Contrary Don't Have No "i" and Other Stories

by Carolyn E. Cook

Frances Caywood is a bright, but bossy girl who is the undisputed leader of her small, neighborhood crew: best friend Louanne, younger brother Avery, and J.B., the boy who lives across the street. Louanne remembers their shared childhoods of 1920's Arkansas, recounting the creative exploits that Frances arranges for them, playing Tarzan of the Jungle or Cowboys and Apaches. Sometimes, Frances turns mischievous, as she insists on acting Robin Hood and His Merry Men, then stealing Mrs. Potts's freshly baked pie. While Frances dearly loves Louanne and Avery, she holds little respect for J.B. She sees him as a cowardly sort, with his white sailor suit and slickly combed hair, and she often needles him about his lack of "guts." When he fails to push back, Frances grows bolder and her teasing mushrooms into demands for J.B. to prove himself through dangerous challenges. Eventually, J.B. decides to even the score, teaching Frances an unforgettable lesson.

This volume also includes three other short stories:
Four young women go on an outing in the mountains of North Carolina and discover that thinking beyond the boundaries involves more than shortening skirts, bobbing hair, and dancing The Charleston.

A mother who can't sit still for a moment and suffers the consequences of her fast-paced life, but she cleverly finds a way to make amends.

One summer, three spinster sisters befriend a motherless boy and together they share the delights of imagination, sprinkled with a large dose of non-conformity and a joyful lack of common sense.

ebook

Published January 22, 2014

About the author

In first grade, I learned to put pencil to paper, found a ready outlet for my imagination, and began to write stories. By the time I reached high school, I’d filled a stack of notebooks. This pursuit continued down through the years and eventually, I decided to take my love of writing and wordsmithing to a new level. Borrowing money from a friend, I invested in an introductory, creative writing class at Southern Methodist University, then went on to classes in short stories and novels.

Since the classes were expensive, I and some of my fellow students decided to skip taking more and started our own writers’ group. The arrangement was, prior to each gathering, we would email our most recent pages to each other, print, read, and make comments in the margins. We met in the coffee shop of a bookstore and the initial question usually was, “Who wants to be the first victim?” We were tactful, but merciless in our criticism of each other’s work. That was tough, but we wouldn’t have gained much from unearned praise. Of course, the critiquing had to be balanced with motivation to keep striving. In retrospect, I probably learned more from this group than I did in all the formal classes.

My first two fiction tomes presented much in the way of trial and error, although they were beneficial for honing skills. They now sit in three-ring binders on a shelf, testaments to persistence. Over the past few years, I’ve read a slew of books on the art of novel writing, attended conferences, published three historical novels and a volume of short stories. My fourth novel is reaching completion and the plan is to take some of the characters into a series.

My early childhood was spent in Maryland and Ohio, but I’ve resided in Texas long enough to be classified as an almost-native. Currently, I live outside of Dallas with a geriatric and neurotic cat named Ellie.