Short stories

I've been sitting with my "novel" the last few nights (there are only five chapters so far, a long way from the twenty-two chapters I had planned). I started it nearly four years ago. It is loosely based on my experiences working with a charismatic organization in Seattle. It is also based on some of my childhood experiences overseas.

Over lunch, I spent an hour in Andre Dubus' world of short stories. (The father, not the son known for The House of Sand and Fog.) I spend at least a few lunch breaks a week at the chain bookstore down the street, wandering the aisles until something calls out to me. Dubus was a Catholic and one of the best American short story writers of the last century. The two stories I read over the bad cup of coffee pulled something within taut - kind of like tuning a guitar until the chord sings its proper note. These are the best kind of stories. Ones that remind us - "retune" us - to see the world as it actually is, not how we hope it to be.

I'll have to sit with my novel a bit more. It needs some tuning.