Gone to Mums

By Barry Simiana

" What can you say about a twenty five year old girl who died?" With those words, Erich Segal opened his tear-jerker novella Love Story, and a film (and cultural) phenomenon was born. "Gone to Mums" doesn't allow a dry eye in the room. Told from Ray's perspective, it is a most improbable love story, set among the orchards and migrant farmers of rural Australia. He meets Kelly when she beats the crap out of him for trying to steal fruit from her roadside farm stand. Ray and Kelly do fall in love, but their romance is anything but conventional. If Love Story taught us that love was never having to say sorry, "Mums" reminds us that time doesn't heal wounds, it just covers them over with scar tissue.
Steve Cohen, Next Stop Hollywood: Short Stories Bound for the Screen

The stories are so “cinematic” you will find yourself choosing a cast within the opening paragraphs.
There’s the unlikely, heart tuggy love story Gone to Mum’s which could star the next Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe.
Off the Shelf with David J Foster 23/05/2007

“Gone to Mum’s” by Barry Simiana is a richly detailed and poignant story of missed chances, stolen moments, heartbreak and redemption. Simiana’s narrator takes readers along on his journey of self-discovery amid the rugged backdrop of Australia. The author paints emotion on his canvas, stunning the reader with the simplicity and honesty of his prose.
Cerri Ellis Armchair Interviews 2007

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barry Simiana
• Release date: Mar 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301479672

Barry Simiana

I live (for the moment) in South Grafton on The North Coast of NSW Australia with my wife, four children and two puppies.. I have had a short story published in an anthology in the US in 2007 called Next Stop Hollywood - 15 Short Stories bound For the Screen, tho it is not in my usual field or genre of work, Gone To Mums has been the most popular. In 2011 I published A Touch of Evil, 9 short stories and novellas based on the premise "What if...". In 2012 came the first in a series, Transported Legends: HALLOWEEN. 2013 saw my Next Stop story "Gone to Mum's" rights return to me so I gave it a make over, fixed some formatting and added an afterword (against the wishes of my editor at the time - and republished as a standalone. After an all too long hiatus, I am back writing, with a reissue of a novella from Touch of Evil called "The Card" being reworked slightly and produced as a stand alone, to be followed by a new piece called After the Flood.It will be big. My main interest is speculative fiction, using a motif of "what if..." where (i hope) the reader comes away wondering exactly that.

Book preview

GONE

TO

MUMS

Barry Simiana

NITEWRITER MEDIA 2012

This is a work of fiction. Characters and events, while based on real people and events from the authors life, are amalgamations that all writers use to create characters and in no way reflect any single person - living, dead or undead.

First published 2007 in ‘NEXT STOP HOLLYWOOD: Short Stories Bound for the Screen’

Edited by Steve Cohen

Published by St Martins Press

This edition published 2013 by NITEWRITER MEDIA at SMASHWORDS

Copyright © Nitewriter Media 1999, 2013

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including Google, Amazon or similar organisations, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN: 9781301479672

http://www.smashwords.com

This reprinting, and the original story that preceded it, is dedicated to the to all those that made up some of the characters.

To those no longer with us:

Maree

Marie

Maria

Kelly

and to others still here that remember you and miss you.

Also by Barry Simiana

As a sole contributor:

A Touch of Evil

Transported Legends: HALLOWEEN

As a co-contributor:

Next Stop Hollywood: Short Stories Bound for the Screen

Praise for Gone to Mums

What can you say about a twenty five year old girl who died? With those words, Erich Segal opened his tear-jerker novella Love Story, and a film (and cultural) phenomenon was born. Gone to Mums doesn't allow a dry eye in the room. Told from Ray's perspective, it is a most improbable love story, set among the orchards and migrant farmers of rural Australia. He meets Kelly when she beats the crap out of him for trying to steal fruit from her roadside farm stand. Ray and Kelly do fall in love, but their romance is anything but conventional. If Love Story taught us that love was never having to say sorry, Mums reminds us that time doesn't heal wounds, it just covers them over with scar tissue.

Steve Cohen, Next Stop Hollywood: Short Stories Bound for the Screen

The stories are so cinematic you will find yourself choosing a cast within the opening paragraphs.

There’s the unlikely, heart tuggy love story Gone to Mum’s