STORIES TELLING STORIES

Growing up I took a great deal of pride in being considered mature for my age. Wise. An old soul. A kid in body but of sage spirit; mostly silent, but thoughtful and reliable. Reliable. Dare I say “sophisticated.” My teachers loved me, most of them that is. Bus drivers liked me. I maintained a solid rapport with everyone from the lunch ladies to the librarian. I was given special projects, added responsibility in an adult’s absence. I was a conflict mediator, a high-scoring, highly intelligent kid, and an avid reader who occasionally got into trouble by reading in class… during lessons for those whose grasp was far less advanced as my own. I was often pulled out of class by other teachers to resolve computer issues, as this was the very early 90’s and few people understood computers like I did. Among other things. Among many things. I even spearheaded my elementary school mock election, and lobbied my peers to vote out the incumbent H.W. Bush over the fresh-faced Saxophone playing governor from Arkansas that pledged more support to public schools on Nickelodeon. There was no mountain too tall for my ambition to take me.

But my yearning and my thirst for knowledge were not thoroughly nourished. We had split classes; grades 1-2, 2-3, in the same room. My teacher had to fetch worksheets and independent projects for me from higher grades just to keep me focused. I was reading at a 12th grade level in the second grade. I was daydreaming through long division while my peers were still struggling through simple subtraction. I was given a world of special treatment but I could have handled so much more… I was slated for success in literature and mathematics. But then the floor dropped out from under me after my parent’s divorce. My mother, my three sisters, and I all moved to a new town. A new school. A place with dedicated grades where I felt like I could finally succeed. But rather than score me for aptitude or proper placement, they started me from the bottom… back to basics… and told me I could climb the ladder as I proved that I could do it… A few months later, we moved again… different town, different school, same academic treatment… start at the bottom and work your way up. We moved several more times over the next few years, and each new school started exactly the same way… Through the end of sixth grade, I effectively learned nothing new. And at that point I already knew I was in trouble. My sixth grade peers were learning decimals and fractions, but due to the ladder I was forced to climb I was stuck… doing long division… the same work I was given in second grade…

When I started middle school, I was back in the town I started in, amongst a lot of the same peers I had in those early days, with the same principal who remembered my mind and my abilities and I was put into the most advanced of the four 7th grade classes… where I quickly began to crumble. I was so far behind the rest of the class in mathematics, in science, in social studies… I came face-to-face with my own limitations and the fear of disappointing authority figures that loomed in me deep from my childhood that I spiraled into a pretty dark hole. I had a bit of an identity crisis. I was staring down all the normal things that an adolescent teen has to navigate, coupled with the fact that I was no longer an advanced, mature, incredibly intelligent, reliable, teacher’s favorite. My sophistication was gone. I was sputtering and choking and barely holding on at the back of the class.

And academically… I never recovered. I had a passion and a gift for math at an early age and that never came back. It took me five years to pass two years worth of basic college math (algebra I and II) to get my bachelor’s degree in musical theater… don’t ask… and four years to pass two years of science courses. My only saving grace through all of this was reading and literature. My ability to read at an advanced level so early on in my life kept my GPA high enough to keep me moving upward, and my verbal bringing my SAT score high enough to get into college. But even so, my journey was not easy and I still struggle immensely in academic situations and as much as I would love to return to school for a masters or even a doctorate in my field, my academic performance after the second grade shows me to be, at best, an average student, say nothing of my accomplishments that can not be quantified with a letter grade.

Through this podcast I’ve spent the last three years honing my craft as a storyteller. In a perfect world I’d have the means to go further and study elements of the oral tradition of different branches of my family tree… from Abenaki tales to Irish lore, and more. You don’t need a piece of paper with an academic stamp to prove your intelligence… and I will continue to learn and hone my craft as long as I am able, but it would be nice to fulfil that dream that second grade Eric had, when he thought about how cool it would be to have a PhD, to prove to himself that he was smart and sophisticated and intelligent and didn’t have to explain himself to anybody anymore.

Sophistication is what brings us to our story this week… Sherwood Anderson was an American novelist and short story writer known for his subjective and self-revealing works… pulling heavily from personal experience in his writing. Something I’ve been known to do in this series… Anderson became best known for his work “Winesburg, Ohio” which was an anthology of 22 short stories, concerning the people and places of this fictional town that was rumored to be based around the town he grew up in. A massive and ambitious work, it contains over one hundred named characters and the different connections people have. And yet… each story can stand on its own as a separate work.

The story we’re looking at today, ”Sophistication” comes from the end of the book, where recurring character George Willard, nears the end of his coming-of-age arc. Having lost his mother in an earlier chapter, George has turned 18 and is wandering the streets feeling lost… like he has no place… no identity… but he finds a spiritual mediator in Helen White, who had undergone her own sort of transformation, and in this kinship they discover they can both find the peace that they were looking for. But before I give it all away, let’s dive into it so you can judge for yourself…

This is… SOPHISTICATION… from Sherwood Anderson’s “Winesburg, Ohio” anthology… on LOCKED IN A VACANCY.

I’d like to give a massive shout-out to the following people for supporting STORIES TELLING STORIES on Patreon…

Jim Ross

Holly

Tamara

Tom

Thank you so much for your support! If you’d like to help support the show and hear your name listed before future episodes, head on over to Patreon.com/StoriesTellingStories

“I don’t have any regrets. If I were to die today, I would be content in the life I lived. I’m true to myself, true to my desires, and I’ve accomplished everything I’ve set my mind to. I’ve lived lavishly, loved deeply, embraced a life of honesty and truth, and have nothing but warmth and contentment in my heart. So if death wants to knock on my door tonight, I will go gladly on to the next great adventure!”

This is an exaggerated sentiment, but nonetheless one I see often, and one that I feel to be full of insecurity and hot air. To say one lives a life free of regret is to admit that one has been unable to learn the lessons that life has attempted to teach us. Regret, like so many tough life lessons, has become a four-letter word in self improvement, as if exposure to it renders one a failure. But what’s wrong with failure? If you never fell off a bike… never applied for that dream job, never pulled your heart from your sleeve and handed it to someone who looked at it in shock and disgust… how can you consider your life well-rounded? Well-lived?

My life is full of regrets. And I continue accumulating them with each passing day. As a soft-spoken homebody who feels out of place in crowds and gatherings, who experiences existential dread and social anxiety when forced to interact with strangers or friends-of-friends or even the futile attempt to navigate something as commonplace as online dating, I give up a lot to keep myself in a comfortable state. Some may even call this a valuable and lifesaving trait in the year of covid, 2020. Some may say I’m perfectly suited to this “new normal.” I can comfortably go days without leaving my house, and weeks with minimal interaction besides the occasional clerk or delivery driver.

But even before this “new normal,” going back as far as I can remember, I’ve been racking up regrets. Burning moments into memory where I said no, didn’t raise my hand, didn’t speak up… In 2001 I could have taken ten steps forward and shook hands with the singer of one of my favorite bands as he casually cut through a crowd, something so many others were doing… a singer I admired deeply and looked up to as I was just getting started in my rockstar stage… who I could’ve met, however briefly, but wouldn’t allow myself to do it. “It was nice to at least see him in person” I told myself, “You’ll get another chance…” Except he died suddenly of a previously undiagnosed heart condition just 21 days later.

This is a singular example… my social anxiety and introverted attitude cost me a golden opportunity and lead to another notch of regret, a big one, on the tally card of my life. Just another one of many… from promotions and perfect prospects to romantic opportunities, lost loves, and the one that got away.

Truth be told I’m perfect for this new normal because I’m naturally solitary and comfortable leading a life dominated by regrets. I am the outlier, not the norm. And I attempt to take adventures and attend concerts and check off bucket list items as I can to keep the big R in check, but truth be told I’m mostly living a one-sided life. I don’t learn from my regrets… I hoard them and obsess over them in excruciating detail, especially during those 3am hours when all I want to do is sleep. I may not have the success to show from taking a swing at a questionable fast ball, but my regrets reinforce my memory… meaning I never forget that I at least had the chance… An odd optimism, I know, but a great bit of mental gymnastics that manages to keep me sane. It’s not that I don’t want these things… to meet my heroes, to send witty icebreakers or even attempt an introduction of romantic intent, or to meet up with friends of friends and attempt to increase my tiny social circle… it’s that it’s not who I am. And the core of living a life without regret is to live a life of honesty to oneself. And in my most honest and true form, I’m a regret collector who is comfortable sitting on the sidelines and observing. My last great relationship blossomed at random with the help of a bottle of silver tequila, but in the socially-distanced and isolated age we live in, the likelihood of finding a fellow homebody who would rather sit at home and avoid people is either more likely now than ever before, or never going to happen in the time of swipes and paid apps. But the unknown in that keeps life exciting. You never know when or where it’s going to happen, or if it will even happen at all. Some may call that regretful, but I consider it hopeful.

At the end of the day, living a life adverse to regret is just as unhealthy as one where you tally them off over the decades. But somewhere in the middle we can survive. Regret is the topic that brings us to this week’s story… episode 15 of LOCKED IN A VACANCY, where we look at a short story about, and titled “REGRET” by legendary master of the short story GUY DE MAUPASSANT. GUY was a popular french author in the mid-to-late 19th century who was fortunate enough to find success and notoriety in his lifetime. He was prolific in his short years, crafting an impressive body of work that influenced other such notable authors as Anton Chekhov, Kate Chopin, and Henry James. His most notable English works are “The Necklace” which has become a piece of classroom reading around the world, and a short piece of Gothic Horror called “The Hand” that we may revisit closer to Halloween… But as brilliant and prolific as he was, he suffered from mental illness and was committed to an asylum in the last year of his life, after a failed suicide attempt… where he would ultimately die at the untimely age of 43. Whether he lived a life of regret or not we may not know, but peering at the world through his eyes, we can get a bit of a better idea…

This is… “REGRET” by GUY DE MAUPASSANT… on LOCKED IN A VACANCY…

I’d like to give a massive shout-out to the following people for supporting STORIES TELLING STORIES on Patreon…

Jim Ross

Holly

Tamara

Tom

Thank you so much for your support! If you’d like to help support the show and hear your name listed before future episodes, head on over to Patreon.com/StoriesTellingStories

Today is August 8th, 2020. And three years ago today I took the monumental first step of launching this podcast. I had little experience in the medium, besides appearing on an episode of “THE NIHILIST PODCAST NETWORK” but as a writer, storyteller, and performer I felt like it could be a good medium to keep me focused in my theatrical off-season. Little did I know it would carry me through ups, downs, nearly giving up, and finding a bit of a niche and a slice of success with the quarantine miniseries LOCKED IN A VACANCY that chronicles stories of loneliness, isolation, and solitude.

But STS started, as I’ve stated a dozen times before, as an homage to Danny DeVito’s directorial debut… the black comedy “THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN” and the ragtag band of misfit authors in Professor Donnor’s creative writing class. Mrs Hazeltine’s Submarine Story is one that my mother and I still joke and quote on the regular, as reminiscent of the writing styles and personality of my maternal grandmother, and being the sort of person any amateur writer can relate to encountering in an academic setting.

I set my intentions for the series as being a sounding board and finishing school, of sorts, to all sorts of unfinished stories that exist throughout pop culture. Books on a shelf, plot pieces, author’s struggling for inspiration, and self-help infomercial sets within a pre-established universe are all ripe for the picking. And over the course of two and a half seasons my backlog of potential episodes continues to grow and as of today I can’t see an end in sight for this “storied” series that, in my humble opinion, three years in, is just getting started.

Season 3 has been extraordinarily transformative for the podcast… with the launch of a long-standing miniseries beyond our one-off ASMR episodes, that are joke releases when I need a bit of a break. LOCKED IN A VACANCY has brought Patreon supporters to the series for the first time in the history of the series. It has seen episodes lengths increase significantly, from the typical 10-12mins of an STS installment to nearly an hour for some longer VACANCY stories. And it has allowed me to explore work from new and classic authors I would have otherwise not taken the time to read. I’d be hard-pressed to say it’s “educational” in that regard, but anything that can give the listener an interest in literature is a good thing in my book.

Looking ahead to the latter half of Season 3, and into Season 4, I’ve got a few new ideas in the pipeline. I’ve kicked around the ideas of a few additional miniseries, tackling various topics and ideas, the first of which I hope to debut in the coming weeks, dubbed “A WRITER WRITES,” where I get the chance to sit down with budding authors in a setting much like Professor Donnor’s Creative Writing course, to discuss their work, talk about writing as a whole, and share some of what they’re working on on a global stage. If you’re an upstart author and would like to sit down and discuss your craft with me, send an e-mail to [email protected] and we’ll see about getting you on the show!

I’ve also had requests by one of my loyal patrons to explore more of my original work… not just the ghostwriting I’ve done on this podcast to bolster the work of others… As you may or may not be aware, In addition to podcasting I’m a playwright-in-residence for a Vermont-based theater company and have the honor of producing multiple original shows each year. I’ve had work that’s run the gamut, from Kennedy Center Adjudication to one-act plays that nobody has ever read. And the thought of sharing this work, as odd as it sounds, is terrifying to me. But the thrill is also exhilarating as the whole point of penning these profound plays is to present my perspective to a perceptive and perspicacious population. Whew… that’s two bachelor’s degrees worth of alliteration for you… and as much as I’m not one to “toot my own horn” there is great catharsis to be found in letting your art out into the world to speak for itself. And whether the response is good, bad, or miscellaneous, what is the point of creating and being a creator if you keep all your content under wraps? So pending the selection of a flashy and inviting name, expect a wholly-original miniseries on the horizon as well…

Lastly, from the very first episode that I released three years ago today, I wanted to build up this series as a launchpad to collaborate with others across all sorts of media… from other podcasts, writers, actors, you name it. But collaboration has been hard to come by, partially due to my difficulty in delegating tasks and feeling the need to do everything myself and the fact that I very much am a shy and quiet person who is much more comfortable being alone with my work than trying to cold-call creators for collaboration content. But I’m working on it. And expect to hear some new-to-the-show voices on both STS and Locked in a Vacancy episodes in the very near future.

So here we are… three years into this quirky little podcast that I started on a whim. It’s whacky, it’s wonderful, and it’s weird… But to coin a phrase from one of my favorite creators… “Weird is Good!” So that’s what we will continue to strive to be. And thanks to technology, we can strive to be whatever it is in the world we want be… just like a furry little hobbit can become as rich and beautiful and revered as Beyonce through the magic power of photoshop… This is… “The Gay Fish Hobbit” as read by Kanye West, on STORIES TELLING STORIES…

I’d like to give a massive shout-out to the following people for supporting STORIES TELLING STORIES on Patreon…

Jim Ross

Holly

Tamara

Tom

Thank you so much for your support! If you’d like to help support the show and hear your name listed before future episodes, head on over to Patreon.com/StoriesTellingStories

It is now August 1st. July has come and gone and I took a meaningful and necessary break from the series, not to recharge my batteries, but because I am an individual who has a painful relationship with the word “No.” I often overexert and overextend myself in some vain attempt to signify my worth to friends, family, and colleagues… as if saying ‘no’ makes me ungrateful, undeserving, and unworthy of opportunity, advancement, gratitude, and ambition. Make no mistake, I love being busy. I love being creative. I love stimulating and rewarding activities. It has been the dream of my life to chase a creative endeavor that could translate to a rewarding and sustainable lifestyle, without the shackles of a normal job. And I’ve been grinding away at this dream for the better part of 15 years, from music to playwriting, acting, directing, independent producing, and audio engineering.

The old adage goes… if you work hard enough, you will be rewarded and your dreams will be attainable… that the only limitation is your own motivation… you are your biggest enemy, and if you don’t have success to show for your labor then you simply aren’t working hard enough.

I’ve lived this. I’ve breathed this. And I don’t believe it for a second.

I don’t believe every hobby has to be a side-hustle. Or that every hobby must become monetized. I was brought up under a strict philosophy of not “wasting time” and not “squandering your money” by the tough lessons imparted upon the greatest generation by the effects of the Great Depression. These are values I still appreciate… hard work, reliability, sticking by your word, a handshake being as valuable as a contract. They may be old-fashioned values, but they’re still values nonetheless. But even the best intentions can and do lead to unintended ends when they’re internalized and pushed too far.

I took a break because my inability to say no wrapped me up in a project “too big for its britches,” to coin a phrase from my late grandfather, which came to its end with an avalanche of responsibility dropped on my shoulders at the zero hour, requiring me to pull a 36hr bender of constant work to meet an arbitrary, yet inflexible deadline; some of which I livestreamed over on Twitch to keep myself focused, awake, and working. To hold myself accountable… to finish my day-job at 10pm, work through the night without sleep, and be finished in time to punch into my day-job at 8am the next morning. A feat I accomplished by the skin of my teeth, but that pushed my body, my motivation, and my mind to the breaking point.

Covid-aside, I put myself through the wringer 6 months out of the year… pulling 70-80hr weeks between my “real job” and my “dream job” which is volunteer. I wear an abundance of different hats and put in an ungodly number of hours which, even after 13 years, I’m afraid to say no for fear of being seen as ungrateful and not good enough. That if I don’t work myself to death, work harder than anybody else, show my sweat and my struggles and my insurmountable sleep debt, that I’m not dedicated to the organization. I have not had a “summer” in the traditional sense in 13 years. Any “vacation” or summer retreat that I take is measured in hours, rather than days, and often finds me driving through the night for a brief respite of celebration before diving right back into the grind. I don’t blame anybody but myself for this. If you are unable to say no, how will anybody know if something is too much for you? In that way, I am my own worst enemy.

But the unintended effects of Covid and Quarantine have meant free time during the summer months for the first time in over a decade. And spending a few frantic weeks in July wrapped up in what was otherwise typical summer workload for me opened my eyes to just how unsustainable and undesirable that lifestyle is for me. Because I’m not living. I’m barely surviving. I’m a half-conscious creature fueled by caffeine, stress, and anxiety… for the benefit of the few faceless strangers willing to accept a free ticket to see some theater in the middle of nowhere. Working this heavy a load is not something I want to do anymore. It is quite literally going to kill me if I keep it up for another 13 years.

And this is the revelation that my break has brought me. I’ve been able to discover new outlets for my creativity that I would have otherwise been unable to explore. I’ve gotten into streaming on Twitch twice a week. I’ve been playing music again, including a socially-distant bar gig. And I’ve been paid for my efforts and been able to turn around and reinvest it in my projects to make them even better. I feel optimistic. I feel creative. I feel like I may have a future in some sort of creative way after all, if I”m willing to give myself the time and the space to do what I want to do.

I am my own worst enemy… Sometimes we all are. And that translates into our story for this week, as we dive into the second half of season three of STORIES TELLING STORIES, with another episode of our ongoing series “LOCKED IN A VACANCY.” “The Naked Lady” is a short story from a compilation of southern american writers called “The Cry of an Occasion” and was penned by Madison Smartt Bell, who is a writer, professor, and essayist whose work has appeared in Harper’s, The NY Review of Books, and the NY Times Book Review. It’s not often we do a living author here on the show, but this is one of those rare cases…

“The Naked Lady” tells a story of heartbreak and friendship, through the eyes of a good friend. While this story, and the collection in which it was published, was in celebration of southern voices, the themes it contains are universal and my reading will be presented with a distinctly northern flair… As you are aware, I come from the great state of Vermont… a state with a distinct and identifiable accent that is grossly under-represented in pop culture… with elements of our Irish, Scottish, and English heritage sprinkled amongst a surprisingly good-old-boy aesthetic as you venture off Router 100 and into the vacant expanses of Lamoille County and up into the Northeast Kingdom… An accent that I never wanted to develop, out of embarrassment and the lower-class connotations it conveys, but one that I learned by ear nonetheless thanks to countless hours spent with extended family.

This is… “The Naked Lady” by Madison Smartt Bell… on LOCKED IN A VACANCY...

Dramatic reading by Eric R Hill, native Vermonter

“In Another Country” was published in 1927 as part of the “Men Without Women” collection of short stories by 20th century icon Ernest Hemmingway.” The story is told through the eyes of an unnamed member of the Ambulance corps in Milan, Italy following World War 1, presumed to be from the perspective of Nick Adams, a character that Hemmingway created to see the world through his own eyes. The story is short, but concise, and speaks of a myriad of issues of the time, some which have transcended time and are surprisingly relevant today… most notably a hesitation and revulsion to medical technology and the promise of science to improve health and make lives better.

As we continue to face down this global epidemic, with the United States surpassing the single greatest number of positive cases than it’s had since the epidemic began months ago, we’re falling further and further behind the rest of the world. And yet they still staunchly refuse to wear masks in public, demand person-to-person service in restaurants and shops, congregate in large numbers in pools, pubs, and places of interest, and continue to endanger the lives of millions because of a basic lack of empathy for anyone that isn’t them or their families. It’s disgusting, it’s selfish, it’s wrong, and they should be fucking ashamed of themselves. “Oh, it’s hard, it makes me uncomfortable, why should I have to blah blah blah” enough. As flag-waving and chest pounding and American as you clamor to be, you still live in a society, and as such sometimes have to think of the greater good, like our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents who fought The Great Wars, like the one Hemmingway writes about. If you think being forced to wear a mask so you can demand service at Applebees is a violation of your rights and causing undue hardship, you need to check yourself. Go fight a real war. No child is going to want to hear your stories about how you owned libs during the pandemic of 2020 by refusing to wear a mask and purposefully coughing on people who confronted you in the Piggly Wiggly.

That is my soapbox statement for this week. My mother, my father, my older sister, my grandparents, and countless other people in my life are immunocompromised in some way and would not survive this virus if they caught it. I am isolated and allowed to work from home until October thanks to my company caring enough to keep my family safe.

It seems to be getting worse out there… at least here in America… so do what you can to stay safe and stay healthy… In other countries, things are different… let’s join our brothers and sisters in the rest of the world and do the right thing… this is… “In Another Country” by Ernest Hemmingway, on LOCKED IN A VACANCY...

DRAMATIC READING by Eric R Hill

I’d like to give a massive shout-out to the following people for supporting STORIES TELLING STORIES on Patreon…

Jim Ross

Holly

Tamara

Tom

Thank you so much for your support! If you’d like to help support the show and hear your name listed before future episodes, head on over to Patreon.com/StoriesTellingStories

George Moore was a novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist. Although his work is sometimes seen as outside the mainstream of both Irish and British literature, he is as often regarded as the first great modern Irish novelist, influencing such authors as James Joyce, who we have also featured on this series. "So On He Fares" is the 10th chapter in a collection of short stories called "The Untilled Field" first published in 1903.

DRAMATIC READING by Eric R. Hill

I’d like to give a massive shout-out to the following people for supporting STORIES TELLING STORIES on Patreon…

Jim Ross

Holly

Tamara

Tom

Thank you so much for your support! If you’d like to help support the show and hear your name listed before future episodes, head on over to Patreon.com/StoriesTellingStories

SOCIALS

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Katherine Mansfield was a poet and short story writer of the “modernist” style, born and raised in colonial New Zealand. But unfortunately, like so many influential artists, her time on Earth was short… losing her young life to tuberculosis at the relatively young age of 34. She died leaving behind an impressive body of work, which took years of editing and preparation for her estranged spouse John Middleton Murray to publish, but we’re glad he did.

After she moved to England in 1919, Mansfield began rubbing elbows with who’s who, and developed notable friendships with authors D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. But she had a streak of wanderlust, as many youth do, and traveled around Europe in her formative years, adopting a bohemian lifestyle and befriending famous artists everywhere she went. She was praised by her peers for her vicarious and charismatic approach to life and work. She absorbed the works of Oskar Wilde and Anton Chekhov; although her exposure to the later earned her accusations of plagiarism due to its influence on her own work. An unabashed bisexual, her relationships with women found places of prominence in her journal entries and her work; often writing of her lovers under pseudonyms… her sexuality was a point of contention between Mansfield and her mother, who would later write her out of her will. Those few years are perhaps the most socially interesting but little in the way of records are known… her travel, relationship, getting pregnant, marrying a different man but never consumating it, divorcing, being sent away by her mother, and miscarrying… all the while only publishing one story and one poem… and all this by age 21.

I know this is more in line with how I present STORIES TELLING STORIES than LOCKED IN A VACANCY but I found Katherine Mansfield’s brief story to be fascinating and worth sharing. While it’s true her life was short, she LIVED IT. And everything above doesn’t even bring her story up to the first world war or the latter half of her life living with tuberculosis and desperately trying to find a cure. I will mention that though… Mansfield was so desperate for a cure she began seeking out radical and “experimental” procedures. In February 1922, she consulted the Russian physician Ivan Manoukhin, whose "revolutionary" treatment, consisted of bombarding her spleen with X-rays, which caused Mansfield to develop a host of side effects, including heat flashes and numbness in her legs. Yeesh… my grandfather told me stories once about his fight with tuberculosis during World War 2 and I can’t say I blame her for being desperate for a cure.

She ultimately succumbed to the effects of the disease on January 9, 1923 when she suffered a pulmonary embolism after running up a flight of stairs, and was buried in Nice, France. But her story continued to live on long after her death, as her work continued to be released posthumously and appreciated by each new generation of readers looking to her language and her unique voice. She has also been the subject herself, from paintings and schools named in her honor in her native New Zealand, to television and movies, most notably being played by Vanessa Redgrave in a BBC miniseries in 1973. So while she’s been gone nearly a hundred years, Katherine Mansfield’s extraordinary short story, through the appreciation of her short stories, continues to live on.

I’d like to give a massive shout-out to the following people for supporting STORIES TELLING STORIES on Patreon…

Jim Ross

Holly

Tamara

Tom

Thank you so much for your support! If you’d like to help support the show and hear your name listed before future episodes, head on over to Patreon.com/StoriesTellingStories

One of the most influential authors of the 20th century, James Joyce was an author of Irish descent who helped define the modernist avant-garde movement, and is most fondly remembered for his novel "Ulysses" which is an artfully crafted retelling of Homer's Odyssey. But this week we take a deep dive into his lesser know work...

DUBLINERS is an anthology of 15 short stories Joyce published in 1914 at the peak of Irish Nationalism, which tell assorted middle-class stories that take place in and around Dublin. A PAINFUL CASE is a sad tale of loneliness and loss, seen through the eyes of a man who falls into an odd relationship with a married woman, before things suddenly go too far, too fast, and ending far too soon. It's a wonderfully descriptive tale and one that I really like, although Joyce does his best to give the reader a lot to chew on verbally...

As always , I’d like to give a shout-out to the following people for supporting STORIES TELLING STORIES on Patreon… Thank you so much for your support!

Jim Ross

If you’d like to help support the show and hear your name listed before future episodes, head on over to Patreon.com/StoriesTellingStories

Nestled in the halfway point in Chuck Palahniuk's book "Haunted" a novel of a collection of short stories written by a collection of aspiring suffering artists, "The Nightmare Box" is a story about the psychological effects of the unknown... with true terror coming from the sort of suffering one must undertake alone...

DRAMATIC READING BY ERIC R HILL

This week marks my second straight month in lockdown and working from home... with at least another six weeks to go before corporate will reevaluate the plans... I like to think I'm hanging in there, but all this solitude is proving to be more difficult than I anticipated...

I’d also like to give a shout-out to the following people for supporting STORIES TELLING STORIES on Patreon… Thank you so much for your support!

Jim Ross

Holly

Tamara

If you’d like to help support the show and hear your name listed before future episodes, head on over to Patreon.com/StoriesTellingStories

A surprisingly popular Scholastic children's book with a dark tale to tell is the subject of episode 7 of LOCKED IN A VACANCY, as we explore "The Escape" by J.B. Stamper in our dramatic reading, and examine a news story about a real life ice cream shop in MA that closed down after a single day after customers were so nasty to a 17 year old girl that she quit. Profanity laced verbal assault, on a 17 year old girl, just because you couldn't follow the social distancing policy of a small ice cream shop... what is wrong with the world right now???

Dramatic Reading by Eric R Hill

I’d also like to give a shout-out to the following people for supporting STORIES TELLING STORIES on Patreon… Thank you so much for your support!

Jim Ross

Holly

Tamara

If you’d like to help support the show and hear your name listed before future episodes, head on over to Patreon.com/StoriesTellingStories