Faded Flowers and Other Stories

Faded Flowers And Other Stories includes nineteen stories and one novella as the last offering. While the stories differ markedly and are in random order, they predominantly deal with families and relationships. The stories and novella have been written within the last ten years. The story titled Justice is the oldest dating back about a decade. The reader may choose to read them in any order without missing a sequence of continuity I haven't intended. The stories area a departure from my writing that occupies the mystery-thriller genre of fiction. The story titled, The Woman Had A Heart was my first story featuring Minneapolis ex-cop Chance Colter. None of the stories are truly autobiographical but a few touch on themes that have touched my life in personal ways. The novella and The High Country reflect my abiding love of the West and its people now and in the past. The story titled Identical was my third attempt to write a story about identical twins. My first attempt completed 200 pages before I abandoned it. I find short stories a welcome break from and compliment to the novel format. Often, themes and ideas simply don't lend themselves to the structure and length of a novel but many feature films have been made from short stories attesting to the strength and emotional content of a simple idea. One question I have been asked is: Do you know a story will be a short story before you begin? My answer is generally, yes. I have yet to write a short story that morphed into a novel but never say never.