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"A collection of short flash fiction pieces about the everyday and the insignificant but critical moments of human lives that reveal values, character, and the myriad forms of love in our everyday lives"--
List of contents
Preface
REACHING OUT FOR LOVE
Mourning Becomes Electra
My Movie
A Shared Silence
The Nature of the Beast
Why I Like Going to the Dentist
Cover Your Heart, Reach Out Again
The Past Is Not Even Past
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE
Becoming Clear
Blooming
Serial Killer
To Be Held, and to Hold
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
Holding On
Fly Away
DENIAL OF DEATH
Death in Springtime
Letter to Delta Airlines Customer Service
Mammogram
Memorial Fidelity
Dreaming Lola
Right on Time
For Some Time I Thought There Was Time
Not Afraid
LOSS BRINGS ANGER. GRIEF, REGRET
Melissa
The Way of All Flesh
The Fly God
The Day My Books Fell
Urban Lesson
What We Say When There’s Nothing Left to Say
Visit to Father at the State Hospital
THOSE WHO HOLD US, THEN AND NOW
The Doll
Unimportant Things I Remember
How Love Stays
The Nightgown
How I Got Saved
The Wind Under My Wings
The Unguarded Face of Love
DEATH CATCHES UP WITH US
Ways I Don’t Want to Die
The Visitor
A History of Her (Very Short) Sex Life
Not the Kind of Man
Mercy and Truth Have Met Together
THE MEANING OF LIFE
What We Have Left
Things They Will Not Say about Me in My Obituary but I Wish They Would
Love Letters from God
The Exorcist
Eclipse
Why I Don’t Tidy
Poesy
What Is the Question?
How We Remember Them
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the author
Marilyn Sewell is a writer, leader, activist, and speaker. She is the Minister Emerita of the First Unitarian Church of Portland, Oregon, where she served as the Senior Minister for seventeen years before she retired. She has edited or authored ten books, her latest a memoir,
Raw Faith: Following the Thread.
Summary
“Through the spaces between people in these beguiling fictions, love wanders like a ghost, offering whispered hints of solace against a backdrop of isolating divisions. In the spirit of the enigmatic stories of Lydia Davis, Isak Dinesen, Yasunari Kawabata, and other masters of the ironic parable . . . " —Kim Stafford, author of 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do
In In Time’s Shadow, minister, author, and activist Marilyn Sewell reflects on the everyday—the places we live and work, the thoughts we all have but hardly ever share—though these musings may carry the most profound of our human concerns. Using a variety of short literary forms, ranging from dramatic monologues, vignettes, and letters, to prose poems, fantasy, and more, Sewell’s fiction offers insightful, compassionate slices of life that will bring laughter and, at the same time, take you deeper into the mysteries of life: a lonely woman is distressed because her plant has stopped blooming; marriage partners talk past each other in a therapy session; a man comes across a ragtag street band in New Orleans and reconsiders his life choices. These short, compelling readings reveal the cultural incongruities and inanities that crowd our lives. We love, we lose, we die, and through it all, we ask, “What’s it all about?” Sewell invites us to ponder with her and perhaps come to trust our common humanity and our most noble instincts.
Foreword
- Online campaign featuring social media images with blurbs and reviews of the book as well as designed graphics of selected excerpts.
- Early reviewer promotion through advance copies to encourage reader reviews and generate buzz.
- National review outreach to trade and print publications (PW, Kirkus, Booklist, Library Journal, Foreword, New York Times) and online (NPR, Spirituality & Practice, Book Riot)
- Advertising in print publications (Sojourners, Poets and Writers) and online (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Sojo mail)
- Promotion on the publisher’s website (skinnerhouse.org), Twitter feed (@skinnerhouse), Instagram page (@skinnerhouse), Facebook page (/skinnerhouse), Tumblr page (@skinnerhousebooks), Pinterest (@skinnerhousebks) and publisher’s e-newsletter.
- Events one virtual launch event and various local readings.
