Virgin, Mother, Crone: Flash Fiction by Walburga Appleseed, Laurie Delarue-Theurer, and Joy Manné, with a foreword by Mary-Jane Holmes

By Joy Manné, Laurie Delarue-Theurer and Walburga Appleseed

Once upon a time, three witches met – entirely by chance – at a writing conference in Geneva. They had not much in common, apart from their love of the written word. Three generations, three nationalities, three wildly different characters, they nonetheless recognized each other immediately and formed a bond of friendship that transc

• Language: English
• Publisher: äbe press
• Release date: Feb 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9782970109457

Joy Manné

About the Author This is the formal stuff: Joy Manné has a BSc in Psychology and a PhD in the Buddhist Psychology of the Theravada Canon. One of the obstacles she had to overcome before achieving this goal was learning Sanskrit. Part of her reward was her husband, whom she met at a conference on Buddhism. She also took training in Spiritual Therapy with Hans Mensink and Tilke Platteel-Deur in Holland. Part of her reward was the skills to keep the in-loveness of her marriage lively through nearly thirty years. Joy Manné is not very good at being formal. Now we get to the informal stuff: In the middle of the training, her partner with whom she looked forward to living a beatnik lifestyle was appointed to a professorship in Lausanne, Switzerland (Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Studies) so she became a portable wife (the qualification for living in Switzerland with him) and moved to Switzerland, from where she diligently commuted to finish her training. Before you could say "snowy mountain," clients were asking her to train them. So she did, starting with a four-year training modeled on her own teachers' training. Joy still believes four intensive years are necessary to develop enough life literacy to understand what being human is about, and perhaps, if it is your calling, to work with other people. The techniques Joy's work is based on are: Conscious Breathing Techniques: how you breath is how you are, so breathe well and be well; Voice Dialogue (Hal and Sidra Stone's technique) for becoming literate with regard to your personality; and Family Constellations (Bert Hellinger's technique) for understanding how the family energy field (also called family system) works and getting the best out of yours. And the personal stuff: Commitment is my thing.  It's the only way to make progress with our task of being human. I hope you enjoy this book, and all of my other books. And: I'm a daughter, a mother, and a grandmother. I know what I'm talking about.

Book preview

VIRGIN

MOTHER

CRONE

Flash Fiction by Walburga Appleseed,

Laurie Delarue-Theurer, and Joy Manné

with a foreword by Mary-Jane Holmes

äbe literary, Switzerland

Cover art © Joy Manné

Copyright © cover design and layout, December 2018, äbe literary

Copyright © text 2018 individual authors: Walburga Appleseed, Laurie Delarue-Theurer, Joy Manné

All rights reserved under international copyright.

The stories in this publication are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the writer’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead is coincidence.

Foreword: Mary-Jane Holmes

Copy editor: Adrienne Armstrong

Layout: Jane Dixon Smith

ISBN:

PRINT EDITION: 978-2-9701094-4-0

EBOOK: 978-2-9701094-5-7

- to my mother, Heidi, whose wild creativity is infectious -

(W.A.)

- to my parents, Charles and Susan Delarue, who infused a deep love of literature – as well as a respect for both the gravity and hilarity of life – into both of their daughters -

(L.D.T.)

- to Miss Goldstein of Houghton Government School, who taught me all those years ago when I was ten that I was a writer, and my mother who never doubted that, and Johannes, of course -

(J.M.)

Once upon a time, three witches met – entirely by chance – at a writing conference in Geneva. They had not much in common, apart from their love of the written word. Three generations, three nationalities, three wildly different characters, they nonetheless recognized each other immediately and formed a bond of friendship that transcended those differences.

Walburga Appleseed (The Virgin), Laurie Delarue-Theurer (The Mother), and Joy Manné (The Crone) have been writing sisters ever since, infusing their vast and varied experiences into their writing. The magical book you are holding in your hands is a testament to their talents, and to their friendship.

They hope you enjoy it immensely.

Contents

Foreword - by Mary-Jane Holmes

He Flashed at Me - by Joy Manné

Bar Codes - by Walburga Appleseed

Rogue Raindrops - by Laurie Delarue-Theurer

Unfamiliar Creak - by Joy Manné

Shackled - by Laurie Delarue-Theurer

Mirroring - by Walburga Appleseed

Squeeze - by Joy Manné

Football - by Walburga Appleseed

Red Earth - by Laurie Delarue-Theurer

Soccer Ball - by Joy Manné

Inseparable - by Laurie Delarue-Theurer

Earthquake - by Walburga Appleseed

The Follow Through - by Laurie Delarue-Theurer

Crushed Garlic - by Joy Manné

Odysseus Lost - by Laurie Delarue-Theurer

Hungry Goddess - by Walburga Appleseed

Collection - by Walburga Appleseed

Unlocked - by Joy Manné

Undercurrent - by Laurie Delarue-Theurer

Biographies

Acknowledgements and Credits

Children in your life? Try these lovely titles

Foreword - by Mary-Jane Holmes

In 2013, Joy Manné invited me to Pully, Switzerland, to give a master class on the theme of fables: their relevance to modern day and how to draw inspiration from them when writing flash fiction.