title: Relative Strangers: Short Stories
author:  Margaret Hermes 
description: 'Relative Strangers' is a stunning collection. Every single story is vivid and memorable, and yet the collective thematic effect is powerful. So many of these characters are strangers within their own families and their own lives people thought to be dead are resurrected and another character s survival is akin to death. It s all here change, loss, alienation. But so is humor and compassion and a fresh spin on the way people deal with the most vulnerable aspects of life. The range in vision is also compelling as we view in one story the adult world through the eyes of an adolescent who senses in his mother s tremor an earthquake unsettling my world and then, just as easily, view life from the other end of the spectrum as characters look back on the change and loss and choices that shaped everything in life that followed them. In Hermes writing, this movement between innocence and experience is constant as is the weighing of love against passion and lust. This is a moving and powerful collection. Jill McCorkle, Contest Judge, The Doris Bakwin Award --Letter from the Judge<br /><br />St. Louisan Margaret Hermes is on quite a roll. Her new collection of short stories, Relative Strangers, has brought her critical acclaim from many of today's best writers and placed her among the top names in contemporary literature. In addition to being an essayist and author, Hermes is a staunch environmentalist and some in the area may know her from her work with the Coalition for the Environment. 'Relative Strangers,' however, departs from her ecological work, as she presents 14 stories that feature a keen understanding of what makes people tick, but not click, in a dysfunctional America. Her stories, set in various places and times, are sprinkled with tender and provocative examinations of familial relationships. 'Relative Strangers' is the winner of the prestigious Doris Bakwin Award for 2011. The award recognizes women writers and supports the mission of small, dedicated nonprofit press. Relative Strangers beat out more than 130 entries for the prize. Several common themes are reflected in this work. She skillfully examines our society by exploring topics we deal with every day: change, loss, alienation, frustration. A tone of dissonance brings the sadness of dysfunction to the surface. Underneath this are layers of hope, desire and plenty of dreams. The stories collected in 'Relative Strangers' highlight the notion of families and interpersonal connectivity as being essential to human nature. The reader can tell that Hermes is interested in how people from various classes, ages and backgrounds communicate. Every story is connected by contact with strangers, be they inside or outside of a family. By focusing this collection on the detachment and dysfunctional aspects of our society she mirrors the emotional malaise that often stunts personal growth. 'Transubstantiation' chronicles a 29-year-old marriage that is suddenly threatened by an attack on a passenger car by unruly teenagers. The story is tinged with loss, grief, sadness and love that establishes early on in the anthology that Hermes is an emotionally instinctive writer. 'For The Home Team,' set in 1951 Brooklyn, makes an interesting correlation between rooting for a home team and how being away from home (your home team) can ruin a friendship. This happens to Daniel during a summer when he is sent to his uncle's farm in New Jersey and discovers a lifestyle very different than the one he left behind. The story deals with loneliness and separation on many levels, with Daniel losing touch with his friend Billy, his exile to a farm and his parents' marriage ending. All of this is told with smooth and intelligent prose. 'Meet Me' is filled with suspense centered on a box of matches. The drama unfolds when a young wife, Deborah, suspects her husband may be having an affair. Rob, her husband, suspects she is smoking again. This very brief story is just long enough to let the intense distrust percolate in the reader's mind. In reading 'Relative Stranger's the importance of survival clearly comes across. Hermes' rich characters never seem to find themselves in implausible situations. They often are in difficult situations, however, facing the challenges and obstacles of real people. This allows the common themes of distrust, isolation, loss and loneliness to permeate each story. --Rob Levy, The St. Louis Beacon<br /><br />'Relative Strangers' is a charming new short story collection by local author Margaret Hermes. Her stories are engaging and poignant, presenting characters experiencing a wide variety of heartbreak. Each story has an element of the unexpected. Because the action of the stories rests most heavily on the internal workings of the characters, the surprise often comes from a change in perspective. The title of the collection is apt. Hermes explores the many ways in which people remain unknown to one another. Although her characters live within families, they carry parts of themselves that are hidden from others, in some cases hidden from themselves. In 'Transubstantiation,' a husband waits by the bedside of his comatose wife, hoping for her recovery. When she does recover, she begins exercising regularly and stops cooking. She exchanges her collection of hand-sewn clothing for a new store-bought wardrobe in a completely different style. Her husband feels alienated by the changes that others find exciting and positive. 'He had always been unsettled by people who remade themselves.' For him the wife he knew never returns from the sickbed. In the brief story 'Meet Me,' a husband and wife separately discover a matchbook in their house with a handwritten message under the cover. Each suspects the other of infidelity, revealing a mood of sadness and isolation in their marriage. In the title story, a young woman drives from Chicago to her family lake house to sort out a problem between her Oma and Tante Emilie. She has recently lost her grandfather. Shortly after the funeral her grandmother Oma announces to the children and 19 grandchildren that the lake house will be left to only one grandchild to ensure that it stays in the family. Shortly after that Oma banishes her sister Tante Emilie who has lived in the house with Oma and Opa since she was a young girl. When confronted, Oma reveals a family secret that casts the collective family history in a completely new light: 'The most hateful part was having to revise her memories. Nothing had been as it appeared: all false fronts.' 'Relative Strangers' is published by Carolina Wren Press, a non-profit organization with the motto 'new authors, new audiences.' It sponsors annual awards for poetry and for writing by a woman. Margaret Hermes is the 2011 winner of the Doris Bakwin Award. Margaret Hermes grew up in Chicago and now lives in St. Louis. Her short stories have appeared in a number of literary journals. She has published a novel and adapted an Oscar Wilde fable for the stage. Readers unfamiliar with Hermes will be pleased to discover this talented writer. --Jennifer Alexander, The West End Word
zlib_text: With A Little Help From My Friends
  CIANA STONE
  SAHARA KELLY
  
  With A Little Help From My Friends
  Delilah, Stella, Calliope
  Copyright © 2015 Ciana Stone
  Fenella, Nadine, Eden
  Copyright © 2015 Sahara Kelly
  Cover Design by Original Syn © 2015
  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed
  or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or
  retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the authors.
  With A Little Help From My Friends is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
  places, and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imaginations or are
  used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events,
  or locales is entirely coincidental.
  These six stories were previously released elsewhere. They have been revised
  and re-edited for this new edition.
  
  Sahara Kelly
  
  Prologue
  “You need to get laid.”
  Fenella Whitfield-soon-to-be-ex-Banks looked up from her position on
  the floor and over the mountain of pa