"In Case of a Sudden Loss of Cabin Pressure" by Rozz Lewis (2013)

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Event Resources  Everyone Is Invited to Join Us for Irish Short Story Month Year Four

Ways to Participate-you can do a post on your blog and let me know about it-I will keep a master list and I will publicize your post and blog.

If you are an Irish connected  author and would like to be featured, please contact me.   There are several options open.

If you would like to do a guest post on my blog on anything related to Irish short stories, contact me.

"The evening he arrived in Ireland, he had called her on Skype, and he had cried for the first time in their short marriage. He told her he felt lost and stupid and that he felt like a Lithuanian for the first time ever. She had smiled. He had thought about that and how strange it was that while he wiped his tears away, she had smiled and said I told you so."

There was a time not long ago when the Irish economy was riding high, a period before Ireland had to be bailed out by the European Union and severe austerity measures were put in place.  During this time many Eastern Europeans were brought in on contract basis to fill jobs.  Then the Celtic Tiger crashed and lots of the immigrants had to go home.  "In Case of Temporary Loss of Cabin Pressure" by Rozz Lewis lets us see what Lucas from Lituania experienced during his year working in Ireland. Physically much of the story action occurs on his flight back to Lituania.

Lucas is married,  he and his wife decide they need the money he can make.  His wife wants a home in the country.  Lucas lives in a simple flat and sends most of his money home.  He gets along wonderfully with his coworkers and soon begins to feel like an honorary Irishman.  He appreciates the openness of the Irish, knowing an Irishman in Lituania would never be made to feel nearly as welcome. He develops mutual feelings for an Irish lady but he will not violate his marriage vows.  

The plane trip starts out with the stewardess giving the air safety speech in which she explains what to do in case of sudden loss of cabin pressure.  The close of the story is really well done and so much fun to read that I won't tell any of it.

In this short story Lewis takes us inside the mind of Lucas, gives us some things to ponder about his marriage, about living outside your homeland, the cultural differences between Ireland and Lituania and gives us a good laugh at the expense of an unpleasant stewardess.  

Lewis has kindly agreed to participate in a Q and A session centering on the Irish short story.  I am greatly looking forward to that and reading more of her work. 

You can read this delightful story here

http://wordlegs.com/posttigerstories.pdf. (In Wordlegs, July 2013)

I have been following Rozz's blog for sometime and find it a great source of information about contemporary Irish literature.  

www.rozz.ie

 

Author Bio. Rozz Lewis

 

She is a primary school principal who is a third level tutor with Hibernia College where she gives professional development courses for student teachers in English, technology, professional practices and Social, Personal and Health Education.

She has written for the Irish Times, Sunday Times, INTouch magazine, writing.ie and co-edits and also.writes and co-edits anseo.net, a well known educational opinion piece and review blog.

She has authored several primary school textbooks and these have been published by Folens Publishing Company.

She is a member of the Carlow Writers Co-Operative Group and gave her first reading of her short stories at the Eigse Arts Festival in Carlow Library in 2012. Two of her two short stories are being published in the group anthology "What champagne was like" and due to be launched by Jamie O Connell, author at Eigse Arts Festival.

She had written 3 novels by the time she had left primary school in the genre of “Boarding school girls”.

She is part of the review panel for the Under 30 writing project in conjunction with Stephen Doherty.

She was longlisted for the Fish Publishing Flash Fiction Prize 2013. She was also shortlisted for the Radio RTE One “New Planet Cabaret” creative program.

Her favourite Irish short story writer at the minute is Kevin Barry. No one can say a bad word about him in her presence.

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