Podcast #29, the short stories “Clouds / Dilemma / Crossing Over” by William H. Coles

Clouds

Clouds
The first story is Clouds, the story of a loving single parent mother who must take her developmentally disabled son to be institutionalized when a trusted caregiver dies. Her grief is intensified by the obstacles her estranged husband presents.
The first . . .”Clouds” is the story of a mother who must take her young disabled son to be institutionalized the the obstacles she must overcome and the emotions of grief she must suppress.

Dilemma
The second story is the short-short dilemma where a physician-father must make a decision to save or let his severely injured son live or die.

Crossing Over
The third story is Crossing over, a story about a healthcare worker on a ward with terminally-ill patients who die prematurely unnoticed on nights when the worker is alone on her shift.

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Podcast #28, the short stories “The Bear / Father Ryan / Lost Papers” by William H. Coles

The Bear

Finalists in the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition.

The first story, the Bear, is about two trappers and a boy in Alaska who anger a bear who seeks revenge with unrelenting rage.

Second Story: Father Ryan. The Bishop is escorting Father Ryan from Boston to his new assignment in Idaho, under mysterious circumstances and salacious rumors.

Third story: Lost Papers, is about Isaac the Jew and Rebecca, his wife of twenty years, who, in the early 1940s stand in line at the checkpoint between Germany and Switzerland for three hours to be allowed to cross into Switzerland to bring home the recently orphaned daughter of his brother. But Rebecca’s papers are lost and she must stay in Germany under fear of arrest as Isaac crosses into Switzerland with dark secrets and betrayal.

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Podcast #27, the short story “Captain Wither’s Wife”, by William H. Coles

Captain Wither's Wife

The armed-service wife of an air force Captain stationed in France in the 1960’s stands up to the selfish philandering of her pilot husband and demands justice and compensation for her leaving him and returning to the states. A resistant commanding officer denies her just demands to disastrous consequences.

Award winning short story in the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition.

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Podcast #26, the short stories “On the Road to Yazoo City / Dr. Greiner’s Day in court”, by William H. Coles

On the Road to Yazoo City

The first story, On the Road to Yazoo City, is about a broke, loveless guitar player walking through Mississippi hoping to find a gig when he comes upon a young aloof waif of a girl who leads him through a day of shocking awareness of the nature of love and life that changes the direction of his obscure future to determination to succeed.

Award winning short story in both the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition and the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction.

The second story is Dr. Greiner’s Day in Court. Three children are on their way with their aunt, their mother’s sister, to attend the arraignment of their father who is charged with killing their mother. The oldest child, a girl, steps up amidst the disarray, fear, and confusion of the group to grasp control of the family’s actions and future.

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Podcast #25, the short story “The Indelible Myth”, by William H. Coles

The Indelible Myth

In a small town in Mississippi, a young boy is bullied by an older girl on the way home from school he retaliates and is blamed as the aggressor. When the families of the two children are on an outing, the girl is found dead. Although there is no proof, and the boy is innocent, suspicions hover that he is responsible for the girl’s death, suspicions that follow him into later life and unfairly affect his chance of happiness.

Award winning short story in the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition

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