remains. It’s difficult for a writer to make readers care about characters whose lives are far from enviable — people who, while trying to befriend others, become their own worst enemies. Yet that is the challenge Fred Soukup sets for himself in Ashes, Ashes, and brilliantly achieves. As if surmounting that hurdle wasn’t high enough, he’s wraps his portrayal in a Rashomon-like murder mystery. The story is told from multiple points of view, each with a distinctive voice. It damns the foster care system and the callous society that looks the other way as its victims land on the trash heap. As a novelist myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire Soukup’s ability to elicit compassion for unlikable characters who seek salvation but will settle for a salvage operation. This is a bleak book and yet, because the protagonists don’t give up on themselves, readers can’t give up hoping for them. Soukup’s creations cling to life, determined to realize dreams and find redemption. They may differ from us on the surface, but underneath their scars, these throwaways embody a deep and abiding humanity. Soukup reveals the dark underbelly of the nursery rhyme we all learned as children, most of us unaware that it refers to a deadly plague. We’re not innocent children, but Ashes, Ashes challenges readers to rise above the smoldering remains.
Elicits compassion for unlikeable characters
Why writers read: “We ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? – Franz Kafka
Caesar and Pompey, Roman statesmen and generals, were childhood friends who became rivals. Their power struggle led to civil war. Pompey was assassinated in 48 B.C.E. and Caesar, the Empire’s self-appointed dictator, was assassinated in 44 B.C.E. Read The Sister Knot about two resilient women, orphaned in WW2, who defy fate to sustain a lifelong friendship. A compelling novel about the power of sisterhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.
Caesar and Pompey: Roman generals and friends whose rivalry ended in two assassinations
Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship
Submission form: Our journal is committed to publishing under-represented voices. Are you a member of a marginalized community?
Submitter’s reply: Consider me intersectional. First, I am old. Submission judges skew young. Elders like me are shunted aside. Second, I am blind in one eye, ergo a virtual cyclops. Our kind have hovered on the edge of extinction since the ancient Greeks persecuted us. Third, I am short. Not “Little People” short (as in dwarfism) but, like Dr. Ruth, I stand several inches below five feet. Much of the world, most notably supermarket shelves, lies beyond my reach. Fourth, I am a certified end-of-life doula. The number of people comfortable talking about death is distressingly small and so-called “polite society” shoulders us to the margins. Fifth, having come in contact with a noxious plant or insect while weeding the garden, I have a 3″ x 2″ itchy rash on my right shin. I trust this affliction is temporary, but it renders me a member of a limited demographic at the time of this submission. (Proof-of-rash photo furnished upon request). Sixth, I love Brussels sprouts. Even broccoli fans do not acknowledge me at vegan potlucks. Seventh, I hate cilantro. Unlike a certain genetic subgroup, I do not claim it tastes like soap. (CONTENT WARNING) It tastes the way underarm sweat smells. This condition, likely genetic too, goes unremarked in print. Eighth, my guilty pleasure is Coffeemate. I am part of the mainstream who imbibes this artificial creamer. However, among a small cohort who, like me, otherwise consumes only “real” food, my choice renders me an outcast, to wit, a “marginalized marginal.” Ninth, I swear by WordPerfect (although I convert files to MS Word to share them, e.g., with the editors of this journal). While the legal profession recognizes the superiority of WordPerfect, Ann Patchett and I are its sole standard bearers among the literati. Considering that “I’m with her,” I respectfully request that you accord my manuscript more than a cursory reading confined to the first paragraph. The tenth strand in my intersectional braid comprises 1 ⅔ missing toenails,. My right pinky toenail was surgically excised; two-thirds of my left big toenail spontaneously fell off a year ago and has not grown back. This combination of deformities is not even relegated to the margins of Podiatry Today. In conclusion, I hasten to add that my reply is not intended to make light of initiatives to provide a platform to traditionally ignored writers. I applaud those efforts. However, despite surviving other significant challenges, I am not BIPOC or LGBTQ+, a refugee or an immigrant, an unhoused or incarcerated parent, or the owner of a physical or emotional support animal. I am a writer trying to make sense of the human condition with openness and empathy. I willingly remain silent so I can listen to those with different life experiences, but at some point, I want to join the conversation. As an advocate of creative writing, I thereby propose that you create a broader definition of “marginalized” as a criterion of manuscript review.
How do you determine your margin(alization)?
Why writers write: “Only in the relationship between what is unique, even eccentric, and what is universal, is there a true subject, worthy of hours of work.” – Joyce Carol Oates
My Goodreads and Amazon review of Absolution by Alice McDermott (Rating 5) – Don’t Look Away.Absolution by Alice McDermott turns a female lens on America’s early intervention in Vietnam. The novel is told from dual retrospectives: Patricia, now an elderly widow, and Rainey, now a middle-aged daughter, both members of military-industrial families posted to Saigon in 1963. A third woman — Charlene — Patricia’s dynamic friend and Rainey’s domineering mother, draws them together. While the book reflects on American hubris, it looks more critically at the role of women on the cusp of the women’s liberation movement. Patricia, a shy newlywed, is defined by others — her husband, her friend, the Church — to the point of accepting the nicknames they assign her. Rainey is the obedient daughter, silently emulating her mother’s stoicism. Charlene’s friend and daughter are equally enamored of, and alarmed by, this whirlwind of a woman, whose “white savior” guilt drives her to help the poor and ailing Vietnamese. Like America itself, her altruism is feeble and often misguided, but she’s adamant that looking away is worse. As a fellow writer (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire McDermott’s fluid writing, deft characterizations, and immersive storytelling. The novel, like the war, presents no victors, only a quagmire that demands confession and defies absolution. Don’t look away from this superb book.
The Vietnam war seen through the eyes of women
Why writers read: “No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.” – Confucius
