The painting is a very recent one by my brother, artist James Gurney.
Mike lost his firefighting job when his department downsized.
The bank foreclosed two years later. He loaded his TV and his tools into his pickup and covered the load with a black tarp.
He muttered to Jane, “At least the truck’s paid off—sure wish the tank was full,” and they drove south to Tennessee.
Link to my brother's blog, Gurney Journey is in the column to the right under "Blogs I Read."
10 comments:
Dan, I'm excited, and also sobered by this! James' painting is just beautiful. The light! His story is a punch in the gut, but what beauty he, and you, are making out of his story.
You packed just the perfect words into your nouvelle 55! There is a lot of emotion, and a glimmer of light in the gloom, just like the light in the painting. Wonderful stuff.
dan - a book is being birthed in this!! steven
Very nice. What did your bro think of the words to his painting? Does he visit your blog?
Thanks, Ruth. For both the comment you left here and for the idea to do this in the first place.
Hi, steven. Welcome back! I don't think I'll write a book, but I do like to write blog posts.
Hi, Sabio. Thanks. He used to read my blog regularly. He's pretty busy with his own blogging, so he visits here from time to time. I don't think he's seen this one yet. I should e-mail him about this. I'm pretty sure he would like the words he put to the painting he made.
Terrific stuff! Your brother is such a talented artist, Dan. And what a great nouvelle you've paired with this stunning painting.
Most interesting: your nouvelle and your brother's painting. I wish your brother well.
I love this! I need to refine and hone my skills with 55's. I really like the way you ended this... the mind rolls on to complete the story. I hope you do more 55's.
Thank you. Margaret. I think one of the challenges of very short fiction is to suggest as much as you can about what happened before and what will happen beyond the 55 words in the piece. Your comment encourages me to try more.
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