Advance praise for Transitions: short stories for a rainy day
“Cathy Jo is a talented writer and story-teller. . . . Her stories in this volume easily transcend age or race;
they are very simply about human beings with all their foibles and frailties. Some of them are amusing. . . .
None of them are forgettable.”
—Kelly Ferjutz, author of Secret Shores and Ardenwycke Unveiled.
“Transitions is a series of stories that track the moral and social conscious of urban America.
A must-read for women and men alike.”
—Gayle F. W. Williamson, MFA, Assoc. Prof, English, Cuyahoga Community College.
Meet some of the unforgettable characters in this collection of short stories:
• Brianya Johnson is 353 pounds, in love with a man who makes fun of her weight, and full of Expectations.
• The Innocence of a child is what makes four year-old Shelby ask: “Mommy, what’s rape?”
How would you respond?
• Lonnie Parker, player extraordinaire with more than 200 conquests under his belt, just got Caught!
• Would you respond to a hot and steamy misdirected e-mail? Rita Collier did in E-Male.
• Tamyla Bradford wants to stop attracting losers in Transitions.
• Some people think Arlise is Three Cards Short of a Deck, so she arranges a long awaited interview
to set matters straight.
• When she finds out that her fiancé has been keeping secrets from her, Cashmere Masters just might
have to re-think her decision to marry Raymond Lesure in Think Again.
ISBN: 978-0-9834259-3-9 Price: $12.00.
Before the weight loss, Brianya Johnson was all about getting to “I do” by any means necessary.
Dumped by her boyfriend, Brianya decided to re-evaluate her life. In the process, she learned two
valuable things about herself: 1) her self-esteem is virtually non-existent, and 2) she’s an emotional
eater. Sailing on anger and sheer determination, Brianya decides that change is long overdue. She takes
a vow of celibacy, swears off men and dating, and enlists the aid of a trainer to help whip her body into shape.
That was 206 pounds ago, before she knew what lay beneath all those layers of bad food choices.
At 147 pounds, Brianya’s body has transformed into something she never envisioned, and the men are coming out of the woodwork, testing her patience and her resolve. Monticello Belvoir, Endo Jamison, and Edward Hollister are all solid men with loads of potential. But, can they handle Brianya’s friends without benefits rule? Add to the mix Brianya’s ex beau, Darnell Jones, who wants his shot at a second chance. As if that isn’t enough, to her detriment, Brianya finds out that one of her suitors isn’t the nice guy he makes himself out to be.
With her heart pulling her in one direction and her family and friends pushing her in another, Brianya turns to the one thing that has never failed her: food. When all is said and done, will the years of hard work have been for nothing?
ISBN: 978-0-9834259-2-2
