PJ WORRELL
PROUDFLESH
THISTLEDOWN PRESS 2014
In Proudflesh, Worrell’s first collection of short fiction, characters range from Grace [Down Below] who learns she can’t get a good report card or her kitten rescued without a man’s cooperation, to Fay
[Faith of my Father] who discovers an occasional meteor in the night sky, and eighty-four-year-old Miriam [Buttons, Luck] who carries on as proprietor of a shabby clothing store in Outrement. Worrell is fearless, as are her characters.
MORE THAN IT SEEMS
REFLECTIONS FROM THE CREEK 2014
(PRAIRIE QUILLS WRITERS' GROUP)
The lone cottonwood tree north of Swift Current is a landmark, an altar and the butt of jokes, but to JJ, it symbolizes all that's gone wrong since his move from Toronto to the stumble-bumble Saskatchewan prairie.
A BIT OF BOTHER
SPRING MAGAZINE 2013
A grievance against Joy’s family is uncovered in the person of Lucy Ukrainetz. Joy and Lucy, once childhood playmates, are living as strangers on neighbouring farmsteads.
FOUR FRIDAYS
MENTAL MUNCHING 2012
(PRAIRIE QUILLS WRITERS' GROUP)
The setting is a Husky truckstop where Richard has lunch on his weekly trip to town, after feeding his wife in the nursing home. He conjures up cat piss to silence another old crony fixated on Pugwash in 1957 and the threat posed to civilization by thermonuclear weapons.
LUNCH AT THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING
THE PRAIRIE JOURNAL 2012
Pauline travels to New York City at the invitation of her daughter, Grace. An dining experience sets in motion a twist in their mother-daughter relationship.
MARY HAD A LAMB
THE NASHWAAK REVIEW 2012
It is only through magic realism that Mary's dormant sexuality could be awakened by the little people of Ireland.
LIAM THE LEPRECHAUN
CBC RADIO -SOUNDXCHANGE 2012
Mary discovers the answer to Yeats' question,
"Why should seek for love or study it?"
- Why not?
BETSY AND THE BELL
TICKLED BY THE QUILLS 2010
(PRAIRIE QUILLS WRITERS' GROUP)
The recurring clanging of a bell disrupts a romantic 1st of July camping weekend in the Cypress Hills.
(Non-Fiction)
SQUEAKY
TRANSITION MAGAZINE 2008
A psychiatrically challenged man is senselessly murdered in Nipawin, Saskatchewan.
(Non-Fiction)
ANASTASIA ZUCK
THE SOCIETY 2010
A recipe for Mama's Knidlee in the Yorkton Ukranian Women's League cookbook triggers a memory of an undervalued high school Home Ec. teacher.
(Non-Fiction)
BIG MARY'S LOVE LIFE
CHARACTERS 2008
(PRAIRIE QUILLS WRITERS' GROUP)
This story grew from an encounter with a leprechaun in Killarney National Park.
HENRY "PA" WEINMASTER
THE GLOBE & MAIL 2005
Obituary of Peggy's father in the "Lives Lived" column.