tesserae: a mosaic of story

by Sharon Cairns Mann

Overview

Rekindle your love for short fiction! Seven taut tales deliver gut-wrenching twists with prose simultaneously lean and lyrical. From the misguided romantic hopes of a cowboy, to the poignant tale of a misfit orphan coming to terms with her losses and the unwelcome-but-longed-for grace that settles over her life, this collection of short stories is filled with quirky, flawed, and authentic characters. Themes of isolation, a longing for home, and the need to belong are accentuated by the lonely, wind-swept high-desert setting. This collection includes Mann's award-winning work that has previously appeared in juried anthologies, as well as new short-fiction. The book is categorized as "Literary Collections | Southwest | Colorado. Highly readable!

Product Details

BN ID:	2940150927537
Publisher:	Alacrity House Publishing LLC
Publication date:	10/18/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	73
File size:	521 KB

About the Author

Sharon’s love for words and stories started at a young age. She earned a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Com-munication. She has been a professional writer, editor and proofreader since 1978 and has written hundreds of nonfiction articles. Fiction is her real passion, however. Her novel, Mother of Exiles, won first place in the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer’s Colorado Gold Contest in 2004 and Honorable Mention in the Abilene Writers Guild Con-test for 2004. She was a finalist in the Colorado Author’s League 2015 contest in the essay category, and won in the short fiction category. Her short stories have been published in juried anthologies, and she is thrilled to have them aggregated together in this collection. She divides her time between Denver and the high desert of southern Colorado, where you can find her hiking and muttering, “So many words, so little time!”

Editorial Reviews

What I love about Sharon Cairns Mann's writing is the way that she surprises me. Not in an "Oh-she's-good" way. Because she is very good. But in a "Wow-I-didn't-see-that-coming" way. She writes mostly stories about a cast of Southwest souls, offers an intimate peek into their troubled lives, and then seems to send them dancing off into the sunset without so much as a glance back. At me--with suddenly watery eyes, or a smile curling on my lip, or a sense of mystified satisfaction.

Author of Double Dare, The GyPSy Line and Coltons Panics. President, Colorado Authors League. - Michael Madigan

Sharon's writing is descriptive and inviting in its intimacy. Readers will be able to identify with a diverse cast of characters that surprise and evoke compassion. Merging her extensive training in human behavior and her skill as an artist, Sharon has shared the richness of her insight with us. Readers of her stories will be both enlightened and entertained.

Executive Director Art from Ashes - Catherine O'Neill Thorn

Sharon Cairns Mann skillfully transforms the small moments and raw challenges of individual lives into unexpected explorations of human spirit with surprising resolution. Here are narratives you've not quite seen. Here are people you possibly know and maybe have been. Set in unvarnished places in inevitable spaces, her story collection wryly renders American life as wonder, will and dogged whimsy. Strong and original. Highly recommended.

Author of I Told the Mountain to Move: Learning to Pray So Things Change, My First White Friend, and Undivided: A Muslim - Patricia Raybon