Stories in the Collection

The Maui Stone

Money Dragons

Galileo’s Finger

The Beautiful Lady

Sappho Resurgent

Beef Medallions

A Day at Versailles

Recovery

The Curious Affair of Helen and Franz

GaGa’s Piano

The Seraphita Sonata

The Carpaccio Dog

The Miracle of the Shellflowers

This collection of thirteen stories is an eclectic mix. 

While eight of the stories have magical realist elements, three of them are planted squarely on the ground of everyday reality: 

  • Money Dragons
  • Beef Medallions   
  • GaGa’s Piano

Two of the stories are hagiographic religious legends: 

  • The Beautiful Lady
  • The Miracle of the Shellflowers

A version of “Galileo’s Finger” first appeared in PoemMemoirStory (Number 12, 2013).  This journal has been renamed NELLE.

Praise

“Mary Jane Myers skillfully paints the many shades of loneliness: the absence of romantic love, of child, of family comfort, even of spiritual connection to the divine. Her characters poignantly seek relief from self-imposed internal exile, frequently turning to magical confidants—a talking gecko, a Catholic relic, a transmigrated Franz Schubert. Myers blends realism with magical realism, Victorian romance with the religious-inspirational story, historical fiction with fairy tale. A highly thought-provoking collection.” —Daniel M. Jaffe, editor of With Signs and Wonders: An International Anthology of Jewish Fabulist Fiction and author of The Genealogy of Understanding

“The personal, the artistic, and the spiritual collide with small, perfect explosions in these entrancing stories. Mary Jane Myers writes with great subtlety and poignancy, offering plenty of delights and surprises.” —Ross King, author of Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies

“The stories in this collection are little symphonies that traverse oceans, continents, and other dimensions, and the lucky reader gets swept up into these beautifully polished words and worlds.” —Kerry Madden-Lunsford, Director of Creative Writing, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and author of Offsides, the Maggie Valley Trilogy of children’s novels, and Up Close Harper Lee

Praise for “Galileo’s Finger” in PoemMemoirStory (Number 12, 2013). Note: Journal has been renamed NELLE. From NewPages.com. Posted April 15, 2013.

“I resonated with Louise Stark, the protagonist of Mary Jane Myers’s 'Galileo’s Finger,' who, during a long-awaited trip to Italy, stumbles into a museum in Florence where the astronomer’s digit, locked in a gilded egg, suddenly directs her—yes, with His Greatness’s very voice—to abduct it and bury it in Fiesole. If she does, she will have everything she ever wanted. The astonishment I might feel if such a thing happened to me, the reticence, the guilty delight—all of these Myers captures, so that Louise’s utterly changed fortunes after that moment become my own, and I grin the rest of the evening. Why do I think only a woman could have written that story? I do. And I’m awfully glad she did.”  —Julie J. Nichols, Ph.D., Associate Professor, English & Literature, Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah