Caroline Patterson Reads from "Ballet at the Moose Lodge"

SEELEY LAKE - Caroline Patterson, executive director of the Missoula Writing Cooperative, will be reading from and discussing her recent collection of short stories, "Ballet at the Moose Lodge" Saturday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. at the Grizzly Claw Trading Company. This event is sponsored by Alpine Artisans Open Book Club. There is no charge and all are welcome.

In this series of short stories, Patterson chronicles the lives of ordinary people. Her sixteen stories touch on the seemingly simple decisions we make day by day that end up challenging us and changing our lives.

In "Resurrection Bay," Abby accompanies her boyfriend to Seward, Alaska, as he pursues his dream. She feels the loneliness of an unfamiliar place. "I have no history here".

In "Backfires," Patterson explores the twisted mind that seeks vengeance on an unknowing woman that will never understand her part in the forest fire he sets.

In "Lakefront Property," she explores the dream of starting over.

In "The Blue Egg," Madeline lost her job at the newspaper. She was consoled, as she wept, by the manager who said "things have a way of working out." "Not for me they don't," she said. "For me things have a way of crashing and burning."

In "Anaconda," Patterson's description of gliding down an icy road will connect with anyone who loves or who has lived in Montana.

In "Memorial Day," her character reflects "another year to pin some dim hope that things might change".

Patterson's stories connect with working and often struggling people – struggling with relationships, money, physical challenges and mental health as well as people with an unknown past.

Patterson makes her home in Missoula with her husband, author Fred Haefele and two college age children. She is a former Stegner fellow at Stanford University and the editor of the Willa Award winning anthology, Montana Women Writers – a geography of the heart.

Like a fine novel one can't put down, after finishing one of Patterson's stories, the reader is anxious to go to the next. Please join the Open Book Club reading on Jan. 13.