{"id":863,"date":"2013-08-06T07:36:38","date_gmt":"2013-08-06T14:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bitingduckpress.com\/?p=863"},"modified":"2020-11-24T18:44:51","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T02:44:51","slug":"fall-2013-available-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitingduckpress.com\/?p=863","title":{"rendered":"November 1, 2013: Available Light"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Download the first story <a title=\"AvailableLight\" href=\"https:\/\/bitingduckpress.com\/availablelight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Available Light<\/em> is a collection of eighteen short stories, some humorous, others darker, but all with the underlying theme of how love complicates our actions. Whether they are trying to protect their loved ones, draw them closer, or drive them away, the characters sow confusion and struggle with the unforeseen consequences of inescapable misunderstanding.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the heroes have loved each other for many years; others have only met. In \u201cGet Drunk and Screw,\u201d a woman\u2019s sudden giddy, tipsy behavior leads her husband to suspect an affair, until a call from her oncologist tells him the grim truth. \u201cA Little White Chapel on the Beach\u201d tells of a 14-year-old runaway\u2019s elaborate efforts to hide her intended elopement with a man a decade her senior. \u201cBrother\u201d is a World War II era tale of a young boy willing to kill to defend his employer\u2019s young wife. Told in subtle, lyrical language, the stories draw imagery and metaphor from their vivid surroundings, ranging from Southern beach towns to the Nevada desert.<\/p>\n<p>The author is Phillip Gardner, a three-time South Carolina Fiction Project winner and Piccolo Spoleto Fiction Open winner. His stories have appeared in the <em>North American Review<\/em>, <em>New Delta Review<\/em>,<em> LIT<\/em>, <em>Interim<\/em>,<em> The<\/em> <em>Chattahoochee Review<\/em>, and elsewhere. <em>Available Light<\/em> is his third short story collection, following <a title=\"Crawl\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Someone-To-Crawl-Back\/dp\/188642098X\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Someone To Crawl Back To<\/em> <\/a>(2003) and <a title=\"Somebody\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Somebody-Wants-Dead-Phillip-Gardner\/dp\/091799065X\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Somebody Wants Somebody Dead<\/em><\/a> (2012) (Boson Books).<\/p>\n<p>Ron Rash, author of <em>Serena<\/em> and <em>One Foot in Eden<\/em>, says, \u201cThis new collection leaves no doubt that Phillip Gardner is in the first tier of the South\u2019s finest short story writers. His empathetic imagination, vivid language, and understanding of what makes a memorable story are of the first order. His voice is utterly his own. Available Light takes the reader beyond the realm of pain and pleasure and into the sublime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Visit the author&#8217;s website at<a title=\"PJD\" href=\"http:\/\/www.phillipjgardner.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> http:\/\/www.phillipjgardner.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Download the first story <a title=\"AvailableLight\" href=\"https:\/\/bitingduckpress.com\/availablelight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Available Light<\/em> is a collection of eighteen short stories, some humorous, others darker, but all with the underlying theme of how love complicates our actions. Whether they are trying to protect their loved ones, draw them closer, or drive them away, the characters sow confusion [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,5,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitingduckpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitingduckpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitingduckpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitingduckpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitingduckpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=863"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/bitingduckpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1320,"href":"https:\/\/bitingduckpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863\/revisions\/1320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitingduckpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitingduckpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitingduckpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}