It was primarily about adhering to the vision I had for these tales. Short stories are a hard sell. It was unlikely that a traditional publishing house would have supported the illustrations and layout that I envisioned. Besides, it was a great way to learn more about the publishing business.
I was extremely fortunate that Fine Arts Work Center Fellow and fiction reader for Online Stores, Cheri Johnson agreed to edit these stories. It was a fantastic experience and I learned a great deal.
Dear Yvonne, I resonated with your website. My other passions are music and sailing. A Book of Revelations contains a story about an orchestral performance and a murder/identity mystery that centers around a yacht. I hope you will consider a review. Regards, A. C. Burch
A Book of Revelations opens with a Eudora Welty quote about the way our lives unfurl in a sequence of time that defies chronology, instead following a “continuous thread of revelation.” This insight from the short story doyenne leads readers into A.C. Burch’s collection and then lingers, an almost imperceptible but undeniable bass line connecting 8 eclectic tales.
While distinctly different, each story is inhabited by characters who exist on the fringes until they’re flung into storylines where they’re forced to collide with other people and previously unknown facets of themselves.
Welty’s “continuous thread of revelation” is evident in Burch’s “Private Quarters” when an unlikely friendship and paper-thin walls prompt a college music student to begin peeling back the layers of his identity and “Götterdämmerung” as a professional musician becomes a conduit as his struggle with the ephemeral nature of fame becomes a catalyst for exploring and expressing his deepest desires as he comes to terms with himself.
Each story draws readers into continuums of isolation and connection, introspection and expression, confusion and lucidity as its characters stumble and soar toward finding and claiming their own voices.
A Book of Revelations delivers the voyeuristic aspects of social media sans FOMO (fear of missing out) thanks to Burch’s stellar ability to place a reader inside the characters he’s created. His short stories have an epic feel because of his exquisite use of language and penchant for deftly wielding details. (Prepare to be compelled to reread details like “her right blinking flashing as she turned left” multiple times.)
Lately, there’s been no shortage of research on the benefits of reading floating around in the “soundbite-osphere,” everything from reduced stress levels and higher happiness quotients to better sleep and elevated empathy. (This inc.com feature rounds up nine of them.) As for the latter, being immersed in the worlds masterfully created by Burch may result in an almost immediate boost in understanding.
The eavesdropping sensation they induce is mesmerizing, and the stream of unexpected revelations are, too.
LINK FOR ARTICLE ABOVEL http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/9-ways-reading-fiction-can-make-you-happier-and-more-creative.html
A Book of Revelations opens with a Eudora Welty quote about the way our lives unfurl in a sequence of time that defies chronology, instead following a “continuous thread of revelation.” This insight from the short story doyenne leads readers into A.C. Burch’s collection and then lingers, an almost imperceptible but undeniable bass line connecting 8 eclectic tales.
While distinctly different, each story is inhabited by characters who exist on the fringes until they’re flung into storylines where they’re forced to collide with other people and previously unknown facets of themselves.
Welty’s “continuous thread of revelation” is evident in Burch’s “Private Quarters” when an unlikely friendship and paper-thin walls prompt a college music student to begin peeling back the layers of his identity and “Götterdämmerung” as a professional musician becomes a conduit as his struggle with the ephemeral nature of fame becomes a catalyst for exploring and expressing his deepest desires as he comes to terms with himself.
Each story draws readers into continuums of isolation and connection, introspection and expression, confusion and lucidity as its characters stumble and soar toward finding and claiming their own voices.
A Book of Revelations delivers the voyeuristic aspects of social media sans FOMO (fear of missing out) thanks to Burch’s stellar ability to place a reader inside the characters he’s created. His short stories have an epic feel because of his exquisite use of language and penchant for deftly wielding details. (Prepare to be compelled to reread details like “her right blinking flashing as she turned left” multiple times.)
Lately, there’s been no shortage of research on the benefits of reading floating around in the “soundbite-osphere,” everything from reduced stress levels and higher happiness quotients to better sleep and elevated empathy. (This inc.com feature rounds up nine of them.) As for the latter, being immersed in the worlds masterfully created by Burch may result in an almost immediate boost in understanding.
The eavesdropping sensation they induce is mesmerizing, and the stream of unexpected revelations are, too.
LINK FOR ARTICLE ABOVEL http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/9-ways-reading-fiction-can-make-you-happier-and-more-creative.html
Life is all about risk. Sometimes you embrace it. Other times, fate forces your hand. This powerful collection transports the reader from “Private Quarters,” where a young musician must negotiate the competing demands of two strong-willed women, to a luxurious yacht in the Caribbean, where an embittered detective finds himself rejecting his “Last Chance” at love.
In “Götterdämmerung,” a concertmaster must salvage an orchestral performance when his conductor has a stroke on stage, while in “Curtain Call,” “the other woman” crashes a swanky memorial event for her lover’s wife. “The Midnight Suitor” chronicles a hilarious encounter just after the first world war, while “The Honoree” exposes the machinations of a dean at her farewell event.
“Even in Death” follows the antics of a wife and mother who wears a drag queen’s dress to a wake and transforms her friend’s life in the process.
These stories are about the cliff—the tipping point—the instant we must roll the dice or succumb to the status quo. Burch’s characters face life with courage and humor in a tenacious search for meaning and fulfillment.