J. E. Knowles

Dear Readers,

I sincerely hope your 2021 is looking better than 2020 was, at least for most of us. I am very pleased to be writing fiction again and to announce a new short story, "Working at Home," in the forthcoming anthology In This Together. Spinsters Ink and Bella Books authors have joined to create stories of our characters during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they've survived the challenges of the past year.

My story revisits the main characters from The Trees in the Field. We last saw Raybelle McKeehan as a U.S. senator during a fictional pre-2008 administration. The Republican party may have changed since then, but Raybelle's still a member, although increasingly frustrated. Meanwhile Dr. Tomas Jefferson, a virologist, seems to have been born for this time of crisis. Like the rest of us, Tomas and Raybelle live through Black Lives Matter and the U.S. election, and question how they can help in the new year.

In This Together is available for pre-order and published on the 13th of May.

Lambda Literary

© J. E. Knowles

A Franciscan Benediction

May God bless you with discomfort: at easy answers, at half-truths, and superficial relationships; so that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger: at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed: for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
Amen.