In early May, I was reading A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. Coincidentally, a writer named Harvey Stanbrough announced a writing contest for short stories inspired by any work of Hemingway's.
This must be a sign, I thought; I'm right in the thick of what's known as the great love story of World War I.
I wrote a story and submitted it. It wasn't one of the stories chosen as top 3 (with a little prize money) but it was chosen to be in the e-book anthology, "Echoes of Hemingway."
The title of my story is "Sonnets to Psalms," and it's about what happens to the main character in A Farewell to Arms, Frederick Henry, after the war ends. The title comes from a sonnet written in 1590 by George Peal, which some literary critics believe inspired Hemingway to write his World War I story. The sonnet’s title: “A Farewell to Arms.”
Then it became a matter of fitting pieces together – the town of Montreux, Switzerland, where Frederick and Catherine lived; an abbey not too far away; and some basic research.
The anthology contains 20 stories by 13 writers (a few overachievers wrote more than one story), and it has some very fine short stories covering a surprising number of genres. My own story would be categorized as general or historical fiction.
You can find more information about the anthology at https://payhip.com/b/3ibI5, and it will be available on the various book sites July 12. It can be pre-ordered at Amazon or at Books2Read. And it’s available right now at Harvey’s web site.
I’d never done this with a short story before, and it was actually a lot of fun.
Some Wednesday Readings
How Medieval Monks and Scribes Helped Preserve Classical Culture – Bernd Roeck at Literary Hub.
Eleanor Crow’s Falling Light (artwork) – Spitalfields Life.
A Writer for Our Times: Why John le Carre’s Work Remains More Essential Than Ever – Rav Grewal-Kok at Literary Hub.
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