Babies' Breath

Babies’ Breath  - Stories of the Sad, the Sick, the Evil – And How They Were Born

Kathy L. Coogan

“My heart burned as red-hot as the ancient round stones edging the fire-pit and my tears sizzled and steamed like spit when they hit the flames.  I thought of hell, in which I believed, and wished that I could pray to heaven, in which I did not.” – From Babies’ Breath.

 

In this unique, sensory, and haunting collection of twenty-four, contemporary short stories, author Kathy L. Coogan explores the life-changing circumstances that her myriad characters face when confronting sadness, sickness or evil. The universal theme is the harrowing question, “What if?’

 In a fascinating bonus for the reader, she reveals before each story the writer’s secret of what small inspiration gave birth to it. 

Mystifying, troubling, dark, and all utterly engaging, Babies Breath – Stories of the Sad, The Sick, The Evil - And How They Were Born,delivers an upheaval of emotions to the reader, through the beautifully crafted stories, six of which are summarized here.

-          A defiant daughter, unconvinced that her father’s cult is the key to salvation, dreams of a way out before it is too late.

 

-          A young woman wakes up in another drunken fog, hoping that she is home.

 

-          A beloved wife struggles to swallow a tiny bit of food to convince her distraught husband to stay.

 

-          A publicly humiliated ex-wife yearns to start a new life – but not before she seeks a fulfilling, funny and high-flying revenge.

 

-          A shy, stuttering boy obeys all the rules until he finds a glimmering bottle on the beach.

 

-          A lonely girl watches an alligator in her backyard pond wondering how dangerous he can really be.

 

In this collection of short tales, including the award-winning title story, Babies Breath, some characters find relief and resolution, while others, as in real life, spiral out of control.