Writing and Reading

Sally had a special request for me on this featured tour, one I didn’t expect: she wanted me to sort of review her work, three short stories, to be exact. As I said, she is an author in every sense of the word. Excellent way to end her two days on tour here at “Writing and Reading”. Again, it’s money time for her on a figurative level given that her name and her business will get more traffic. I remark again: we’re talkin’ a gifted copy writer, freelance editor and simple freelance writer. She’s a hard worker. You got to give it up for her.

Any of you ever need some editing, contact her; she’ll give you your money’s worth, I’m sure.

But back to the subject of this post: her stories.

There’s no coincidence here that these stories–“In the Orange Sherbet Light”, “I Can Smell Him”, and “I Have a Gift”–find Christ and kill off any sense of evil in the world. These days, in my life, stories like that need to be told. There’s no coincidence. More on her work, though, and less on how it relates to me….

Her poignant crystal clarity of truth and honest point of view of meaning and simplicity gathers together in the smallest set of words for each short story. Only around 750 words for each. We’re talkin’ a super-easy read here. But the greatest characteristic that stood out for me, personally, was the dead-on fact that each story was written in present tense. Not past tense. A real rarity in story writing–but not as much in short story writing. Still a rarity, though.

And I then could tell, right away, one word popping in my head, what these three stories reminded me of–just one word–

HAIKU….

Remember?–crystal clarity of truth–and a simplicity and meaning. The stories are concrete poems written in narrative form. There’s a very specific point to each story. And it’s completely evident, too, that the ‘antagonist’–generally a normal aspect of any written story–isn’t entirely concrete, malleable, even visible. We’re not talking about a villain dressed in black here or a mean old lady out to skin 101 dalmations for their fur to make coats. The conflict is something inside…rather than outside. The plot is more based on ‘thought’ than on ’action’. The story moves more on the concept of ‘memories’ than on ‘events’. Sort of like…. Haiku.

“In the Orange Sherbet Light” is simply about a woman adopted by a neighbor with a love for books. Brings out in you a nice, fuzzy feeling, right?

“I Can Smell Him” is something a bit more intense, a story about a woman cheating on her husband.

The third, “I Have a Gift”, grabbed me the most, based on a true story, a story about an Indian girl who had the opportunity to watch a movie about Jesus Christ (which film, though, was not clear). The remarkable thing about this true story is that the Indian girl was born blind…until she finished watching the movie. Her vision miraculously returned.

These three stories of Sally’s each won first place in the FaithWriter anthologies, and I can see why.

Sometimes to tell a story, you simply need to show something that’ll resonate with you on a human level. That’s where storytelling really is–on a human level. Sometimes you don’t need chapters. Sometimes you don’t need subplots or story arcs, you don’t need supporting characters or plot twists and prologues or epilogues. You just need a message to give. Sally Hanan gives that message. That’s really all a storyteller is–a messenger.

We’re all messengers. We bring a sense of truth to the world. We’re important to humanity. Right from the very beginning, we keep memories alive, we bring a sense of belonging.

Through the concept of story.

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Again, readers, thanks so much for participating in my tour for these three awesome writers–Pat Bertram, Karen Ventrice and Sally Hanan. Leave as many comments on any of those posts as you like for the duration of my tour, ask as many questions as you like, marvel at their work, praise them for following dreams and reaching humanity like they do. This is my homage to each of them. They’re my sisters of the written word.

Thanks again.