Category Archives: Julie’s Writings

Evil: A Piece By Julie Showalter

Julie Showalter: Unpublished Writings1

Evil, is the newest piece available in this series of Julie’s unpublished writings.

To view Evil by Julie Showalter in manuscript form, click on the first link below:
Evil — View

To download a PDF version of Evil by Julie Showalter, right-click on the next link, and choose “Save Link As … ” or “Save Target As …” from the context menu:
Evil — Download PDF


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  1. Julie was my much-beloved, fiercely smart, extraordinarily sexy wife, who died in 1999 from cancer diagnosed the week of our wedding nearly 20 years earlier. She was also a prize-winning writer. This blog includes many other posts about her and the unlikely but true story of our romance (See Julie FAQ) as well as several of her short stories and other pieces. Most of Julie’s fully edited and buffed literary efforts are already available under the category, Julie’s Published. Julie’s Unpublished comprises a group of pieces I’ve found on her computer or in her office that range from workshop exercises to story fragments to projects set aside to finish at a later day to work that appears, at least to me, to be fully as polished and effective as her published stories. []

Becky: A Short Story by Julie Showalter

Julie Showalter: Unpublished Writings1

Becky is the second in this short series of Julie’s unpublished pieces now available.

To view Becky by Julie Showalter in manuscript form, click on the first link below:
Becky — View

To download a PDF version of Becky by Julie Showalter, right-click on the next link, and choose “Save Link As … ” or “Save Target As …” from the context menu:
Becky– Download PDF


_____________________
  1. Julie was my much-beloved, fiercely smart, extraordinarily sexy wife, who died in 1999 from cancer diagnosed the week of our wedding nearly 20 years earlier. She was also a prize-winning writer. This blog includes many other posts about her and the unlikely but true story of our romance (See Julie FAQ) as well as several of her short stories and other pieces. Most of Julie’s fully edited and buffed literary efforts are already available under the category, Julie’s Published. Julie’s Unpublished comprises a group of pieces I’ve found on her computer or in her office that range from workshop exercises to story fragments to projects set aside to finish at a later day to work that appears, at least to me, to be fully as polished and effective as her published stories. []

An After-Christmas Gift – Aunt Mona by Julie Showalter

Julie Showalter: Unpublished Writings1

Most of Julie’s fully edited and buffed writings are already available on this site at Julie’s Writings. I have hesitated to include her other pieces I’ve found on her computer or in her office that range from workshop exercises to story fragments to projects set aside to finish at a later day to work that appears, at least to me, to be fully as polished and effective as her published stories.2

Beyond casual conversation (her mention, for example, over dinner of a conversation with an editor who planned to use one of her stories), I was not routinely privy to the status of her writing projects until they were accepted for publication so the extent to which Julie was or was not satisfied with most of these efforts is unknown to me.

In the past month or two, however, I have read and re-read these unpublished pieces and have found some moving and wonderful, and so, fully acknowledging that I am hardly an unbiased critic, I have decided to share a few.

Aunt Mona is the first of these offerings from the “Unpublished Julie” portfolio.

To view Aunt Mona by Julie Showalter in manuscript form, click on this link:
Aunt Mona by Julie Showalter– View

To download a PDF version of Aunt Mona by Julie Showalter, right-click on the next link, and choose “Save Target As …”
Download PDF of Aunt Mona by Julie Showalter

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All of Julie’s unpublished writings available at Heck Of A Guy can be found at Julie’s Unpublished


_____________________
  1. Julie was my much-beloved, fiercely smart, extraordinarily sexy wife, who died in 1999 from cancer diagnosed the week of our wedding nearly 20 years earlier. She was also a prize-winning writer. This blog includes many other posts about her and the unlikely but true story of our romance (See Julie FAQ) as well as several of her short stories and other pieces. Most of Julie’s fully edited and buffed literary efforts are already available under the category, Julie’s Published. Julie’s Unpublished comprises a group of pieces I’ve found on her computer or in her office that range from workshop exercises to story fragments to projects set aside to finish at a later day to work that appears, at least to me, to be fully as polished and effective as her published stories. []
  2. As might be expected, some of the documents in this section, especially those not subjected to proofreading or revisions, have more grammatical and spelling errors than Julie’s published work, and many are incompletely processed as literature. I chose to include each piece as it stood, warts and all, rather than subject it to my uneven editing. []

A Holiday Gift – Halloween By Julie Showalter

You may not be surprised that today’s post is a holiday offering. You may or may not be surprised, depending on how familiar you are with my posting pattern, that the holiday is Halloween.

Julie, WBEZ, and This American Life

In rifling through the archives, I happened onto a forgotten 1996 e-mail exchange between Julie1 and staff from WBEZ, the Chicago NPR station responsible for “This American Life.” In that correspondence, Julie agrees to a NPR producer’s proposal that she adapt a segment of her short story, “A Christian Education,” into a freestanding reading appropriate for the show’s Halloween theme.

The reading opens with these lines:

I was raised in west Texas as a Southern Baptist so I always knew that I was a sinner. But it wasn’t until Halloween Day in the fourth grade that I thought of myself as a sinful being. Before that, sin was something that could be overcome through hard work, prayer, reading the Bible, thinking of a way out of coveting Tommy Sue Bailey’s new Madame Alexander doll. Afterwards, I knew sin was a part of me, in every molecule of my body, and I could never get rid of it.

I was very excited about going to school on Halloween Day …

The Audio

The Halloween reading can be accessed through this MP3 player:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

If streaming audio is preferred, the 1996 Halloween show of “This American Life” is available from the NPR archives:
This American Life: Halloween 1996



_____________________
  1. Julie Showalter was the fiercely intelligent, sexy, and loving woman and prize-winning author, with whom I had a outrageously wonderful 20 year marriage that ended with her death in late 1999 from cancer diagnosed the week of our wedding nearly 20 years earlier. Many posts on this blog are about her, our unlikely romance, and our life together, and still others consist of her writings. Information can be found at Julie Showalter FAQ. []

Breeding Turkeys: A Short Story By Julie Showalter

Julie’s1 short story, Breeding Turkeys, is now available.

To download a PDF version of Julie’s Breeding Turkeys in manuscript form, right-click on the next link, and choose “Save Target As …”
Download: Breeding Turkeys.pdf


_____________________
  1. Julie Showalter was the fiercely intelligent, sexy, and loving woman and prize-winning author with whom I had a outrageously wonderful 20 year marriage that ended with her death in late 1999 from cancer diagnosed the week of our wedding nearly 20 years earlier. Many posts on this blog are about her, our unlikely romance, and our life together, and still others consist of her writings. Information can be found at Julie Showalter FAQ. []

An Arbitrary Number: A Short Story By Julie Showalter

Julie’s1 short story, An Arbitrary Number, is now available.

To download a PDF version of Julie’s An Arbitrary Number in manuscript form, right-click on the next link, and choose “Save Target As …”
Download: An Arbitrary Number


_____________________
  1. Julie Showalter was the fiercely intelligent, sexy, and loving woman and prize-winning author, with whom I had a outrageously wonderful 20 year marriage that ended with her death in late 1999 from cancer diagnosed the week of our wedding nearly 20 years earlier. Many posts on this blog are about her, our unlikely romance, and our life together, and still others consist of her writings. Information can be found at Julie Showalter FAQ. []