Selected Work by Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Trying to Love Artemis

"Sidney gave it to me on our 20th anniversary." Artemis' eyes were on the box, a soft blue, the color of her Wedgewood. She opened it, slid the top cube from the lower one. A loose roll of matching satin ribbon fell to the floor. It was creased where the bow had once Ębeen tied, softer tucks reminded one that it had once also been retied. "It's still in its original box." She snorted a little laugh and I thought I was supposed to understand something from that small piece of information.

"It's beautiful. But you're always giving your pretty things away. Why don't you keep it? Sidney would have wanted you to wear it."

Artemis took the sculpted links set with crystal between her fingers. "It's never been worn." She draped it over the back of my hand. "It may be too large for your tiny wrist. Try it. We could have a link or two removed."

"But Artemis, it would fit Barbara Ann just as it is."

"Don't worry. I'll reuse the extra diamonds. They won't go to waste. Maybe have them set in the watch Sidney gave me."

I wasn't thinking. My mouth tends to run when my brain isn't in gear. "Diamonds?"

"Yes, they're little but they'd look pretty in that watch. I told Sidney I wanted a Piaget with diamonds before he bought that thing for me. He never listened. Never listened to a word." I was relieved that she hadn't noticed my tone. "He always figured that if he put jewelry in a Tiffany box, I'd like it, no matter where he bought it. Now I ask you! Where would he get a Tiffany box in Boise?" That little snorty laugh again. She looked directly into my face. I looked away. That look . . . so . . . unfamiliar. I never called her by anything but Mrs., couldn't remember her ever looking into my eyes, didn't know hers were crystalline blue, the color of icebergs. "He didn't care."

He must have cared or he wouldn't have let her think they were diamonds. He wouldn't have stashed vermeil and crystal into a Tiffany box. What would happen when she found the diamonds were only bits of glass?

It's a lovely gift, Artemis. How about if I take it and your watch and have the diamonds set for you? If there are any left over, I'll return them to you."

I leaned to kiss her cheek.

Her body stiffened, taut as a bow readied to fire. "He was always trying to be a big shot." She turned her cheek away from me. My kiss barely touched her hair.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson's first novel, This is the Place, and Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered are both award-winners. Her fiction, nonfiction and poems have appeared in national magazines, anthologies and review journals. She speaks on culture, tolerance, writing and promotion and has appeared on TV and hundreds of radio stations nationwide. She is an instructor for UCLA Extension's Writers' Program and has shared her expertise at venues like San Diego State's world renowned Writers' Conference and Call to Arts! EXPO. She was recently awarded Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment by the California Legislature; her home town's Character and Ethics Commission honored her for her work on promoting tolerance and the Pasadena Weekly named her to their list of "San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen" for literary activism. Her nitty gritty how-to book, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER won USA Book News' Best Professional Book 2004 and her chapbook of poetry, TRACINGS, was named to The Compulsive Readers Top 10 Best Reads for 2004. It is now available from http://www.FinishingLinePress.com and Amazon.com.

Howard-Johnson loves to travel and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, UK: Herzen University in St. Petersburg, RU; and Charles University in Prague. She is the founder of Authors' Coalition and editor of the newsletter for that organization as well as a blog that helps authors turn a dull book fair booth into a sizzling success. For more information, see Carolyn's website (February 2007)

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