PSALM 77
Jack Bootle • $0.99
Collected in FPQ Spring 2011
On an isolated English beach a man looks back on his school days, recalling the joy and torment of a secret love affair with a boy full of strange ideas, a boy obsessed with the language of the King James Bible. Moments from their relationship return to him: the hidden meetings on the beach, the first attempts at sex, the boredom of a school assembly in summertime, the cruelty of a young English teacher. But most of all he remembers the boy’s words. They’re words that, years later, will haunt him as he tries to come to terms with the person he has become.
Collected in FPQ Spring 2011
On an isolated English beach a man looks back on his school days, recalling the joy and torment of a secret love affair with a boy full of strange ideas, a boy obsessed with the language of the King James Bible. Moments from their relationship return to him: the hidden meetings on the beach, the first attempts at sex, the boredom of a school assembly in summertime, the cruelty of a young English teacher. But most of all he remembers the boy’s words. They’re words that, years later, will haunt him as he tries to come to terms with the person he has become.
Preview
I first noticed you during Double English. It was a Wednesday morning, straight after chapel, and Mr Harris’s reading had been more unspeakable than usual: pages and pages of Daniel, something about a proud king brought low by madness and crawling on all fours in the wilderness. As we unpacked our books and draped blazers over chairs, Miss Pearce perched on the edge of her desk and asked us what we thought of it. She had an amused look in her eyes. She was young and flirted with the boys and wanted us to call her Emma. But before people could start sneering and laughing, before we could start saying we hated Mr Harris, we hated chapel, we hated the whole dead routine, you started to speak.
I loved it, you said.
What did you love about it? asked Miss Pearce, and she looked irritated. It wasn’t what she’d been expecting.
I just loved it, you said.
I first noticed you during Double English. It was a Wednesday morning, straight after chapel, and Mr Harris’s reading had been more unspeakable than usual: pages and pages of Daniel, something about a proud king brought low by madness and crawling on all fours in the wilderness. As we unpacked our books and draped blazers over chairs, Miss Pearce perched on the edge of her desk and asked us what we thought of it. She had an amused look in her eyes. She was young and flirted with the boys and wanted us to call her Emma. But before people could start sneering and laughing, before we could start saying we hated Mr Harris, we hated chapel, we hated the whole dead routine, you started to speak.
I loved it, you said.
What did you love about it? asked Miss Pearce, and she looked irritated. It wasn’t what she’d been expecting.
I just loved it, you said.
Praise for Psalm 77
“Psalm 77 is the type of story that one wants to read over and over, searching for meanings previously unseen. It is laced with the hidden, the secret, the sacred. From the sand dunes and their private longings in school to the verses, the imagery, and the final paragraphs, there is so much to uncover.” Read the full review
— Amanda Miller from shortsundone.ca
“Psalm 77 is the type of story that one wants to read over and over, searching for meanings previously unseen. It is laced with the hidden, the secret, the sacred. From the sand dunes and their private longings in school to the verses, the imagery, and the final paragraphs, there is so much to uncover.” Read the full review
— Amanda Miller from shortsundone.ca
Collected in
FPQ 2011
The Complete Collection
Featuring stories by Caroline Adderson, Meghan Rose Allen, Jack Bootle, Julie Dupuis, Cynthia Flood, Andrew Forbes, Danny Goodman, Pauline Holdstock, Lee Kvern, Kirsty Logan, Dave Margoshes, Don McLellan, Maria Meindl, Grace O'Connell, Richard Rosenbaum, and Lana Storey.
Click on cover for more info
FPQ 2011
The Complete
Collection
$12.99
The Complete Collection
Featuring stories by Caroline Adderson, Meghan Rose Allen, Jack Bootle, Julie Dupuis, Cynthia Flood, Andrew Forbes, Danny Goodman, Pauline Holdstock, Lee Kvern, Kirsty Logan, Dave Margoshes, Don McLellan, Maria Meindl, Grace O'Connell, Richard Rosenbaum, and Lana Storey.
Click on cover for more info
FPQ 2011
The Complete
Collection
$12.99
Have We Become Extraordinary Yet?
Featuring Psalm 77 by Jack Bootle, Eleven Miles There, Twelve Miles Back by Meghan Rose Allen, Angels Passing by Don McLellan, and Memories of a Carnivore: Adventures in Eating Ethically by Julie Dupuis.
Click on cover for more info
FPQ Spring 2011
Have We Become
Extraordinary Yet?
$3.75
Featuring Psalm 77 by Jack Bootle, Eleven Miles There, Twelve Miles Back by Meghan Rose Allen, Angels Passing by Don McLellan, and Memories of a Carnivore: Adventures in Eating Ethically by Julie Dupuis.
Click on cover for more info
FPQ Spring 2011
Have We Become
Extraordinary Yet?
$3.75
Other Stories from FPQ Spring 2011
Eleven Miles There, Twelve Miles Back
Deep in the heart of Ontario cottage country, Izza Ingram’s biological family disintegrates when her parents become trapped in a moment Izza can barely remember. Lost to their parents, she and her sister Paulie form an unlikely family unit under the guidance of their parents’ friend Doug. In this trio of their own making, Izza, Paulie, and Doug try to navigate the differences between the families we are born into versus the families we choose.
Click on cover for more info
Eleven Miles There,
Twelve Miles Back
Meghan Rose Allen
$0.99
Deep in the heart of Ontario cottage country, Izza Ingram’s biological family disintegrates when her parents become trapped in a moment Izza can barely remember. Lost to their parents, she and her sister Paulie form an unlikely family unit under the guidance of their parents’ friend Doug. In this trio of their own making, Izza, Paulie, and Doug try to navigate the differences between the families we are born into versus the families we choose.
Click on cover for more info
Eleven Miles There,
Twelve Miles Back
Meghan Rose Allen
$0.99
Angels Passing
Father Michael, in his final assignment, has been asked by his Order to help facilitate recovery of an Asian country blighted by war. On the long odyssey into the interior, his driver and translator Trang tells him a story set in a once-famed traveller’s refuge known as the Inn of Tender Embraces. What starts as a simple tale of ill-fated lovers becomes, for Father Michael, a familiar beacon that guides him through the mists of an exotic landscape.
Click on cover for more info
Angels Passing
Don McLellan
$0.99
Father Michael, in his final assignment, has been asked by his Order to help facilitate recovery of an Asian country blighted by war. On the long odyssey into the interior, his driver and translator Trang tells him a story set in a once-famed traveller’s refuge known as the Inn of Tender Embraces. What starts as a simple tale of ill-fated lovers becomes, for Father Michael, a familiar beacon that guides him through the mists of an exotic landscape.
Click on cover for more info
Angels Passing
Don McLellan
$0.99
Memories of a Carnivore:
Adventures in Eating Ethically
Part travelogue, part memoir, part diary, Memories of a Carnivore pieces together the fragmented recollections of one woman’s rocky journey toward vegetarianism. From her rural upbringing in francophone Northeastern Ontario to exotic locations, outlandish adventures, and bizarre meals, Julie relives her struggle to make the right food choices for herself and examines the consequences of her decisions. At once raw and irreverent, Memories of a Carnivore frankly discusses issues at the core of today’s social conscience.
Click on cover for more info
Memories of a Carnivore
Julie Dupuis
$0.99
Adventures in Eating Ethically
Part travelogue, part memoir, part diary, Memories of a Carnivore pieces together the fragmented recollections of one woman’s rocky journey toward vegetarianism. From her rural upbringing in francophone Northeastern Ontario to exotic locations, outlandish adventures, and bizarre meals, Julie relives her struggle to make the right food choices for herself and examines the consequences of her decisions. At once raw and irreverent, Memories of a Carnivore frankly discusses issues at the core of today’s social conscience.
Click on cover for more info
Memories of a Carnivore
Julie Dupuis
$0.99
