AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

Inklings

by Sarah H Umberger




Institution: George Mason University
Department:
Year: 2015
Keywords: stories; story collection; short stories; short story collection; fiction; MFA thesis
Record ID: 2058772
Full text PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/1920/9215


Abstract

Since the inspiration for the short stories in this collection were ordinary happenings in ordinary people’s lives, readers should not expect to engage here with unusual characters or happenings of any kind; instead I invite readers to consider ordinary people’s experiences of sorrow, joy, conflict, contradiction, and change. “The Date” is about the disappointment of a middle-aged woman’s great expectations for the outcome of an encounter with a stranger. “Pas de Deux” is about the relationship between a mother and her young child at the time that child threatens to run away from home. “The Drive” is about the resentment a woman feels about the high prices dentists charge and what she decides to do about it. “Remembering Bert Easterly” is about a father and daughter and the origins of a gift-giving tradition. These short stories are not yet in final form but are merely drafts that I might one day develop into finished works. They are exercises in which a beginning fiction writer practiced fiction-writing techniques.