About the Author:
Dixie Thomas Reale was born and reared by pioneer parents in Idaho, located in the inter Rocky Mountain west of the United States during the 1940s and ’50s where many of her stories are set. She’s married, has adult twins (a boy and a girl), two grandchildren (a boy and a girl) and lives with her husband, two dogs and four cats in south central Idaho. She has a Masters degree in fiction writing from San Francisco State University.
She has published fiction short stories in Dan River Anthology, Eclipse, Sawtooth, Redneck Review, Slackwater Review, and Nostalgia Magazine. Her creative non-fiction has appeared in Idaho Magazine, Eclectic Lapidary, Meet Points, Broomstick, Rock and Gem, Black Belt, Times News, Northside News, Northside Gem and Hobby News, and Petrified Watermelon Pickings.
A travelogue script of hers was produced by Bill Burrud Productions and she currently does script consulting for PAF Productions, Glendale, Ca.
In 2006 she published Squirrel Pie and Other Morsels, a collection of short stories. Squirrel Pie and Other Morsels is available in print form and also on tape through the Talking Books for the Blind.
She wrote “Valley Cooking,” a monthly food column in the Times News, for 12 years from 1994 through 2006. Between 1999 and 2009 she wrote “Grandma’s Recipe Box,” another monthly food column in Ag. Weekly. a publication of the Times News.
Title: Squirrel Pie and Other Morsels by Dixie Thomas Reale
Description
In SQUIRREL PIE AND OTHER MORSELS Maggie comes of age in the Intermountain west of the United States during the middle of the 20th century after World War II and before the Vietnam War.
She explores her identity through interpersonal games while an awareness of her restless sexuality slowly emerges. “I pretended that I was somehow a reincarnated Carmen, that my urges, whims, and moods were memories of when I was Carmen, for I alone in my strange resemblance to the dead woman could get father ’s attention away from the rest of the family, could kindle interest in his face. I’d even dragged Carmen ’s bed all rusted and pealing with age down from the attic, sanded off the rust and paint, and refinished it gold. The only barrier was that I was his daughter, a barrier that kept it a game. ” Maggie’s alter ego manifests in an imaginary playmate who comes for a visit. “The slightly warped looking-glass lengthened Maggie’s silhouette almost imperceptibly, making her seem a little taller, older somehow and a bit slimmer. She stretched her body higher lifting her shoulders up and pushed out her chest to see the effect. Maggie flared her nostrils haughty like a queen, pulled her hair into a swept up style, pinned it back with a tall Spanish comb and looked to the shadows for an indication of approval but none came. ” Sibling rivalry is celebrated in “Sunday Comics. ” The eternal power struggle between parent and child is played out in “Mush ” and “Afternoon Showers. ” A cigar is smoked in a coming of age ritual in the outhouse with disastrous results in “Old Stogie “
The book contains 88 pages.
Price: $12.00 To order, contact Dixie.
