A Sackful of Quarters

A SACKFUL OF QUARTERS is a collection of short stories
set throughout the twelve months of the year. Each
story is a seasonal account of one particular character's
life experience. The glue that holds them all together is
that each woman or girl originally perceives herself through
familial or societal eyes, and comes to a better understanding
of who she really is as a result of the incidents that occur
within the story.



January: FRESH SLATE, USED CHALK

This story recounts the liberation of the abused wife
of a prominent doctor, and how she leaves him only to
discover that she is immediately drawn to an individual who,
although outwardly the complete opposite of her husband, has
the potential to do her harm. How she deals with the
revelation establishes the foundation for a new life filled
with promise.




FEBRUARY: ETUDE FOR A WINTER'S AFTERNOON

A fifth grade girl spends the Valentine season learning
about unselfish love and class prejudice in this fifties
piece set in Chicago neighborhood. The great melting pot is not
as advertised. The reflection she sees in the mirror is not
necessarily how others view her and she has miles to go before
she sleeps.



MARCH: ERIN GO BRAUGH!

A prostitute in a seedy motel considers how she
came to such an end. She recalls how she started out with
high expectations and remembers her first real love, a
mechanic in the town garage. She comes to terms with her past
finally resolving the conflicts that caused her fall.



APRIL: GOT THOSE AIN'T WHERE YOU ARE, PARK BENCH BLUES

Once great blues singer, Jonna Knight finds herself
past seventy, penniless and at the bottom of the barrel,
living homeless on the streets of New York City. After
spending the night under a blanket of newspapers on a
Central Park bench, she encounters aspiring songstress Mona.
The young Jewess joins her after dropping her portfolio,
scattering its invaluable contents in the early morning wind.


Mona vents her frustrations, almost oblivious of the
old black woman who seems most interested in her diatribe.
She's tired of "paying her dues", exhausted from daily
rejections from prospective employers more concerned with
her obvious ethnicity than her talent, and depressed enough
to call it quits and retreat to the comfort of her affluent
home. A morning chat with the legendary vocalist teaches her
an invaluable lesson and earns her a surprise to boot.


MAY: BLOSSOM TIME FOR MAUDE ROSE

Maude Rose, a spinster who spent the fruitful years of
her twenties and thirties traveling the globe with her
widower father, enjoys an early summer evening on the porch
with her gentleman caller. They sip lemonade. She offers
him cookies, shares gossip and makes observations about the
flawlessly beautiful but barren apple tree in her front
yard. Her caller never speaks, but as Maude Rose rambles
on his silence reveals some meaningful insights about herself and others in their small Southern community.



JUNE: GEMINI WITH SCORPIO RISING

Twins, one plain and one fair, come to terms with their
individuality in the liberated seventies. They are both
dating the same man who is equally attracted to them for
different reasons. As the story unfolds, the plain sister falls
deeply in love, and her beautiful counterpart learns something
about her own emergent sexuality that she is both frightened and eager
to share with her twin.





JULY: AN ANATOMY OF THE AMERICAN DREAM GONE ASKEW

A newlywed in June, pregnant in July, and far too soon
for a yuppie husband who has their storybook life planned
down to the last white picket in the fence that will
surround their custom built house. But times have
changed, and she's come a long way baby, to where