Squinting Over Water - Stories
By Mary Kennedy Eastham
Blurb:
There are no perfect people here. These
characters are you and me trying to make sense of things - good and bad -
coming up with a Plan B when life gets messy. One early reader said she would
walk across continents to get to this book. These whimsical stories transformed
her, made her believe once again in the true beauty and playfulness of life.
Excerpt:
ONE STRONG GIRL
Her name was Molly before she changed it to
Pim. She grew up in Paris Valley, California, a builder's dirty trick, an
optical illusion to lure people. Quiet people like her parents, into the
desert. When asked to describe her childhood, she said it was like riding a
bicycle through sand.
On Ash Wednesday, a day of cold rain, she
was expelled from sixth grade for pretending to be the priest. Aretha May
Albert's parents said Molly or Pim, pressed cigarette ashes into their
daughter's dainty forehead. It was true. Sister Mary Louise Bartholomew
Annunciata, whose penmanship was perfect, like an angel's, wrote this in her
file: Molly Granger has too much original sin.
Home schooled, she longed to visit places
different from Paris Valley, places with more water than land, She was, after
all, a Scorpio. Molly dreamed of Venice. The Isle of Man. Belize. The beaches
and swimming pools of L.A. These werethe places she would one day see.
No one in Paris Valley was surprised when
she decided to become an actress. On the bus out of town, she gave the mayor,
who also ran a successful waste management company, the finger.
Years later, a Paris Valley neighbor, a
quiet guy named Dell, swears he saw her in an HBO movie. Close to 200 pounds
with blood red fingernails, she was sitting on a beach in a wedding gown,
sucking the guts from a lobster's claw. The guy next to her was smiling, a
giant love smile, as he watched her lips at work. 'She had the power to
transform him into whatever she wanted right there on the sand,' Del said.
Dell couldn't recall how the movie ended.
He fell asleep just as the sand started to bubble up like molten lava, carrying
the lovers toward the surf. 'It was surreal,' Dell said 'to see the bright
orange Paris Valley Payless sticker stuck to the bottom of her shoe,'
Purchase Link: http://www.amazon.com/Squinting-Over-Water
Publisher Link: www.RobertsonPublishing.com
Website: www.RP-Author.com/MKE
Thank you soooo sooooo much, Blak, for giving me this
ReplyDeletewonderful opportunity to promote my work on your blog.
I forwarded it to many friends and writers and they were all
so impressed by the range of the questions you asked me in the
interview and loved reading one of my stories.
So thank, thank you again and again...Mary Kennedy Eastham
You're very, very welcome, Mary. It was wonderful to have you as a guest. You're a talented lady and I truly wish the best of success for you!:)
Delete