Racerelations Stories

A washed up pianist/composer finds inspiration in mentoring a young blind kid with extraordinary abilities when he is faced with writing the most important piece of music in his life. With the pressure of deadlines, fame, and reputation, artistic ethical boundaries are put to the test.

Is "privilege" synonymous with "honor"? or "advantage"? Perhaps it can be both.

When a schoolmarm from back east moves to a town in west Texas she gets more than she bargained for. Not only is she teaching colored students, the only eligible man is notorious for his savagery as a southern soldier during the civil war. And her father died at Shiloh fighting for the Union.

Joe Slattery is retired and lives on his own in Schuylkill Township, Pennsylvania, a rural, off-the-beaten-path part of the state. One night he is startled to see a young black man on his front porch, knocking at the door. No words are exchanged, but Joe pulls a loaded .38 revolver from the side-table by his chair and fires twice through the glass door. A police interview and investigation ensues and Joe is left to reflect on what transpired. The town must contend with reverberations from this event. This story is snatched from the headlines. As events transpire, these tangled lives - Joe, the young man who was shot, the local sheriff - try to move forward from tragedy to hope. The story is narrated by a third person voice.

For the sake of literature, I know people will interpret this story in different ways. Yet, my sole motivation for this satire is how white privilege can serve as a veil to issues and conditions in the black community. An example given in this story is black defiance (symbolized by the wearing of coats) and how it angers a person who has no reason to defy against the law or the norm in society.

Gabril, a young man plagued by odd daytime visions, finally settles down with a very special girl, although he wonders what loving might be like with a different skin tone. After some far-out dates, the help of a strange "collaborator," and her sudden disappearance, Gabril will struggle with "the right thing" and decides which "chick" he wants after all.

Frost Wildoath is a Wechuge, a spiritual being born of flora, fauna, and weather. Despite his wolfen appearance, he has a compassionate heart that directs him to aid a seaside town afflicted by a monster in the shadows. A monster that, to gaze upon, is a mark for death. A monster that is as much a wolf as Frost himself.

Driven from her home, a young free woman tries her luck in the Old West. New York was long gone; everything she was settled in her footprints that traversed miles upon grueling miles to arrive in Sweet Water Kansas. There, she resolves to take up a new identity in order to suppress her old one, all in hopes of preserving her life. She was like the rest at first, just a wandering soul passing through a small town. Unaware of her infamous reputation back up North, most the townsfolk left her alone. That was until one fuming august morning when she had an unfortunate run in with the hotheaded gunslinger, Jimmy Hickock. Extension: This story is a fan-fiction based off of the 1989-1990's show The Young Riders. The show follows the life of the Pony Express, a group of horse back riders specialized in delivering mail across the state of Kansas. Set just a few years before the Civil War shook the United States, these young men (and one woman disguised as a man) battle gun slinging cowboys, feared mercenaries, and territorial conflicts. Wild Bill and Buffalo Bill, two iconic figures of the Old West appear as major characters in their early years. My story takes place in Season 1.

Seventeen-year-old Karin finds herself pregnant. She has a decision to make, however, her mother Justine has already made the decision for her. Forced to deal with the issues of race relations and a career that her mother refuses to let her put on hold, Karin lives in anguish while longing for meaningful relationships. Will those relationships be fostered or destroyed? "Decision of a Lifetime" is a prelude to the upcoming YA novel My Invisible Father by Jaer Armstead-Jones. "Decision of a Lifetime" is the first installment of two short stories that tell the story before the story.

Untold Promise explores the story of Hoke, an African-American driver, especially his relationship to his employer's mother, Daisy Werthan. Set in the United States spanning from 1948 to 1973 , the racial tension plays into their uneasy friendship. A retelling of Driving Miss Daisy, as well as a songfic based on 'Himawari no Yakusoku' by Motohiro Hata.