Award-winning Northeast Florida author Parker Francis takes readers from the shrimp docks of 1960s Fernandina Beach to the crossroads of a young Elvis Presley — and beyond the boundaries of reality — in his new short-story collection, “Every Living Thing: Eight Stories of Mystery, Loss & Redemption.”
The collection, now available in paperback and e-book editions, brings together eight stories ranging from mystery and suspense to speculative fiction, nostalgia and humor. Though widely different in setting and tone, the stories share a fascination with ordinary people facing moments that suddenly become anything but ordinary.
Among them is “The Day Hemingway Died,” set in Fernandina Beach in the early 1960s. A young girl befriends a shrimp-boat captain who believes he is Ernest Hemingway, only to discover years later that even legends can leave unexpected gifts.
Other stories feature a young Elvis Presley wrestling with the life he might have lived; a Hollywood animal trainer confronted with a chimpanzee who can talk; a government agent pursuing a fugitive capable of slipping between alternate realities; a grieving librarian following mysterious footprints; and a compassionate animal rescuer whose decision to save an unknown creature has terrifying consequences.
Francis is the pen name of Ponte Vedra Beach author Victor DiGenti, whose fiction includes the three-book Quint Mitchell Mystery series and other award-winning novels. DiGenti is also a longtime biographer and ghostwriter and has been active in Northeast Florida’s writing community for many years.
“Short stories have always given me the freedom to follow an intriguing idea wherever it leads,” DiGenti said. “These eight stories may appear to have little in common at first, but each is ultimately about someone arriving at a crossroads — facing loss, danger, uncertainty or an unexpected second chance.”
The title comes from a line spoken in the collection’s darkest story: “Every living thing deserves a chance.” That idea, DiGenti says, gradually emerged as a thread connecting stories about memory, compassion, choices and redemption.
