The Blog

A jazz pianist who sees his life portrayed in the music he loves; a woman confronting the lingering presence of her lover’s deceased wife; a New York transplant who can’t quite leave her lover and life in Kansas behind, and a ballerina’s devoted friend who yearns to find his passion in life. What do these people have in common? Despite their varying missions and desires, they’re all living with the confines of a promise—a promise made to them, or by them, or maybe made by someone close to them. And they are the main characters in the prize-winning pieces of a new anthology titled Uncertain Promise.

I’m happy to say that I wrote the story about the ballerina’s friend, and it tied for third place in the competition that was part of the anthology selection process. Harold, the protagonist of “Ballerina,” is awed by the dancer’s beauty and rapture and the way her whole being is absorbed by her art. “She danced the way she wanted,” he thinks. “She was what she wanted to be, and it was breath-taking.” Like a moth to flame, he’s drawn to her dance, even when she’s only practicing in her studio. Then one day, she slips on ice and breaks her ankle. Her dance is ended, at least for a while, and Harold blames himself because he was with her when it happened, but didn’t save her. Feeling compelled to take care of her while she heals, he tries everything he can think of to keep her comfortable and amused, for her sake and for the restoration of her art. And suddenly, in the midst of his ministrations to her, he finds the one thing that can give him the joy she finds in dance.

In the introduction to Uncertain Promise, editor Von Pittman says he and publisher Yolanda Ciolli chose the anthology’s theme because they thought it would “not only allow for a great diversity of approaches to storytelling, it should provoke one.”

“No limits apply on the variety and intensity of promises,” Pittman says. “Some of the promises in these selected stories are fraught with uncertainty, tentativeness, and highly charged emotions. Other promises lead to intense satisfaction, pleasure, or passion.”

Selections in the anthology are fiction and nonfiction. In addition to the four I described above, 18 more stories and essays tell of promises made to friends and families, as well as maybe the most difficult promises of all—the ones we make to ourselves. The different approaches to the idea of promise provide very interesting reading, which I hope you’ll explore. Uncertain Promise is available on Amazon and at Compass Flower Press.

On December 13, the publisher of Uncertain Promise will sponsor a panel discussion about the anthology at the Columbia Public Library in Columbia, Missouri. Pittman and Ciolli will moderate the discussion. Panel members are all authors of stories and essays in the anthology, including first-place prize winner David Collins and Marlene Lee, whose story tied with mine for third place. I really wish I could be there, but I can’t make the trip right now. Maybe they’ll do something on the East Coast at another time.