Sharon Bader’s flash fiction, On An Angel Falling to Earth, features an elderly beekeeper helping a angel when she is struck by lightning and falls to Earth. Her story was inspired by Alan Gurganus’ story, It Had Wings, which she loved immensely and decided to write her own version of such an event.
Sharon started out as an elementary school teacher interested in Montessori methods but only taught at that level for two years. By the time her youngest was ready for preschool, she was ready for something very different and returned to school, picked up an engineering sequence in geology and completed a Master of Science in Geological Oceanography. She taught college for a while, worked briefly for the US Geological Survey, and then worked as an instructional designer developing computer-based training for high tech companies in Silicon Valley. In her younger days, Sharon was a poet, and quite certain that she “would never write fiction” given that she was a mother who “couldn’t even make up a good bedtime story for my kids.” But, her life’s experience taught her the art of making things up and she is “loving every verb and noun” she uses “to fashion a good story.” Somewhere in life’s journey, Sharon must have instilled the love of storytelling into her children and grandchildren. Unbeknownst to the anthology’s editors, one of contributors turns out to be Sharon’s granddaughter. Memory loss is not new to their family. Last year, Sharon moved her mother from Florida into her Chapel Hill home to care for her as her mother’s condition worsened and she was no longer able to live on her own. Here is a multi-generational family who knows the stresses and concerns of aging with a debilitating condition. Sharon’s greatest challenge as an author is “putting aside my inhibitions in order to write with power and universality.” She credits Cheryl Strayed with “the most important writing advice” taken to heart: writers should lay aside the old dictum to write what they know and instead write who they are. Her latest writing project is a collection of short stories about connections between people across time, place, family, and/or culture. The working title is Connections. To read more of Sharon’s story, check out the book: bit.ly/READFLASH To stay in touch with Sharon, friend her on Facebook.
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Anchala Studios
Anchala Studios, LLC is a micro press based in Chapel Hill, NC which selects projects appealing to broad audiences and which enrich the community. The Collection: Flash Fiction for Flash Memory is its first publication. Archives
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