Pictured are authors John Young, on left, and Don Tassone, on right.
Patrick was teaching his high school students about mitochondria when he received an urgent message that his four-year-old son, in preschool, had bitten a classmate, and needed to be picked up immediately. The morning was fraught with Marcus absolutely needing to wear dinosaur socks to school, resulting in Patrick fishing through the dirty laundry to find the second sock; but, biting!
With guidance from Patrick’s pediatrician friend, he and his son Marcus begin a new evening routine; all electronics are off and storytelling commences.
After six weeks, Marcus finally was able to sleep through the night, as his anxiety decreased and his connection to his dad increased.
“Gathering Moondust” is an anthology of 27 stories written by 11 authors.
John Young is the author of “Sweet Dreams,” a short story about Patrick and Marcus as they navigate through a different life after Patrick’s wife, and Marcus’ mother, has left them to pursue her new life.
Young has written three of the short stories in the anthology.
“Born and raised beyond the suburbs in Indianapolis, John Young graduated from Indiana University and earned an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College, Boston. He is the author of three books, the novels: “Getting Huge” and “When the Coin is in the Air” as well as “Fire in the Field and Other Stories.”
Young also taught English at the high school and college levels and spent many years in advertising as a copywriter and creative director, mostly in Boston. He and his teams won more than 250 awards for creative excellence.
He spent 20 years in Beverly, Mass. and now lives with his wife and two kids in Cincinnati, Ohio.”
Young says his first novel, “When the Coin is in the Air,” was hugely cathartic and helped him face his demons. He said folks always commented on how cheerful he was, but on the inside, he did not feel that way.
He said writing the book was “cheaper” than 30 years of therapy.
The book was written as autobiographical 16 years prior. The manuscript was accepted by three publishers if Young would turn it into a novel. Young refused and it sat in a drawer for the next many years. Finally, at age 33, he was ready to transform the book into a novel and it has been described as a “loved, wise and moving novel.”
When asked why the telling and retelling of the same story often gives us deeper or new insights over time, Young replied that truth is not one strand of rope but many strands woven together.
He references “Go Down, Moses” by William Faulkner, in which a man is so distraught by the loss of his wife, that his only coping mechanism is to work like a madman at the sawmill. His co-workers see him as an uncaring animal, not as a man desperately grieving his loss. What we see and perceive through our lens is our subjective truth, but not necessarily, and often, not the real truth or the whole truth.
Young said when he was so busy in his advertising career, the last thing he would want to do at the end of the day was to write for himself. So a few days a week he would get to work early, set a timer for 15 minutes, and begin to write a poem. He said this little practice helped keep the writer juices flowing.
Young says a great deal of writing involves rewriting, editing, and throwing out pages of “my darlings.”
Baby boomers, millennials, gen X-ers, and gen Z-ers, within the workplace, is the setting of “Tick Tock,” a short story, marking the passage of time, written by Don Tassone. It is one of three stories Tassone contributed to the anthology, “Gathering Moondust.”
Tassone wrote for the school paper while attending Xavier University as an English major and writing was also a big part of his 32-year career at P&G.
When Tassone retired he wanted to return to his roots of creative writing. He said he thought it would be an easy transition, but soon discovered he could not write even one good short story. He said it was terrible.
So he enrolled in a week long writing program that reimmersed him in creative writing. He began submitting manuscripts to literary magazines and since 2017 has had 400 short stories and ten books published. He said his pressure cooker job as a vice president at P&G, in a very process and organized environment, has helped him bring that same discipline to his creative writing. He says writing is in his blood and writes every day.
Having received thousands of rejection letters, he writes not for the fame and money, but for the sheer joy of writing and for all the connections he makes through his writings. He quotes Ray Bradbury, “Love what you do, and do what you love.”
Tassone says all writing is autobiographical. It reflects something we have seen experienced, or thought.
“Stories connect us. We’re living in a time of great division, when bringing people together may be more important than ever. What a joy to connect with others, many of whom I wouldn’t otherwise know,” he added.
Here is a summary of “The Garden,” a very short story that Tassone challenged himself to write:
The old man’s back and arms hurt. For 50 years she planted the garden that now lay fallow for three years. Fifty years ago he had broken up that patch of land for her and for 50 years, besides her, that garden was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.”
Hemingway, an author Tassone likes, won a contest writing a very very short story: “For sale: Baby shoes never worn.”
Tassone is happily married to his college sweetheart, who he wooed with his romantic writings. They live in Loveland and have four children and 10 grandchildren.
Stories help us make sense of our lives and our world. Stories open us to ourselves, help us put words to our feelings and movements, and help us to create something meaningful from our pain.
Joseph Campbell says, “The sociological function of stories helps maintain and validate the social order of a society. Stories pass on information about power relationships, taboos, laws, and the inner workings of communities.”
And the great philosopher Jimmy Buffet says, “We ride the carrousel for the stories we can tell.”
A summary of “Gathering Moondust”, “Eleven highly imaginative writers come together for the pure delight of entertaining the short story lover. Gathering Moondust is an anthology of 27 stories. The characters living within these pages are hopeful, confused, opinionated, funny, murderous, innocent, and incorrigible human beings. Oh, yes! Including two highfalutin dogs who think they’re human. Not your ordinary stories. Fresh and pure entertainment for the fertile imagination.”
Story contributors are Carol Beth Anderson, Libby Belle, Gerald Gaul, Patricia Goitia Lebo, M R Martyn, Rob Radmer, C. Marshall Rea, Kenneth Robbins, Jacob Surles, Don Tassone, and John Young.
The Bookmatters Bookstore is an absolute treasure found on Main Street in the heart of Milford. It is the kind of place one just wants to curl up on a rainy day and be at one with one of their wonderful reads. It is homey, and colorful, and and has a loft where the book signing took place. Bookmatters is a slice of a literary treat.