Harmony’s Song and Other Stories

About the Book

Twelve stories explore the stresses and strains inherent in youth coming of age, family dynamics, misplaced and unrequited love, the reserved strength in a marriage, a confrontation with death, and the constant awareness that there is never enough money. Ernest Rambler’s family lives with the knowledge that Ernest senses that he must always be looking for or moving to a better job, which means they will be moving again soon. The stories place the characters in Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. None of the characters seems to find a sense of permanence in any one place. In “Ramblers and Spinners,” coming of age can mean a counting of losses. In “A Wide Day,” the death of a chicken reveals a mystery about time and life and death. “Arrangements” and “Harmony’s Song” display how little one might know about another. There is a general sense that everything in life involves unending pursuits of security and love and that coming of age may well be a never-ending process.

About the Author

Carl Wooton has been writing and teaching for more than fifty years. His fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in various journals and literary reviews. His fiction is in The Hudson Review), Literary Review, Blue Lake Review, Green Briar Review, Sun Dog, Forum, Ball State University Forum, Cayuhoga Review, Georgia Review, Crow’s Nest, Slackwater Review, Revue de Louisiane, Laurel Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Chatauqua Literary Review, and in the anthology Take a Mind Walk. In 1990, he co-authored Ernest Gaines: Conversations on the Writer’s Craft, with Marcia Gaudet (LSU Press). He retired in 1993, after teaching for twenty-eight years at University of Louisiana-Lafayette. He moved to California’s central coast and taught twenty more years at Cal Poly State Univesity in San Luis Obispo until June, 2013. At 83 years old, he still writes and is working on two novellas, a collection (maybe two) of stories, and a novel in whatever amount of energy and time he is allowed. To paraphrase (badly) Achilles, Life is hard, but any part of it is a damned sight better than the alternative. He lives with his wife, Dolores, in Nipomo, California.