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Past Perfect, Present Tense
Cover of Past Perfect, Present Tense
Past Perfect, Present Tense
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Though Richard Peck is best known as a novelist, he has been writing short stories—rousing, provocative, and thoroughly entertaining—throughout his career. “Priscilla and the Wimps,” his first, is perhaps the most-read children’s short story of all time. Others have inspired his award-winning novels: A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder began with a tale called “Shotgun Cheatham’s Last Night Above Ground”; and “The Electric Summer” was the jumping point for Fair Weather.
Compiled for the first time, here are all of Richard Peck’s stories: eleven previously published tales and two brand-new ones. He has also written engaging notes about the stories, an informative introduction about the genre, and tips on how to write short stories, including “Five Helpful Hints” that will be a valuable aid to aspiring authors.
Vibrant and varied—from comic to supernatural, from historical to modern-day romantic—there’s something for everyone in the collected stories of Richard Peck.
Though Richard Peck is best known as a novelist, he has been writing short stories—rousing, provocative, and thoroughly entertaining—throughout his career. “Priscilla and the Wimps,” his first, is perhaps the most-read children’s short story of all time. Others have inspired his award-winning novels: A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder began with a tale called “Shotgun Cheatham’s Last Night Above Ground”; and “The Electric Summer” was the jumping point for Fair Weather.
Compiled for the first time, here are all of Richard Peck’s stories: eleven previously published tales and two brand-new ones. He has also written engaging notes about the stories, an informative introduction about the genre, and tips on how to write short stories, including “Five Helpful Hints” that will be a valuable aid to aspiring authors.
Vibrant and varied—from comic to supernatural, from historical to modern-day romantic—there’s something for everyone in the collected stories of Richard Peck.
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  • Available:
    1
  • Library copies:
    1
Levels-
  • ATOS:
    4.9
  • Lexile:
  • Interest Level:
    MG
  • Text Difficulty:
    7 - 12


Excerpts-
  • From the cover

    A story isn’t what is. It’s what if? Fiction isn’t real life with the names changed. It’s an alternate reality to reflect the reader’s own world.

    But what is a short story not? It’s not a condensation of a novel, or an unfinished one. It’s not Cliffs Notes to anything. It has its own shape and profile. It’s not the New York skyline; it’s a single church spire. Its end is much nearer its beginning, and so it can be overlooked.

    The short story is much misunderstood. There are even aspiring writers who think they’ll start out writing short stories and work their way up to the big time: novels. It doesn’t work like that. A short story isn’t easier than a novel. It has so little space to make its mark that it requires the kind of self-mutilating editing most new writers aren’t capable of. It has less time to plead its case.

    I hadn’t meant to be a short story writer.

    BOOKS BY RICHARD PECK

    NOVELS FOR YOUNG ADULTS

    Don’t Look and It Won’t Hurt

    Dreamland Lake

    Through a Brief Darkness

    Representing Super Doll

    The Ghost Belonged to Me

    Are You in the House Alone?

    Ghosts I Have Been

    Father Figure

    Secrets of the Shopping Mall

    Close Enough to Touch

    The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp

    Remembering the Good Times

    Blossom Culp and the Sleep of Death

    Princess Ashley

    Those Summer Girls I Never Met

    Voices After Midnight

    Unfinished Portrait of Jessica

    Bel-Air Bambi and the Mall Rats

    The Last Safe Place on Earth

    Lost in Cyberspace

    The Great Interactive Dream Machine

    Strays Like Us

    A Long Way from Chicago

    A Year Down Yonder

    Fair Weather

    Invitations to the World

    The River Between Us

    Past Perfect, Present Tense

    The Teacher’s Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts

    Here Lies the Librarian

    NOVELS FOR ADULTS

    Amanda/Miranda

    London Holiday

    New York Time

    This Family of Women

    PICTURE BOOK

    Monster Night at Grandma’s House

    NONFICTION

    Anonymously Yours

    Invitations to the World

    New and Collected Stories by

    Richard Peck

    I acknowledge with thanks the editors who generously have included my work in their anthologies:

    Lois Duncan

    Lisa Rowe Fraustino

    Donald R. Gallo

    Michael Green

    Johanna Hurwitz

    Harry Mazer

    M. Jerry Weiss and

    Helen Weiss

    I am grateful to Roger Sutton, who encouraged this collection.

    CONTENTS

    Introduction

    A short story, like fiction of any length, is always about change. Even in a handful of pages, the characters can’t be the same people in the last paragraph whom we met in the first. If there’s no change, there’s no story, unless you write fiction for The New Yorker magazine.

    A word writers use is “epiphany.” In ancient Greece the word described the miraculous appearance of a god or goddess. The Christian church uses the word with a capital E to define Twelfth Night, the moment when the Magi, the Three Kings, made the long-heralded discovery of the Christ child.

    In fiction writing, the epiphany is a sudden breakthrough of understanding, of self-awareness. It’s that moment of change that changes every moment after....

About the Author-
  • Richard Peck, the author of thirty novels, has received numerous awards, including the Margaret A. Edwards Award for his distinguished body of work. He lives in New York City.
Reviews-
  • AudioFile Magazine Two new and 11 previously published short stories are combined with advice on writing from the author. Peck reads the literary advice himself, and, while he is far from a professional narrator, there is quite a bit of charm to hearing him talk about the fine art of writing fiction. The stories run the gamut from historical to gothic to realistic. Before each grouping, Peck tells listeners how he came to write the stories, and the inside view is fascinating. Lara Schwartzberg and Paul Boehmer are less successful; their narration is more serviceable than sparkling, with Schwartzberg's attempt at a British accent in the creepy "Waiting for Sebastian" a particular disappointment. Still, Peck's dry wit and enormous skill rise above most of the narration problems. This will certainly find a secure niche in writing classes. S.G. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
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    All copies of this title, including those transferred to portable devices and other media, must be deleted/destroyed at the end of the lending period.

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Richard Peck
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