A View from the Bottom

Like a cross between 'Flash Fiction International' and 'Best Travel Writing' but primarily about working class people in Portland, Oregon, Los Angeles, California, and Dublin, Ireland. A mixture of short stories, flash fiction, micro fiction, and a novella at the end comprising a plethora of characters and settings in these diverse, eclectic cities. (The novella includes one song and some essays by characters in the story.) (Some content is for mature readers only.) /THE BACK STORY: The title of this book was in part inspired by an old Garth Brooks favorite, "Friends in Low Places". (Which for non-native English speakers I'll say is a take off the threatening saying, "I have friends in high places", meaning rich and powerful, well-connected friends. And we have expressions about "a view from the top", like the view from a top executive's office.) Here my characters are generally poor, working class people and I want to tell their stories from their own perspectives since the working class are generally written about as objects of either derision or pity rather than human beings with their (our) own voices. I experimented with other titles during my undergrad years that were far less diplomatic (e.g. angry about social class injustice) but as I came to spend more time around people from financially wealthy backgrounds I began to have more sympathy for issues in their lives as I came to know them as people rather than as abstract objects of reverse-classist derision. /I had a great many story ideas and characters rattling around in my brain, from Oregon, California, Minnesota, and Ireland, and this was a great opportunity to give them a new home to live in so I could have my brain back, so to speak. I also included a few stories from my parents that they used to tell all of their kids over the years since they both had artistic aspirations that for various reasons, most of them to do with having to actually make money or with raising kids, went unfulfilled in their lives. Two particular favorites of mine are the one my dad told me about the black guy from Chicago that he met while doing his mandatory military service and how this man proved to be smarter than everyone around him, escaping racists that wanted to beat him up and take his money, and the one my parents told us about the time they were alone with us in the old family cabin they were building in the woods near Mount Hood when they heard two strange men coming out in the dead of night. I also used it as a new home for two characters that had previously had their own books but that weren't selling well: Bridget (The Self-Made Woman) and Adrian (The Price of Peace). I think it's always that way with artists; Craig Ferguson has talked about that one joke every comedian has that they love but no one else does. My friend and colleague Carol Azams has talked about her book Teen Mums R Us that she really thought would be popular but wasn't. I still wanted to share these characters and their stories. /This was also an exercise in me trying to see how many different ways I could write; from novelette to micro fiction, horror to science fiction to erotica. You know when you're still really passionate about your art because you want to try everything, at least once! (And it's interesting if you read the sex scenes in Live Boldly then read them from A View because I wrote Darian's story when my father was still alive and I knew he would read the book but I finished the short story collection after he'd moved on (from this world) so I think the sex scenes flowed better (at least they felt less awkward to write!)) This was not the first manifestation of my collection of short stories, but it was the last. /For the photo art direction I chose a lowly view looking up at a 13th Century castle with security cameras set around it; an unprivileged, outside view. The author photo is about social climbing (with me at a rock wall with ropes.) (From my website: avacollopybooks.we