First of all, Happy Birthday, Keli!

"Keepsake" is one of my personal favorites among my published short stories.  I am proud and excited to have it reprinted in Blue Print Review this month, and wanted to share a bit about the story.

I had the idea for the story as I was considering the value of an oral  tradition within generations of families.  The story took a life of its own  and only glanced on that topic indirectly, but focused instead on the keepsake the narrator received from her grandmother -- her grandmother's own  memory.  (Yes, the narrator was envisioned as a girl.  It doesn't really matter, but it's curious how everyone who reads a story by a male author assumes the narrator is also male.) The narration itself takes turns between the now and then, fusing  the two memories into something new.

"Keepsake" was originally published in The Sidewalk's End in February of 2001.  That e-zine unfortunately closed a while later.  When I saw Blue Print Review's theme issue submission guidelines, I instantly thought "Keepsake" would be a good fit.  And the editor, dorothee, agreed.  So now new readers can enjoy the story in a new online showcase (have I mentioned that BPR has an elegant simplicty to its layout?).

I think the story gained an accidental further significance later in 2001 with the 9-11 attacks.  When I look at a certain passage about firemen, and  the overall theme of hope vs. fear, I see how a larger public may soon have  come to share some of the views of the narrator in "Keepsake".  In certain ways, the arts, perhaps especially in the United States, have changed since 9-11.  The simplistic nature of good and evil popularized for generations demanded reconsideration.  The image of America held by its own citizens -- not to mention the rest of the world -- invited scrutiny.  Some works of fiction that espouse the more simplistic vision of our world suddenly seem naive.

But some works retained their significance.  I hope that "Keepsake" -- while not a monumental work at all -- was able to convey both pre- and post- views and balance them each for what they are worth.

Here is the direct link to "Keepsake" in the new issue of BPR:

http://www.blueprintreview.de/22keepsake.htm