Happy Saturday! Warmer and rainy today. My big kid is going for an audition this morning. For the first time in 4 years, I’m not the one taking him; his dad is. Fingers crossed!
Meanwhile, just a friendly reminder that my publisher is taking submissions for a new anthology: Upstaged! Queer women in performing arts. If you like writing about lesbian, bi, pan, ace, trans, intersex, & queer women, or if you’ve always wanted to give it a go, send us something. We’ll be taking 10 of the best stories. Deadline is April 1, and we pay $40 flat rate for each story we accept. Other info is in the link.
My snippet follows from last week’s. Jo got a postcard inviting her to the 40th reunion of her missionary team. She’s debating whether to go, since her life looks nothing like how she pictures the others.
They likely only invited her because they’d agreed to, not because they wanted to see her. Jo imagined all of them as adult versions of the girls they’d been. Pretty, proper women with “hearts for the Lord.” The kind who ran their churches’ prayer chains and co-ordinated potluck suppers and taught Sunday school. Like Jo, they might have adult children following in their footsteps. Unlike Jo, their children probably still spoke to them, probably allowed them contact with their grandchildren.
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This resonates with me on some disturbing level… So, well described, LOL.
Heh, yeah. This description was entirely written based on personal experience.
I remember that ‘hearts for the Lord’…and my accompanying eye roll. Poor Jo. I’d feel exactly like that in her situation.
That is a phrase I am thankful never, ever leaves the mouths of anyone at my church. I have such negative associations with it. I don’t even know what it actually means. Christian-speak is a whole lot like corporate lingo only worse.
(And the audition did go well, though we won’t know if he got in for a couple of days.)
Oh, and I hope the audition went well!
I’m guessing she’s wrong, and at least some of the women are entirely different from what she remembers.
She’s certainly in for a few surprises, of many kinds.
Such a beautiful, lyrical, yet heartbreaking description of being an outsider. Poor Jo.
Thank you! I know what that’s like, so I feel for her here too.
Ouch. I feel her reluctance to expose herself to a world of hurt.
Yep. I can’t say I blame her.
That reminds me so much of my last (and only) school reunion. Exact same thoughts… and I’d guess the exact same outcome, too. Looking forward to reading this.
This was my fear at my last school reunion. Turns out my former classmates are actually pretty cool people, and I had nothing to worry about. We’ll see how Jo’s turns out.
I want to learn more about Jo!
I feel sorry for Jo here.