best words, best order is an occasional feature of 100 Stories, celebrating brief excerpts of exceptional writing read aloud by their authors. Subscribe at bottom to receive 100 Stories in your inbox.
The Nomination by Julie Gabrielli
“I’d been an avid reader of Ben’s essays before participating in his first community writing project, “Same Walk, Different Shoes,” in December 2023. I was so taken with the quality of writers that the project attracted—and more importantly, the depth of care and encouragement of one another—that I circled back to catch up with his fiction. His serial novel “Harmony House” was underway, so I binged all available chapters, then eagerly awaited each weekly installment.
The story of six strangers crammed into an uber-sustainable tiny house on an isolated field deep in the Smokies weaves together many themes of interest to me. But it was the well-drawn characters and Ben’s trademark empathy for each, no matter how flawed, that held me. Yes, his descriptions and place-setting are superb, but the real genius is how, even a year later, I can still conjure up in memory those characters and their dilemmas and emotions. And talk about a twist! Hooboy, that story needs to be streaming on Hulu, now. I volunteer to design the house (although Ben made all the right choices himself, yet another dimension of his many talents).
Ben’s care and respect for the hopes and suffering of his characters shines through every detail and gesture in his latest novel, “Departures.” The premise of this one is powerful: what if you knew upon meeting someone, the exact date of their death? This is the shadow hanging over the life of one Wild Thorne, and it makes for all manner of difficult situations for him—and the people in his orbit.”
an excerpt from “departures”
“Her lips bent into a deep frown, and she nodded slowly. She reached up and touched his cheek with the palm of her hand. It was a tender gesture and Wild felt shame for enjoying the comfort of it. She kept it there.
“You see things, don’t you?” she asked, not allowing him to break eye contact. “You knew something was going to happen to my Marvin.”
Wild was too stunned to answer, much less come up with some believable denial. She squinted as if trying to look into him. Finally, she took her hand away and let out a sound that was something between a laugh and a sigh.
“Listen to me, talking nonsense. Now I sound like my grannie. Whatever it is you are, I’m grateful to you, Wild. If there’s ever anything I can do to repay your kindness…”
Wild’s face must have done something he couldn’t control, made some desperate plea like a kidnapped victim scribbling a message on a fogged car windshield. He opened his mouth to speak but stopped.”
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