ROBERT FLANAGAN

The power of love in Robert Flanagan's vigorous collection of stories, LOVING POWER, set in his native Ohio, is bruising: a spry, hillbilly dancer who invites the abuse of her well-intentioned mate,the locally famous host of a radio call-in show; a scientist who adopts a bear-child from the woods and becomes her overbearing lover... The author is best when he lets his sprightly characters speak directly in their Midwestern drawls. His storytelling is as solid as rock. The author of three previous works of fiction, Flanagan deserves a wider audience.
-- Newsday

FROM THE COLLECTIONS'S OPENING STORY
"ALL ALONE AND BLUE"

Spending Saturday night in a pole barn witht he Olentangy AmVets wasn't Lee's idea of a good time, but Shelley wouldn't take no for an answer. Three whole months now they'd been going together, she said, and never once had he taken her to a square dance.

Lee could not do diddly with his feet to music, so sat watching Shelley sashsay with bearded rednecks. She was a wonder at dancing, he had to admit. Nursing his Little King, he sat with his chair tilted back against the wall. He guessed he didn't look too out of place, and hoped he didn't look too much at home. His daddy had loved these shindigs, but like his mother Lee steered away from them.

When he first met her, Lee had figured Shelley for a waitress or beautician, but never a teacher. She'd taken that as a put-down, but he'd said hey, no, he only meant she looked like the gals he'd known down home in Huntington. "You're from West by God Virginia!" she'd shrieked. Though she was from Columbus, she had gone to W.V.U. "Wild and wonderful," she said. So how come he didn't talk West Virginny? He'd smiled at what he took to be a compliment; he'd majored in communications at Ohio U., he'd told her, and had worked his tail off to rid of his twang. "Poor baby!" Shelley had laughed. "You worked it alll off?" Thinking home free, he'd said not quite all.

"A number of stories in this collection of seven are genuinely funny" and "for their humor, pathos, wisdom and Flanagan's fine inventiveness with language, these are stories worth reading." -- Columbus Dispatch

CONTENTS
All Alone And Blue
The Bear’s Wife’s Husband's Tale
Winter Term
Self-Defense
The Apprentice
Loving Power
By Available Light

Of the nine stories, five appeared in the literary magazines
Bird Effort, Cornfield Review, Confluence, Fiction, and Gumbo 17.

"In LOVING POWER Flanagan displays a gift for dialogue and great wit. All in all, Flanagan's stories offer a refreshing vehemence, touched by the occasional balm of forgiveness." -- Ohio Writer

FROM THE COLLECTION'S CLOSING STORY
"BY AVAILABLE LIGHT"

Kristina knew all the reasons why she should not want to build a new room onto their old house. As Uwe pointed out, since two of the three bedrooms were empty now, it made sense to turn one of them into a studio. Karl and Lara, no longer children, could use the other room on their visits.

What he failed to recognize, she said, was that their son and daughter, conservative in more than their politics, wished their rooms to remain their rooms, whether or not they ever returned to them. She bit back a remark that it appeared that he too wanted her to serve as curator of the family museum. No, she said, she wanted a place of her own to paint.

They were eating their dinner in the dining room. Kristina had set two white candles in silver holders on the table, and Uwe's face was hidden from her by the little tongues of flame. She knew though that he would be pursing his lips as he did when he gave a matter his serious consideration, or wished to give that impression.