Death of a Dream is the title novelette in this anthology of short stories, muses, poetry, a 12-part soap, and a memoir, some of which have been previously published in literary magazines. Some are available to read now, the rest may be found in the free e-book, available from the link below.
Also available as an audiobook from Amazon
Reviews
“Heart-breaking and amusing in turn. I’m not usually good with short stories or poems, but this well-written collection was varied enough to hold my interest. There were several short stories, one of which almost had me in tears, as did the memoir, specifically covering the death of the author’s sister. I was surprised by the author’s ability to write in such a wide range of genres.”
“Death of a Dream is a very good short story which I definitely recommend. A story of grief and anguish, of murder and revenge that I will not forget any time soon. It was well written and the anguish of Gerry was palpable. I could feel the anger and despair. Donna was caught up in the mystery – wrong place, wrong time – but got involved anyway. I will read more by Chris Lewando.”
THE ANTHOLOGY INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING
Amergain, Son of Echet the Dirty
This is a short story, a foretaste of a larger work in progress
The Ulster Cycle is a group of stories that might have once been told by bards in the flickering firelight of the Iron Age evenings. Written down in Old Irish by monks from the sixth century onward, in amazing volumes of work that survived the Viking raids, they include the stories of Cuchulain the Hero, Deirdre of the Sorrows, and my favourite character, Fergus, the king who lost this throne through a desire for not one woman, but many.
Death of an Icon
A short story.
This story may be found in the anthology
Lucky Dog
A short story set in West Cork, based on a true tale.
My Smiling Child
A mother’s consuming, and ultimately unhealthy love for her child…
The story may be found in the anthology
Nature’s Sunny Smiles
At first glance, a typical women’s magazine story, but look out for a bit of black humour as an elderly woman takes matters into her own hands.
Personal Services
A fictional Soap in 12 episodes, published in the Cork Evening Echo. The challenge was to write 12 episodes of 600 words. Each episode had to stand alone, but the whole series required an overall plot and denouement. I have put the whole work in here as it reflects both the creative and the commercial aspects of publication, as discussed in Waymarks for Authors.
Remember Me with Smiles
My sister’s death, in her early thirties, when her car, trapped under a lorry, burst into flames, shook my family to its roots. I can talk about this quite calmly now, though, some thirty years later odd phrases or situations trigger memories that make me tear-up. This is a short piece, 5,000 words, dealing with the aftermath of her death. Anyone who has tried to write memoir will know how difficult it is to write the facts without descending into maudlin self-pity. I have tried to be honest in all ways, and my mother could only find one small point to disagree with. The flowers at the funeral had all come from her garden, and she had personally picked them and decorated the church before anyone else arrived. If I had once known that, I had forgotten.
The memoir may be found in the anthology.
Sandy’s Very Private Diary
A piece of writing that echoes a life I left behind in Essex. Not my family, but traits I saw while I was living there. I wrote this in response to the unspoken suggestion that I could only write commercial fiction. I did consider completing this to the length of a novel. I imagined Sandy, despite her challenges, having a love affair with a man of equal intellect, getting married and having children. Society, of course, would carry the burden. The original version had eight paragraphs, eight capital letters, and eight full stops. I later spaced out some paragraphs simply to make it more readable.
Swan Song
A short story written specifically for the Holly Bough – a yearly magazine produced by the Cork Evening Echo, widely distributed in Ireland and the Irish Diaspora in the United States of America . This story was published in the 2017 edition. A young girl, traumatised by the loss of her mother, spends Christmas at her grandparents’ farm in West Cork – a family gathering she will never forget.