Living Vicariously in Wyoming: Stories
Copyright 2025 by Abbie Johnson Taylor
Published independently with the help of DLD Books.
Image Description written by Leonore Dvorkin of DLD Books.
Synopsis
As defined in the first story, living vicariously means living your life through someone else’s. You’re invited to live vicariously through the lives of the people in these stories. There’s the lawyer who catches his wife in the act with a nun. A college student identifies with a character in a play. A young woman loses her mother and finds her father. And a high school student’s prudish English teacher strenuously objects to a single word in her paper.
In Wyoming, as in any other state, people fall in love, and sometimes relationships are shattered. Accidents, domestic violence, prejudice, and crimes all occur. Lives are torn apart, and people are reunited. Ordinary people deal with everyday and not–so–everyday situations.
The 25 stories in this collection, most of which are set in Wyoming, are about how the various characters resolve their conflicts—or not.
Excerpt from Title Story
“Deception! Deception! Deception!” my wife Mandy cried, as she marched into my law office on a Friday afternoon in October and flopped into the chair across from my desk.
She reminded me of Amanda in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, who reacts the same way when she discovers her daughter lied to her. Mandy taught English and communications and directed plays at Sheridan College here in Wyoming. She’d produced The Glass Menagerie the previous year.
“I’m sorry,” my secretary said from the doorway. “I told her you were busy.”
“No problem, Lorraine,” I said. She backed out and closed the door.
“Okay, how did I deceive you?” I asked, turning to Mandy.
Reviews
Abbie Johnson Taylor’s short story collection, Living Vicariously in Wyoming, is a wonderful and enjoyable read. I highly recommend it.
Although I’ve read some of the stories in this book in recent years in the writers’ group both Abbie and I belong to, I loved reading them again—plus new ones I hadn’t seen before. Some of the stories are funny, some gut-wrenching or heart-warming, deep. Some made me smile and cheer or cry. She’s got spiritual and romantic stories here too. There are a few criminal offenses amongst them and a dental problem.
I never enjoyed a short story collection as much as I did this one. It definitely gets a rating of five stars from me.
Trish Hubschman, Author of the Tracy Gayle mystery series
Click here to learn more about Trish’s books.
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Where to Get It
Photo Courtesy of Tess Anderson Photography
Photo Resize and Description
by Two Pentacles Publishing
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