Hello, everyone, and happy new year! Today’s sample comes from the fourth entry in my Pocketful of Stories short fiction series. Enjoy!
When Jo Cooper introduced himself to me (“I’m Jo, no E.”), he seemed like an elfin version of Oscar Wilde. His blonde curls hung in a riot around his face, and his pink ruffled shirt set off his coloring perfectly. He was barely taller than me, and chattered a mile a minute. We were in the basement laundry room of our San Francisco apartment building. My hair was tied back with a thick, purple hank of yarn that didn’t quite match my sleeveless, mock turtleneck shell and coordinating pedal pushers. I was also wearing a horrible pale lipstick. Revlon’s Silver City Pink, to be precise; a color that Jo says really only looks good on the sisters. Against my pale skin, it was almost sickly. Fashionable, but sickly. I could almost hear Jo tut-tutting my outfit as he looked me up and down over the rims of his wire-framed granny glasses. Not that I blamed him.
Jo told me which apartment he lived in and asked if he could borrow some of my fabric softener. I handed over the jug, and he poured a capful into a washer full of colorful clothes.
As for me, I was swearing like a stevedore. Despite having consumed my quarters and dimes, the washer would not start. Jo gave the recalcitrant machine a sharp kick and it began to fill.
Jo lived exactly one floor above me. We were both lucky enough to have units with bay windows overlooking Cole Street. Almost immediately, we started running back and forth to visit each other; it was as though we’d been friends forever.
I lived alone. My apartment had simple furnishings in far too many shades of beige. My closet was filled with A-line skirts and jumpers that I’d run up with yardage from Discount Fabrics and patterns by Butterick. Coordinating Peter Pan collar blouses and some rather matronly cardigans filled my work wardrobe; slacks and tops for weekends took up the other side of the closet. Jo said I needed much more color in my life.
Want your own copy of Down on the Corner of Love? Here are the back cover copy and purchase links:
To find love…
…she needs to meet someone who understands her.
Being a civil rights activist isn’t easy in rural Louisiana. Raine’s found herself ostracized and alone because she’s a woman who speaks her mind.
Fed up, she leaves her country world behind for beautiful San Francisco, where the culture is thriving with exciting new music and fashion.
These are her people.
Raine meets a new best friend, Jo, who is free-spirited and living life to the fullest, but Jo’s entangled in more danger than Raine’s ready for.
Raine’s world turns upside down when she meets the most far out man she’s ever encountered.
Readers who love history, flower power, and the wild times of the 1960s will be wowed by Down on the Corner of Love.
This edition of Pocketful of Stories also contains a sample from Sharon E. Cathcart’s award-winning novel, Bayou Fire.
Amazon (geo-targeted link will take you to the store for your country); Apple Books; Barnes & Noble; BOL (Netherlands/Belgium); Booktopia (Australia); Gandhi (Mexico); Kobobooks (available for 2400 SuperPoints if you are part of the program); La Feltrinelli (Italy); Livraria Cultura (Brazil); Mondadori (Italy); Overdrive (via your local library); Porrua (Mexico); Rakuten Japan; Scribd; Smashwords.
Sharon E. Cathcart 