Our Abiding Heritage: A Collection of Diverse Short Stories

This publication is a testimony of the sixth year a group of authors assembled their collective muse to create an anthology celebrating the short story. The last five years’ collections, Celebrating the Short Story, Over the Moon Travel Treasures,2020 Vision, Coming of Age, and Second Chances, contributed significantly to advancing the craft of Christian fiction writing in Louisiana. This year, ten authors have collaborated to produce the outstanding collection of diverse short stories you’re now viewing, Our Abiding Heritage. The short story has long endured since the creation of language. It is a good vehicle for presenting an account, more often concentrating on creating a mood rather than a plot. A short story can range from a cleverly crafted sentence up to 20,000 words. Whatever the length, a short story is typically centered around one plot, one main character, and one central theme. This contrasts with a novel’s capacity to weave multiple plots and themes among an array of notable characters. The writing styles used in short stories can be somewhat unusual or surprising to their readers. Sometimes their writers use literary techniques which might wear down a reader if employed throughout the length of a novel. Being short, by definition, they provide the perfect fodder for being assembled into collections, usually with some unifying theme or common element to tie them together. The ten short stories in Our Abiding Heritage are as diverse in technique and theme as our previous years’ writings; nevertheless, they are united in the fact that a heritage element is common. We invite you to take notice of the techniques used by this array of talented authors to weave those heritage-related appearances into their stories. These ten adventures will take you to places you have never been. C.D. Sutherland’s Enough takes you to Golgotha and the crucifixion of Christ as witnessed through the eyes of Stephanus Longinus, a young Roman soldier. Priscilla Adams’ debut short story, Generational Curse, drops you into the chaos of a fast-paced love affair, where the soon-to-be bride discovers her fiance’s family curse. Jann Franklin’s The Backup Beauty Queen pulls you into small-town Louisiana festival culture, where family, enthusiasm, and talent collide with laughter. Marguerite Martin Gray’s The Thread Uncovered examines a tendril through Sophie Lucy Marteen’s life, revealing how family relationships do not always require blood ties. Carole Lehr Johnson’s Heritage of Hope takes you to seventeenth-century England to show how Melior Olford, a character in her 2022 release, The Burning Sands, came to be married to Radigan Atwood. Beverly Flanders’ Katherine’s Table plunges you into a mystery as a family heirloom reveals its secrets to Katie and her cousin Laura. Tina Ann Middleton’s Lord of Time places you on a time-traveling adventure where a good-intentioned man named Chad strives to rescue Jesus from the cross. Should he succeed, what would be the ramifications of that? Calvin Hubbard’s debut fiction, The Handoff, takes you on Tom’s nostalgic journey where he realizes specific events from key players in his life gave him precisely what he needed to run the race set before him. Mary Lou Cheatham’s Crossing Cohay Branch ventures into the recesses of a childhood memory, generating as many questions as it answers. Finally, Susan Hiers Foster’s Out of the Dark follows an author’s quest for inspiration in Maine, where she meets a famous author who needs something from her. When you return from these experiences, chances are some will have left you wanting more. If so, check out that story’s author page at the back of the book. They might have something else you’ll like. We believe you’ll be glad you did.