Rhonda Morton

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=120 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0ec8dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>FootHills Publishing 2008</B></FONT><B>     </B><B>|</B><B>     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="FootHills Publishing 2008"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Books 2008"><U>Books 2008</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id47.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Krok"><U>Krok</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Thomas"><U>Thomas</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lunt"><U>Lunt</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id44.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Waber"><U>Waber</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id45.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mesler"><U>Mesler</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id46.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Arnold"><U>Arnold</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id48.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Landsman"><U>Landsman</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id49.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Holley"><U>Holley</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id50.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Burchell"><U>Burchell</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Parlato"><U>Parlato</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Whittle"><U>Whittle</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id54.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hays"><U>Hays</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id55.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Roche"><U>Roche</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id56.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jones"><U>Jones</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Barone"><U>Barone</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="McKee"><U>McKee</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id59.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Czarnecki"><U>Czarnecki</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Seaton"><U>Seaton</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lyons"><U>Lyons</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Nixon"><U>Nixon</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id63.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Holmes"><U>Holmes</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="McDonnell"><U>McDonnell</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Evans"><U>Evans</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michalak"><U>Michalak</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id67.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ballard"><U>Ballard</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bauer"><U>Bauer</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id69.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ikins"><U>Ikins</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id70.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jefferis"><U>Jefferis</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id71.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Campbell"><U>Campbell</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id72.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Laura Glenn"><U>Laura Glenn</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id73.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Roberta Gould"><U>Roberta Gould</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id74.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Carmine Dandrea"><U>Carmine Dandrea</U></A>   |   <B>Rhonda Morton</B>   |   <A HREF="id76.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Suzanne Shane"><U>Suzanne Shane</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Kathleen Jo Zimmerman"><U>Kathleen Jo Zimmerman</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id78.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Vicie Rolling"><U>Vicie Rolling</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id79.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sueann Wells"><U>Sueann Wells</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ordering By Mail"><U>Ordering By Mail</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact FHP"><U>Contact FHP</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=360 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0ec8dfc3.jpg"> <div> <I>Rhonda Morton</I></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Rhonda Morton</div> <div> <I>She Opens the Suitcase</I></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="2252cbc0.jpg" border=0 width="300" height="444" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> “If you like gorgeous writing, poetic vignettes </div> <div> that laugh at themselves (and you), then expose </div> <div> the author’s (and your) softest memories, deepest </div> <div> fears, most searing passions, you’ll love Rhonda </div> <div> Morton and her whirling voices.”</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> –Steve Coffman</div> <bR> <div> “What a delightful journey into paintbrushed melodies caught in time.  A little rising breath of another's world.”</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> –Amber Espar</div> <bR> <div> A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR</div> <bR> <div> Since I had never written short  stories, I was taken unawares when these started pouring out of me in April 2007, but not surprised when they stopped about 18 months later.  During that time, I never sat down purposely and said, “Okay, I’m going to write a story now.”  Some were journal entries that appear in the book exactly as they came out.  Some were ideas that foated around my head until they fell to earth whole.  Some were frst spoken aloud as an improvisation, and then captured in writing as best I could after the fact.  What they have in common is some kind of left turn. Something unexpected or quirky or slightly off-center appears in each  of them.  </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> From the book:</div> <bR> <div> TWO</div> <bR> <div> Like a peppercorn stuck in her throat, the day just kept </div> <div> coughing itself up.  The baby screeching with an ear infec-</div> <div> tion.  The phone shilling with bill collectors.  The traffic </div> <div> especially rude, making the walk into the icy wind brittle.  </div> <div> She remembered his hands then—how rough they’d been </div> <div> on her body.  Insistent and crude.  The beer breath, and </div> <div> stench of bar smoke in his hair.  If only she could think of </div> <div> a question to ask herself besides “how did I get here?”</div> <bR> <div> Yesterday’s question was a good one.  Could she ask herself </div> <div> again?  “Are the spaces between the notes more important </div> <div> than the notes themselves?”  But that had made her  </div> <div> miss the 14th Street bus, lost in the depths of those spaces, </div> <div> and she was forced to walk six blocks west to catch the </div> <div> Hemingway.  </div> <bR> <div> So, no, she better fnd another question for today, one less  </div> <div> mesmerizing.  “Why are the pupils of cats’ eyes shaped </div> <div> like the space parted in a fence?”  But she couldn’t think of </div> <div> fences without thinking of her brother behind razor wire, </div> <div> the cuffs of his sleeves frayed, his face slack, his voice flat.  </div> <div> And that made her think of the canopy over her girlhood </div> <div> bed—the dust collected in the ruffles like time itself piling </div> <div> up mote by mote.  </div> <bR> <div> She started over.  But she kept thinking of questions with </div> <div> answers.  It was important to find one that could be asked </div> <div> for a lifetime, or at least get her through the day.  </div> <bR> <div> The bus came.  She got on and, without a question to  </div> <div> occupy her, she saw the desperation in the rubbed-raw bug </div> <div> bites on a little girl’s shins sticking out between her too-</div> <div> short socks and her too-short pants.  She would have wept </div> <div> right there if the day’s question hadn’t leapt into her chest </div> <div> at just that moment: “Is our last breath the one we take in, </div> <div> or the one that comes out?”</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> Rhonda Morton is a poet, performance artist, dancer and singer with a particular interest in </div> <div> improvisation in all those forms.  Equally at home working as a soloist, as an ensemble member, or </div> <div> as a producer/performer, she uses the transformational power of creativity-in-the-moment, often </div> <div> integrating the audience and/or the site into improvised performances.  She is the author of </div> <div> Woman Seeking Water (1997) and Breathing In, Breathing Out (2001), both published by </div> <div> FootHills Publishing.  </div> <bR> <div> For more information, browse her website at <A HREF="http://www.rhondamorton.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.rhondamorton.com"><U>www.rhondamorton.com</U></A>.</div> <bR> <div> <I>She Opens the Suitcase</I></div> <div> is a 32 page hand-stitched chapbook</div> <div> $10.00</div> <bR> <div> TO ORDER  ON-LINE           <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Palatino Linotype" ><A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ordering By Mail"><U>To order through mail click here.</U></A></FONT></div> <bR> <div> From the US or Canada       <B> <form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/sc-but-01.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - 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