Solace in a Book

Rochelle Distelheim “The Kiss-Me-Quick”

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The Kiss-Me-Quick I visited my friend and we talked about shoes instead of about dying. I wanted to talk about dying, but she’s the one who’s dying and she wanted to talk about shoes. We looked at the three shoe boxes lined up on the carpet next to the couch where she was. The boxes were open and I saw the tips of three new pairs of shoes. There was that faintly sour smell new shoes have that reminds me of going with my mother into a shoe store, with her holding … [Read more...]

Glimpse of solace: Brendan Coudal

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    Today is National Hug Day! There really is nothing better than a good hug. . . O.K., well maybe there are better things, but hugs are right up there! This is the message posted by Brendan Coudal this morning on his Facebook page. This illustration is inspired by his cats, Max and Phoebe, two furry pals who allow him and his wife Nicole to live with them each day. Brendan's cartoons will soon be released world-wide, but until then, please visit … [Read more...]

Hug it out

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Today I am happy to post "The Kiss-Me-Quick," a story by Rochelle Distelheim, which I first fell for when it appeared in the Visiting Hours anthology put out by Press 53. I'm happy to say that Rochelle and I are in the same writing group so I have had the privilege of reading her work for some years now. It's been enough years that I have read her novel Jerusalem As a Second Language, witnessed how it was crafted to win the 2012 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative … [Read more...]

Let it linger

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Sure it's January 14 and the holidays are behind us and we're back to business in the new year. Well, I've decided to look again  at some of my favorite things from the past month or so, to relish them. First up are prints done by Steve Shanabruch.  From The Chicagoist I found out about his Chicago neighborhood project in which he gives a neighborhood a unique logo and makes a WPA-inspired print for it. At the time the article came out, only the South Loop, Beverly and … [Read more...]