Short Stories

AVAILABLE AT BOOKSELLERS IN STORES AND ON THE INTERNET NOVEMBER 2020

https://adelaidebooks.org/collections/latest-releases/products/souls-in-exile-a-collection-of-short-fiction

Adelaide Books, N.Y.

SOULS IN EXILE
a collection of short fiction
by
NICK PADRON

This collection includes Nick’s most popular short stories plus a brand new novella.

☆☆☆☆☆5 out of 5 stars. Barnes & Noble

Unpredictable, surprising stories from a new major storyteller. Every title involves a different universe, solitary women, political refugees, rock musicians on the road, resurrection, earthy tales that skirt the magical, set in very real places, realistic magic. When you thought nothing was new anymore, along comes Padron’s narratives, a wonderful collection of stories entitled Souls in Exile.

Nick Padron’s short fiction has also appeared in numerous literary journals, collections, and anthologies online and in print in the U.S. and abroad.

SYLVIA’S ISLAND

Sylvia’s Island is a novelette-length tale of women banding together to take on the World of Men. (“…Loved it!…” Lisa Diane Kastner, writer and editor)  Published by RW Press as part of Running Wild Anthology of Stories Vol 1

Available at amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Running-Wild-Anthology-Stories-Book/dp/1947041592

Here’s a list of Nick’s short stories and the websites where you can find them

THE NUMBERS VENDOR (a.k.a. Thirteen)

This is his first published short story. A brief tale of magical realism, numerology, and the whims of fortune. (This story was featured in the ‘Best Of’ collection of the Full Circle Journal in 2003 and 2014, and published in four different print anthologies and magazines and nine Web literary journals) 

You can find The Numbers Vendor (Thirteen) here:

https://www.picciolettabarca.com/posts/the-numbers-vendor

http://www.conteonline.net/issue0202/f01.shtml

http://www.whistlingshade.com/0303/thirteen.html

PAPA’S BASTARD SON

Magical realism about a Cuban man whose mother left him an unpublished manuscript by ‘Papa,’ yes, the famous one. (“…“dreamlike fiction … with a magical quality that lingers.” Joe David Bellamy, poet, author, Editors’ Book Award winner) Perhaps, one of Nick’s most celebrated short stories, published in over a dozen literary magazines and print collections, including Calliope Magazine of American Mensa and Pank Magazine.

https://pankmagazine.com/piece/nick-padron/

https://fresh.ink/magazine/8214

https://www.picciolettabarca.com/posts/papas-bastard-

verdadmagazine.org/vol5/fiction/padron.html

http://ficklemuses.sarikrosinsky.com/wp-

content/uploads/sites/4/fiction/2007-12-30.htmlhttp://www.palabralitmag.com/id8.html

The Battered Suitcase Collection includes a Papa’s Bastard Son version titled Ghost Raft.

Available at amazon.com in print and Kindle

https://www.amazon.com/Battered-Suitcase-Autumn-2010/dp/B00588AAUE

https://www.amazon.com/Battered-Suitcase-Autumn-2010-ebook/dp/B0041KKKRS

JACKIE AND THE BIRDMAN (a.k.a. Up on the Roof)

It’s the summer of 1961 and a New York City tomboy is confused by her developing femininity. “A poignant single-scene narrative where what goes unsaid speaks louder than its pithy dialogue.” (this short story was published in eight different literary journals) 

https://lssarchives.homestead.com/Archives-fiction.html

THE OLD FARTS TOUR

A New York musician, on his return to the road, discovers more than his rock band’s resurrection. A semi-biographical story that harks back to the author’s rock & roll days in a traveling band. (published by The Blue Moon Review). 

http://www.thebluemoon.com/fiction/npadron.shtml

DREAMING IN AMERICA

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is gold-medal-short-story-land-200x200-2.png

Award-winning short story, a tale of self-rediscovery and the plight of a newly exiled woman in the USA during a bygone era. Published in these literary journals: La Piccioletta Barca, Cleaning up Glitter Literary Journal, Verdad, literary and fine arts journal 

http://verdadmagazine.org/vol29/fiction/padron.html

(Nick Padron’s author page) https://www.picciolettabarca.com/author/nick-padron

https://cleaningupglitter.com/dreaming-in-america-nick-padron

https://fleasonthedog.com/

REVIEWS

DREAMING IN AMERICA

by Nick Padron
WHY I LIKE IT: Guest Editor PETER STAVROS writes: I was drawn into this story
immediately, from the opening lines as Mrs. Blanco cautions herself to preserve the strength of
her smile, knowing that she would need it later. I wanted to follow her on her journey – this
skillfully presented journey amidst the rush and bustle of a bygone era New York City viewed
through the eyes of someone who marvels at her bus commute like a tourist, where “[t]here’s a
kind of musical play choreography in the way New Yorkers march across the streets, in the stop-and-go of the vehicle traffic,” so clear in its depiction that it was almost as if I could see the action unfold before me.

The author is deliberate in the reveal of Mrs. Blanco’s backstory as this
quite eventful day plays out for her. I was fully invested in her narrative and satisfied by the
delicate payoff at the end. NF Padron’s crisp use of language paints the scenes perfectly. “The
long hallways of the boarding house are gloomy silent,” and inside an employment agency
“[t]he stale air in the gray-walled office reeks of cigarette smoke and indifference.” And Mrs.
Blanco doesn’t just eat a donut she fortuitously found abandoned on a windowsill still wrapped
in wax paper, after longing for one earlier from outside a storefront window, but “[u]p by her
lips, she breathes in its baked aroma and bites the sweet soft dough filled with even sweeter jelly
as though performing a delicious but sinful act.” I was moved by “Dreaming in America” and
give it five-stars, and I’m eager to read more from NF Padron.


Senior Editor Charles writes: As soon as we started reading this magnificently
understated, masterfully controlled story we knew we were in the presence of genuine talent. This
is the real thing. Writing so simple and so good it puts a lump in your throat. A masterpiece of
portraiture that not only tantalizes but comes with a surprise: an ending that will make you
smile. (Spacing and font size are author’s own.)


QUALITY QUOTABLES (for the love of language):
A slow-moving black convertible as long as a yacht comes sailing slowly through the mass of
bodies. And there, over the sea of outstretched fluttering hands, the figure of John F. Kennedy
appears in a royal blue suit, his face under a crown of impeccable chestnut hair, and a smile of
perfect white. Drawn by the delirious multitude, Mrs. Blanco reaches out to him as if attracted
by an invisible magnet, and their skins clasp together for a magical instant. Then just as quickly,
the candidate’s caravan floats away.