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“I have now read over a hundred stories by this talented writer and have yet to find myself not looking forward to his next. Amidst Desaulnier’s wide spectrum of stories are a few related to his time as an aspiring bullfighter. This latest volume includes one of my favorites “Tienta.” Rousing applause for Looking for the Light.”
—Dan Armstrong, author of the novels Blake College, Quicksand and Princeton Charlie’s Got the Bules“In these stories we experience narrative innovation. Connections among friends and lovers, the reaching out from one to another occur in such a way that dramatic conclusions rest with the reader beyond the last words of the stories. Read and enjoy them and the points will emerge clearly.”
—Richard Lyons, author of novels The Edge of Things, Divisible by One and the collection of stories, A Wilderness of Love and Faith“This new collection of stories by Russ Desaulnier knocked me out. The author leads you down a path and just when you get comfortable the ground drifts and a new reality emerges, over and over again.”
—Jerry Rust, author of the novels Yew and The Covered Bridge Murders“These stories refract human experience with great insight and skill: family, courage, humiliation, secrets, confronting and reorienting oneself to the past, willing a change to life’s trajectory, encounters with the dying. Desaulnier has a knack for subtly illuminating the manifold spectra of love.”
—Ross West, author of The Fragile Blue Dot: Stories from Our Imperiled Biosphere -
“Fresh and alert, these stories of people engaging, meeting, dealing with their needs and desires. A rich experience reading about others who so often reflect ourselves.”
—Richard Lyons, author of the novels The Edge of Things and Divisible by One and the collection of short stories, A Wilderness of Love and Faith“Santa Barbara, Russ Desaulnier’s sixth collection, has a subtle, quiet way of delving into quixotic relationships and transitory affairs that were part of Southern California in the sixties and seventies. The Old Topanga Road, The Unravished Bride and Sin City stand out for touching the bittersweet sides of romance.”
—Dan Armstrong, author of The Eyes of Archimedes Trilogy and the novels Princeton Charlie’s Got the Blues and Stella“Santa Barbara is both a location and a state of mind, a place where the characters in these stories find and lose love, venture both awkwardly and gracefully through new experiences, make bold escapes, and discover the limits of fidelity, gratitude and courage. They are, to use a fine phrase from these pages, “strangers in a changed town.”
—Ross West, Author of the short story collection, The Fragile Blue Dot -
“These stories read as genuine experience, created by a writer for whom craft is an instinct. The matter of each is evoked without mishap. For each I came away thoughtful, touched.”
—Richard Lyons, author of The Edge of Things and Divisible by One“The characters in Voyagers traverse the uncharted territory of life’s starts and stops, dream their way through lazy curves and careen around sharp corners while navigating friendships new and old, exploring young love, enduring the searing void of loss. They encounter kindness, violence, and regret; couple and uncouple; are lacerated and heal, bear scars. An epic journey.”
—Ross West, author of the short story collection The Fragile Blue Dot“There’s nothing more to say. Russ Desaulnier has perfected the craft of writing short stories. He now graces us with his fifth volume, Voyagers. The title comes from the first story in the collection and that alone makes the book a success—and yet there are many more excellent stories to follow.”
—Dan Armstrong, author of The Eyes of Archimedes, Quicksand and Princeton Charlie’s Got the Blues“With Voyagers, Russ Desaulnier has once again succeeded in so seamlessly blending real people and real places with their fictional counterparts that readers won’t know the difference…but will thoroughly enjoy all four.”
—Barry Lawler, author of the story collections Kitchen Sink Anthology, Personal Skirmishes: 21 Heart Warming Misadventures, Miracles and Minor Atrocities and the novel Fish -
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“The Border and Other Crossings is a collection of short stories that shows life lived to the full, with passion and sensitivity, and illuminates the simple events of the not quite, ordinary life that each of us leads. The narrators of these stories affirm that life is best understood backwards, that recreated moments reveal the borders of the heart and define the passages we’ve made.” -Bill Plain, Editor
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This book begins with the back story of the Malones, two young brothers who leave Western Canada during the Depression in the 30s to make their fortune in England but end up in California after the war. Thereafter, the stories take place in California and encounter the lives of assorted narrators looking for love, meaning and purpose. In the last five pieces of the collection, older narrators are reflecting and seeking to terms for their lot. Overall, the collection can be seen as a fictional journey in the zeitgeist of California in the latter half of the 20th century, the golden land of dreams.
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The stories in Making Waves address universal experiences from the ’60s and ’70s, when the liberation of that era was a challenge that many didn’t handle with grace or direction. While shambling through those uncertain times, these narrators maintain an unshakable optimism.