SMALL STEPS: short stories - Tapa blanda

As a common theme of the twenty-five short stories of Small Steps, lives are seen as being determined by these small steps. The collection encompasses happenings in different places and times, ranging from early nineteenth century Italy or America to contemporary accounts either in America or South America. Several present the many facets of love. In some cases, unusual responses of a man or a woman are guided by unexpected expressions of love.

For example, a disturbed Viet Nam veteran after witnessing the birth of a girl becomes a hidden, one-man protection squad while she is growing up. He saves her from a number of situations including a kidnapping and possible murder. In another story, a girl is being trained as a trickster by her grandfather. In trying to con a young man she falls in love with him.

Many other yarns have different twists and turns. Six are mystery/adventure stories having surprising denouements.

Henry Tedeschi has taught at the University of Chicago, University of Illinois Medical Center (Chicago) and the State University of New York at Albany. He has written numerous technical articles, several book chapters, a monograph and a textbook in Cell Biology?two printed editions (Academic Press and W.C. Brown) and one edition on the web. Born in Italy he was sent to boarding school in Switzerland when Mussolini?s racial laws prevented him from attending school in Italy. He spent several formative years in Argentina. He left at age 17 when he immigrated to the U.S. to attend college. He has written fiction and poetry all his life for his own pleasure. He enjoys writing, particularly short stories. He finds writing fiction opens a window into observed details of human behavior, times and places that are otherwise ignored. He has written two mysteries (One Day at a Time and Double) and three collections of short stories (Long and Short Stories, More Long and Short Stories and Three for the Road). The collection in Long and Short Stories ranges from suspense and mystery to whimsical. They portray a triumph of human values over vicissitudes imposed by situations over which the protagonists have no control. The second collection, More Long and Short Stories, emphasizes the drama and sometimes the comedy of the human condition. Each has a different focus, from the difficulties inherent in encounters between men and women, growing up and aging to the problems of academic life and its frequently unrecognized traumas. Three for the Road contains longer offerings?two are based in New York, one in the 1820s and another in the 1870s. A third is contemporary and takes place in a South American country under the rule of a cruel dictatorship. All three are stories of suspense and adventure.