"God and Ants" - A Short Story by Steve Wade - a Irish Short Story Work

"God and Ants" - A Short Story by Steve Wade - a Irish Short Story Work 

Irish Short Story Month XIII 

March and April - 2024

I am very pleased to once again feature one of Steve Wade’s award-winning stories during Irish Short Story Month.

I have been following the work of Steve Wade since March of 2013.  Reading all his work for the last ten years is my sincerest demonstration of my high regard for his work

His debut collection can stand with the masters of the Irish Short Story.

  Gateway To Steve Wade on The Reading Life 

Website of Steve Wade 

A Wide Ranging Q and A Session With Steve Wade 

This is the ninth  short story by Steve Wade that has been featured on The Reading Life.  The fifth  from his debut collection.

As “Gods and Ants” opens Alfred working on a painting of a boatin the harbour.  As he paints people strolling about ask him why the painting shows a different number of windows

on the boat than they see. Of course like any artist he does not take kindly to this.  He begins to imagine art connoisseurs and visiting Parisians at “encountering the painting during Alfred P. Parkinson’s first major art exhibition, which would one day be staged in Sacre Coeur, would experience thescene’s essence. He saw them marvelling at the paradise island blue sky and the more sombre blue reflecting in thesea below into which the overwhelmed sun bled white-gold. On their tongues the coastal-air saltiness blends with the plaintive sound of the gulls screaming their interminable plea before the endless sea. And the boats – patient, rusting leviathans, whose white, multi-eyed cabins have witnessed countless fishing adventures far out in the cormorant-black sea, watched over by a yellow moon, hours before the dawn spills across the horizon.”

His vision of his future exhibit is interupted by people strolling by. Of course he is offended by their philistine  observations on his work.

“The few aimless evening strollers who had gathered tentatively around Alfred and his easel pulled in others. They swarmed about him like ants crawling over a fallen raptor, flightless, though not yet dead. Their presence and proximity interfered with his concentration. Time and discipline was his defence – Gods were not peeved by Ants”. 

Arnold begins to imagine his work is great art.  Then something happens.

“Gods and Ants” is as I expected it would be,a perceptive, interesting and fun to read story.

About the Author - Steve Wade’s award-winning short fiction has been widely published in literary magazines and anthologies. His work has been broadcast on national and regional radio. He has had stories short-listed for the Francis McManus Short Story Competitionand for the Hennessy Award. His stories have appeared in over fifty print publications, including Crannog, New Fables, and Aesthetica Creative Works Annual. His unpublished novel, On Hikers’ Hill was awarded First Prize in the abook2read.com competition, with Sir Tim Rice as the top judge. He has won First Prize in the Delvin Garradrimna Short Story Competition on a number of occasions. Winner of the Short Story category in the Write by the Sea writing competition 2019. His

short stories have been nominated for the PEN/O’Henry Award, and for the Pushcart Prize.

From the Author’s  introduction 

“The stories in this collection first appeared in anthologies and periodicals. Some of them have won prizes or have been placed in writing competitions. Ostracised by betrayal, isolated through indifference, gutted with guilt, or suffering from loss, the characters in these twenty-two stories are fractured and broken, some irreparably. In their struggle for acceptance, and their desperate search for meaning, they deny the past”

A very worthy edition to the reading list of all lovers of the short story.

Mel Ulm

 

"High Flyer” - A Short Story by Steve Wade from his debut collection In Fields of Butterfly Flames and other Stories - 2020 - An Irish Short Story Month Work

 “High Flyer” - A Short Story by Steve Wade from his debut collection In Fields of Butterfly Flames and other Stories - 2020

Irish Short Story Month XIII- 

March and April- 2024

I have been following the work of Steve Wade since March of 2013. I only follow an author for over a decade if I hold their work in high esteem.

This collection can stand with the masters of the Irish Short Story.

  Gateway To Steve Wade on The Reading Life 

Website of Steve Wade 

A Wide Ranging Q and A Session With Steve Wade 

This is the eighth  short story by Steve Wade that has been featured on The Reading Life.  The fourth from his debut collection.I first read his work during Irish Short Story Month Year Three in March of 2013.  I found his short story “The Land of the Ever Young” fully qualified to stand with the great occult fairy tales of Sheridan Le Fanu or Andrew Lang.

“The Land of the Ever Young" recreates and helps us understand the stories of fairies stealing human children and substituting changelings for them.  Part of the root of these stories comes from the famine years where people had to find ways to deal with the starvation of their children.  On another darker side, this story also  treats of the fact that one more hungry child could be the tipping point in a family on the edge of starvation that can  send everyone else into the grave.  

First and foremost 'The Land of the Ever Young" is a tremendous lot of fun to read.  Joseph Sheridan le Fanu or Andrew L)ang have no better stories than this.  

The other  stories covered on The Reading Life show the extent and depth of Wade’s range. (Some of the stories can be read online at links found in my posts)

Today’s story way more than justifies my belief in the immense talent of Steve Wade.

I am slowly working my way through his debut collection, In Fields of Butterfly Flames.  The stories are just so powerful I think you must space them out.  This is my second from his debut collection.

Isabel’s husband of some twenty years recently told her he was ending their marriage.  She is on a train. A handsome younger man is looking at her, checking her out.  She cannot help but enjoy this.

“Isabel remembered this type of look from men. Almost. A look they pretended you weren’t supposed to notice but made quite sure you did. A look she couldn’t remember inspiring for years, not since before she and Don had yet to find each other. Long before Robert existed.”

She is being left financially secure, she gets the house and their son will get his father’s expensive German car, A BMW convertible.  Perfect to impress girls.  He decides to take it for a drive:

“A black BMW convertible. A gift from his father – what a gift. And he had just turned nineteen. The break-up between hismom and dad no longer seemed as crushing as it had been these past months. He climbed down the gears at the sight of a couple of women wheeling strollers in the distance. Always worth a look. Bingo. Yummy-mummies. That’s when the moron in the Golf whizzed past.”

In just a few moments, the gift of Robert will destroy four lives.

In this brief work Wade shows us how fragile life can be.

The closing is one of horror and heartbreak, years of hoped for happiness gone.

About the Author - Steve Wade’s award-winning short fiction has been widely published in literary magazines and anthologies. His work has been broadcast on national and regional radio. He has had stories short-listed for the Francis McManus Short Story Competitionand for the Hennessy Award. His stories have appeared in over fifty print publications, including Crannog, New Fables, and Aesthetica Creative Works Annual. His unpublished novel, On Hikers’ Hill was awarded First Prize in the abook2read.com competition, with Sir Tim Rice as the top judge. He has won First Prize in the Delvin Garradrimna Short Story Competition on a number of occasions. Winner of the Short Story category in the Write by the Sea writing competition 2019. His

short stories have been nominated for the PEN/O’Henry Award, and for the Pushcart Prize.

From the Author’s  introduction 

“The stories in this collection first appeared in anthologies and periodicals. Some of them have won prizes or have been placed in writing competitions. Ostracised by betrayal, isolated through indifference, gutted with guilt, or suffering from loss, the characters in these twenty-two stories are fractured and broken, some irreparably. In their struggle for acceptance, and their desperate search for meaning, they deny the past”

A very worthy edition to the reading list of all lovers of the short story.

“In Fields of Butterfly Flames” - A Short Story by Steve Wade - from his debut collection,In Fields of Butterfly Flames and other Stories - 2020

“In Fields of Butterfly Flames” - A Short Story by Steve Wade - from his debut collection,In Fields of Butterfly Flames and other Stories - 2020

For 11 years now March has been Irish Short Story Month on The Reading Life.  Tradition is very important to the Irish, and is badly needed in our troubled times.  

I have been following the work of Steve Wade since March of 2013

His debut collection can stand with the masters of the Irish Short Story.

  Gateway To Steve Wade on The Reading Life 

Website of Steve Wade 

A Wide Ranging Q and A Session With Steve Wade 

This is the seventh short story by Steve Wade that has been featured on The Reading Life.  I first read his work during Irish Short Story Month Year Three in March of 2013.  I found his short story “The Land of the Ever Young” fully qualified to stand with the great occult fairy tales of Sheridan Le Fanu or Andrew Lang.

“The Land of the Ever Young" recreates and helps us understand the stories of fairies stealing human children and substituting changelings for them.  Part of the root of these stories comes from the famine years where people had to find ways to deal with the starvation of their children.  On another darker side, this story also  treats of the fact that one more hungry child could be the tipping point in a family on the edge of starvation that can  send everyone else into the grave.  

First and foremost 'The Land of the Ever Young" is a tremendous lot of fun to read.  Joseph Sheridan le Fanu or Andrew L)ang have no better stories than this.  I will tell enough of the plot to give you a feel for it but I want you to read this story without knowing too much about it.  

The other  stories covered show the extent and depth of Wade’s range. (Some of the stories can be read online at links found in my posts)

Today’s story way more than justifies my belief in the immense talent of Steve Wade.

I am slowly working my way through his debut collection, In Fields of Butterfly Flames.  The stories are just so powerful I think you must space them out.

“In Fields of Butterfly Flames” begins with a scene of disturbing evil.  A man a few days ago just brought home a St Bernard puppy.  He loves the puppy so much, getting much needed affection.  He comes home to find his dead body, Shona his life partner with whom he has had two children, has killed the puppy.  Having just recently added a wonderful Shin Tsu puppy to our family I cannot fathom him coming home to find a puppy murdered by the mother of his two sons.  From here the sheer madness of the whole family begins to emerge.

The man decides to adapt, almost as one would a puppy, a child to replace his lost son.  At first he fears leaving the boy, he calls him “Dale” after his lost son.  We see the madness in Sonia and we wonder why he stays with her.  

I do not want to tell more of this plot.  Much of Irish literature focuses on dysfunctional families, on marginalized people.  “In Field of Butterfly Flames” is a very disturbingly impactful version of this.

  About the Author - Steve Wade’s award-winning short fiction has been widely published in literary magazines and anthologies. His work has been broadcast on national and regional radio. He has had stories short-listed for the Francis McManus Short Story Competitionand for the Hennessy Award. His stories have appeared in over fifty print publications, including Crannog, New Fables, and Aesthetica Creative Works Annual. His unpublished novel, On Hikers’ Hill was awarded First Prize in the abook2read.com competition, with Sir Tim Rice as the top judge. He has won First Prize in the Delvin Garradrimna Short Story Competition on a number of occasions. Winner of the Short Story category in the Write by the Sea writing competition 2019. His

short stories have been nominated for the PEN/O’Henry Award, and for the Pushcart Prize.

From the Author’s  introduction 

“The stories in this collection first appeared in anthologies and periodicals. Some of them have won prizes or have been placed in writing competitions. Ostracised by betrayal, isolated through indifference, gutted with guilt, or suffering from loss, the characters in these twenty-two stories are fractured and broken, some irreparably. In their struggle for acceptance, and their desperate search for meaning, they deny the past”

A very worthy edition to the reading list of all lovers of the short story.

Mel u

 

“Downing Out in New York”- from In Fields of Butterfly Flames and other stories by Steve Wade -202O

 

“Downing Out in New York”- from In Fields of Butterfly Flames and other stories by  Steve Wade -202O 

Gateway to Steve Wade on The Reading Life

My Q and A with Steve Wade 

Website of Steve Wade 

This is the eighth short story by Steve Wade that has been featured on The Reading Life. I have great admiration for his work and insight, otherwise I would not feature him so avidly.  I first read his work during Irish Short Story Month Year Three in March of 2013.  I found his short story “The Land of the Ever Young” fully qualified to stand with the great occult fairy tales of Sheridan Le Fanu or Andrew Lang.

“The Land of the Ever Young" recreates and helps us understand the stories of fairies stealing human children and substituting changelings for them.  Part of the root of these stories comes from the famine years where people had to find ways to deal with the starvation of their children.  On another darker side, this story also  treats of the fact that one more hungry child could be the tipping point in a family on the edge of starvation that can  send everyone else into the grave.  

First and foremost 'The Land of the Ever Young" is a tremendous lot of fun to read.  Joseph Sheridan le Fanu or Andrew Lang

have no better stories than this.

Downing Out in New York is the third story from Steve Wade’s debut collection In Fields of Butterfly Flames and other Stories upon which I have posted.  The story centers on an Irishman who was drawn to New York City by his girlfriend.  It is a cautionary tale of how quickly a grip on reality can be lost.

As the man sees it his ex-girl friend lured him to leave Ireland to meet her parents in New York City,  She then has one of her girlfriends lure him into a sexual encounter in a hotel room. The girl friend goes nuts, attacking him and The other woman.  She knows his visa has expired and threstens to have him deported as an illegal alien.  He loses his temper and strikes her,  Now she says she will get him arrested for assult.  He flees the hotel with no money, no wallet and Without his vioilin.  He was a busker back in Ireland.  From here we follow his days on the streets of New York.

In just a few Wade presents a very vivid  credible account of the start of madness.  

There are 21 stories in the collection.  In March I will be focusing once again on Irish Short Stories and will teturn to this marvelous collection then.

About the Author - Steve Wade’s award-winning short fiction has been widely published in literary magazines and anthologies. His work has been broadcast on national and regional radio. He has had stories short-listed for the Francis McManus Short Story Competitionand for the Hennessy Award. His stories have appeared in over fifty print publications, including Crannog, New Fables, and Aesthetica Creative Works Annual. His unpublished novel, On Hikers’ Hill was awarded First Prize in the abook2read.com competition, with Sir Tim Rice as the top judge. He has won First Prize in the Delvin Garradrimna Short Story Competition on a number of occasions. Winner of the Short Story category in the Write by the Sea writing competition 2019. His

short stories have been nominated for the PEN/O’Henry Award, and for the Pushcart Prize.

From the Author’s  introduction 

“The stories in this collection first appeared in anthologies and periodicals. Some of them have won prizes or have been placed in writing competitions. Ostracised by betrayal, isolated through indifference, gutted with guilt, or suffering from loss, the characters in these twenty-two stories are fractured and broken, some irreparably. In their struggle for acceptance, and their desperate search for meaning, they deny the past”

A very worthy edition to the reading list of all lovers of the short story.

Mel u

“Of Men and Dogs” - from In Fields of Butterfly Flames and other stories by Steve Wade -2020

 

“Of Men and Dogs” - from In Fields of Butterfly Flames and other stories by  Steve Wade -2020

Gateway to Steve Wade on The Reading Life

My Q and A with Steve Wade 

Website of Steve Wade 

This is the seventh short story by Steve Wade that has been featured on The Reading Life.  I first read his work during Irish Short Story Month Year Three in March of 2013.  I found his short story “The Land of the Ever Young” fully qualified to stand with the great occult fairy tales of Sheridan Le Fanu or Andrew Lang.

“The Land of the Ever Young" recreates and helps us understand the stories of fairies stealing human children and substituting changelings for them.  Part of the root of these stories comes from the famine years where people had to find ways to deal with the starvation of their children.  On another darker side, this story also  treats of the fact that one more hungry child could be the tipping point in a family on the edge of starvation that can  send everyone else into the grave.  

First and foremost 'The Land of the Ever Young" is a tremendous lot of fun to read.  Joseph Sheridan le Fanu or Andrew Lang

have no better stories than this

My Post on “A Mother’s Love” - The lead story in In Fields of Butterfly Flames and othe stories in Steve Wade’s Debut Collection 

“Of Men and Dogs”

One of the themes often explored in Irish Literature and in non-fiction works is that of adult children who marry late or not at all because they are forced into the role of care giver for an aging parent.  Often they work the family farm.

Like, “A Mother’s Love”, this is a very powerful  account of how parent- child relationships can cause immense damage to children, even in this case, as they pass or maybe dont fully pass into an escape from the sins of their parents.   A man was drawn back to home after seven years in New York City because of the needs of his father for full time care.  He had his own construction business there.

When we first meet him he is kicking the ancient Irish Wolf Hound that is his last bond to his late father.  Even the death of his father, who was very abusive to him though totally dependent, has not liberated him, he is stuck with carry for the old dog, which close to tolerates  him.

““Lie down, Amadeus,” the man said, and gave the animal a kind of shoving kick or kicking shove in the ribs with his boot. The ancient Irish Wolfhound, over a hundred in dog years, raised a sad eyebrow and then cowered arthritically back into its corner, where it eased itself, with adoggy sigh, onto its dirty blanket. “I’m sorry, old pal,” he said, while working his way around the never-used baby grand piano. He ran his fingers from the dog’s head into its wiry-furred back. Amadeus shuddered but otherwise ignored him. The dog, adored by the man’s father, whom the dog had worshipped in return,almost tolerated,and wastolerated by the man. “I miss him, too.” And it was true. Nine months on since his father last cursed him, he did miss him. What was, at first, the release he’d been awaiting for two years, two years spent tending to his father’s every need, along with the constant whims and demands – the expensive Italian wines and daily, freshbaked bread, the weekly hassle with taxis and the wheelchair on those tripsto the theatre and thecinema; and, worst of all, that constant jangling bell summoning him from sleep to carry his father into the bathroom on his countless imagined urges throughout thenight – all this had lately triggered in the man a longing ache. Only now, in the past few weeks, did the reality that his father had truly ended become an undeniable fact”

It takes the man several months to assimilate the existential fact of the passing of his father.  Some historians see in this pattern part of the reason for lingering social issues in the Ireland related to the figure of the weak or missing Irish father.  (Your best source on this is Inventing Ireland: The Literature of a Modern Nation by Declan Kiberd)

About the Author - Steve Wade’s award-winning short fiction has been widely published in literary magazines and anthologies. His work has been broadcast on national and regional radio. He has had stories short-listed for the Francis McManus Short Story Competitionand for the Hennessy Award. His stories have appeared in over fifty print publications, including Crannog, New Fables, and Aesthetica Creative Works Annual. His unpublished novel, On Hikers’ Hill was awarded First Prize in the abook2read.com competition, with Sir Tim Rice as the top judge. He has won First Prize in the Delvin Garradrimna Short Story Competition on a number of occasions. Winner of the Short Story category in the Write by the Sea writing competition 2019. His

short stories have been nominated for the PEN/O’Henry Award, and for the Pushcart Prize.

From the Author’s  introduction 

“The stories in this collection first appeared in anthologies and periodicals. Some of them have won prizes or have been placed in writing competitions. Ostracised by betrayal, isolated through indifference, gutted with guilt, or suffering from loss, the characters in these twenty-two stories are fractured and broken, some irreparably. In their struggle for acceptance, and their desperate search for meaning, they deny the past”

There are nine other short stories in from In Fields of Butterfly Flames  and other stories by  Steve Wade.  Between now and March 31 (March will once again be Irish Short Story Month) I plan to post on the other nine.

In Fields of Butterfly Flames   by  Steve Wade -2020 is A very worthy edition to the reading list of all lovers of the short story.

Mel u

“A Mother’s Love” - The Lead Story from In Fields of Butterfly Flames by Steve Wade -2020

 

“A Mother’s Love” - The Lead Story from In Fields of Butterfly Flames   by  Steve Wade -2020

Gateway To Steve Wade on The Reading Life 

Website of Steve Wade 

A Wide Ranging Q and A Session With Steve Wade 

This is the sixth  short story by Steve Wade that has been featured on The Reading Life.  I first read his work during Irish Short Story Month Year Three in March of 2013.  I found his short story “The Land of the Ever Young” fully qualified to stand with the great occult fairy tales of Sheridan Le Fanu or Andrew Lang.

“The Land of the Ever Young" recreates and helps us understand the stories of fairies stealing human children and substituting changelings for them.  Part of the root of these stories comes from the famine years where people had to find ways to deal with the starvation of their children.  On another darker side, this story also  treats of the fact that one more hungry child could be the tipping point in a family on the edge of starvation that can  send everyone else into the grave.  

First and foremost 'The Land of the Ever Young" is a tremendous lot of fun to read.  Joseph Sheridan le Fanu or Andrew L)ang have no better stories than this.  I will tell enough of the plot to give you a feel for it but I want you to read this story without knowing too much about it.  

The other  stories covered show the extent and depth of Wade’s range. (Some of the stories can be read online at links found in my posts)

Today’s story way more than justifies my belief in the immense talent of Steve Wade.

“A Mother’s Love” is the lead story in Wade’s debut collection In Fields of Butterfly Flames and Other Stories.  There are 21 other stories in the collection.  Over the next few months I will be posting on a number of them.  

In “A Mothers Love” you are taken almost dragged into the mind set prevailing in a horrible family seen through the eyes of a wife and mother terribly out of touch with reality, trying to rationalize why her husband prefers sex with his daughter (who seems just entering early adolescence) to her.  She is in thrall to a religious ideology that cripples her thinking.  As I read on in this story you see the real face of evil.  Perhaps you might initially have some sympathy for her but this will not endure.  I will share a bit of Wade’s amazing prose to allow you to experience the dark feel of “A Mother’s Love”:

“Now working hand in hand with the Devil, the two conspired to draw in others for the sake of Mammon. Like swarms of flies they arrived, buzzing through my home, to gorge themselveson her oozing, naked flesh. Each evening, when the last of the swarm left, slaked and bloated, the pair of them unashamedly counted out their filthy lucre on the kitchen table. Theythen celebrated,the only way they knew how, atop the tableamong the pestilence-stricken notes and coins. You would have imagined that even the Devil must sometimes tire of excessive indulgence in fetid fornication.”

From the publisher

About the Author - Steve Wade’s award-winning short fiction has been widely published in literary magazines and anthologies. His work has been broadcast on national and regional radio. He has had stories short-listed for the Francis McManus Short Story Competitionand for the Hennessy Award. His stories have appeared in over fifty print publications, including Crannog, New Fables, and Aesthetica Creative Works Annual. His unpublished novel, On Hikers’ Hill was awarded First Prize in the abook2read.com competition, with Sir Tim Rice as the top judge. He has won First Prize in the Delvin Garradrimna Short Story Competition on a number of occasions. Winner of the Short Story category in the Write by the Sea writing competition 2019. His

short stories have been nominated for the PEN/O’Henry Award, and for the Pushcart Prize.

From the Author’s  introduction 

“The stories in this collection first appeared in anthologies and periodicals. Some of them have won prizes or have been placed in writing competitions. Ostracised by betrayal, isolated through indifference, gutted with guilt, or suffering from loss, the characters in these twenty-two stories are fractured and broken, some irreparably. In their struggle for acceptance, and their desperate search for meaning, they deny the past”

A very worthy edition to the reading list of all lovers of the short story.

Mel u