Location: United States
Member Since: March 18, 2011
12 users have added this author as a favorite.


Bernard Fancher


Biography

I live on a small and mostly defunct farm in western New York, where the events of a typical day include writing and walking my dogs--items not necessarily listed in order of priority. (At least not from the dogs' point of view.)

Books

Taken    by Bernard Fancher
Price: Free! 3860 words. Published on January 30, 2013. Fiction.
0.75 star(4.67 from 3 reviews)
Epi Martin was an intelligent young girl on the cusp of becoming a mature woman. She enjoyed the nearly unquestioning trust of her mother and the devoted attention of Alfredo, the young man whom she loved and who in turn was entirely taken with her special charms. The future seemed safe and quite certain, until one day of irrevocable change. A short story. (May be unsuitable for some readers.)
The Long Shadows Farm, Book One    by Bernard Fancher
Price: Free! 18510 words. Published on November 2, 2012. Fiction.
(5.00 from 1 review)
Every story leads us back to its beginning. We just don't always know it at the time. (Revised, 1/12/2013)
A Communion of Water and Blood    by Bernard Fancher
Price: Free! 5560 words. Published on February 4, 2012. Fiction.
A follow-up collection of poems continuing upon themes dealt with in "Before Dark, and After"--but concentrating more on the element of water than fire.
Before Dark, and After    by Bernard Fancher
Price: Free! 5480 words. Published on February 1, 2012. Fiction.
(4.00 from 1 review)
Poems that explore the interstice between light and dark, day and night, perhaps even good and evil.
Resurrection, Stories for the Living and Dead    by Bernard Fancher
Price: $3.99 USD. 88210 words. Published on January 5, 2012. Fiction.
No zombies, vampires, or werewolves populate the pages of this book. But actual ghosts haunt the realm of the living, in a world continually passing away. (Revised and expanded to now include "Once More to the Bay" "Tiny Dancer" "Cinderella" and "That Day")
Desire Under the Big Oak Tree    by Bernard Fancher
Price: Free! 2270 words. Published on October 27, 2011. Screenplays.
0.5 star(4.50 from 2 reviews)
A short play in one act, in which a couple considers their present and past.
A Last Hunt    by Bernard Fancher
Price: Free! 1550 words. Published on October 13, 2011. Fiction.
(3.00 from 2 reviews)
A short story about a man and his dog, and one last weekend together.
The Deep and Dark Woods Behind Us    by Bernard Fancher
Price: $0.99 USD. 10150 words. Published on August 5, 2011. Nonfiction.
"The Ghost Deer" "The Old Orchard" "A Quiet Hunt, Late in the Day" Three real-life stories about hunting and, relatedly, man's search for what's lasting and true.
The Empty House, assorted stories    by Bernard Fancher
Price: $3.99 USD. 77170 words. Published on May 3, 2011. Fiction.
Seventeen tales that explore a wide range of human interaction, including, at best, the possibility of finding within everyday experience something extraordinary, possibly even transcendent. (Revised and expanded to now include "Some Things You Will Never Know" and "Taken")
A Pond in the Middle of Nowhere    by Bernard Fancher
Price: Free! 1080 words. Published on April 25, 2011. Fiction.
0.25 star(4.29 from 7 reviews)
Years later, a young woman and man meet again, unexpectedly, a reunion that seems somehow fated.
Bed Rock    by Bernard Fancher
Price: $0.99 USD. 7040 words. Published on April 18, 2011. Fiction.
During the course of a long afternoon, Elgin Brick remembers his life and the people he loved. WARNING: This book contains descriptions of a sexual nature and might not be suitable for all readers. (This selection is also available in: The Empty House, assorted stories)
Falling    by Bernard Fancher
Price: Free! 4210 words. Published on April 9, 2011. Fiction.
(5.00 from 3 reviews)
Detective M. Raines investigates the wanton murder of a child, precipitating a re-evaluation of her own life and a small crisis of the soul. WARNING: This book contains descriptions of an unsettling nature, and might not be suitable for all readers.
My Home Is Hnme    by Bernard Fancher
Price: Free! 1900 words. Published on April 8, 2011. Fiction.
(4.00 from 1 review)
A young woman returns to the place of her upbringing--to experience the past, present, and future as one.
A Trail in the Snow    by Bernard Fancher
Price: Free! 3380 words. Published on April 4, 2011. Fiction.
(4.00 from 1 review)
One warming winter afternoon, Will skis with his brother to a secluded and sleepy hamlet, encountering more of the past than the present.
The End of the Circus    by Bernard Fancher
Price: Free! 2910 words. Published on March 31, 2011. Fiction.
0.75 star(4.75 from 4 reviews)
Boy meets girl after dark, at the conclusion of the circus... for a rendezvous both bitter and sweet.
Ghost Lake    by Bernard Fancher
Price: Free! 4690 words. Published on March 27, 2011. Fiction.
A father reconnects with his son on a trip to the lake, resurrecting more than just memories.
The Summer Boy    by Bernard Fancher
Price: $0.99 USD. 7870 words. Published on March 27, 2011. Fiction.
Not only is Kyle Summer's ambition to become a big-league baseball pitcher, the quest defines his entire existence. Nothing else seems as important, until his father takes ill and he is called back home to the farm. (This selection is also available in: The Empty House, assorted stories)
Amish Country    by Bernard Fancher
Price: $0.99 USD. 7080 words. Published on March 27, 2011. Fiction.
Jacob Mast is for the most part a content man, happy and proud of what his life's work has accomplished. And yet, his thoughts sometimes plague him with doubt. WARNING: This book contains descriptions of an unsettling nature and may not be appropriate for all readers. (This selection is also available in: The Empty House, assorted stories)
The Long Way    by Bernard Fancher
Price: $0.99 USD. 11330 words. Published on March 26, 2011. Fiction.
Jordan embarks on a quest of memory and desire, which may be the longest journey of all. (This selection is also available in: Resurrection, Stories for the Living and Dead.)
A Good and Gentle Man    by Bernard Fancher
Price: $1.99 USD. 22690 words. Published on March 24, 2011. Fiction.
A turn onto an unfamiliar road opens an unanticipated but welcome chapter in Corky McKerrow's life, leading to mystery and eventual sorrow. (A story that promises to amply reward the patient and perceptive reader. And now at a new, lower price!) WARNING: This book contains graphic sexual content and may not be suitable for all readers.
That Day    by Bernard Fancher
Price: $0.99 USD. 15940 words. Published on March 18, 2011. Fiction.
(5.00 from 1 review)
After 9/11, Sarah knew her world would never be the same. She just never dreamed how different it would be. (Now also available, slightly revised, in the collection: "Resurrection, Stories for the Living and Dead") WARNING: This book contains graphic sexual and violent content, and may not be suitable for all readers.

Bernard Fancher’s tag cloud

911 fiction    a second chance    adolescence    adult romance    adventure    adventure romance    alienation    amish    aspiration    baseball    childhood    circus    contemporary    contemporary poetry    country land    crosscountry    dead    death    desire    dogs    duty    dying    evanescence    fall    farm    farmlife    fate    fidelity    friendship    future    ghosts    guilt    horses    hunting    ice skating    infidelity    innocence    leaves    life    light and dark    living    longing    loss    lost eden    lost worlds    love    meaning    memory    murder    muzzleloaders    mystery    nine eleven    nostalgia    past    play spirits family past present    poetry    present    reconciliation    redemption    regret    remembrance    reminiscence    resurrection    reunion    romance    rural america    school slaughter    sex    short stories    shotguns    skiing    stars    stories    submission    terrorism    time past    transcendence    transitory existence    water    waterfall    young love    youth   

Bernard Fancher's favorite authors on Smashwords


Smashwords book reviews by Bernard Fancher

  • New York and Chador on April 14, 2011
    star star star star
    Very nice short short story. Very compact and even terse. A lot is going on here in a very few words. Reminds me of some of the masters of the form--notably Saki and Chekov. I found the girl in the story interesting, and was left wanting to know more. (Not only why she decided to wear the chador on this particular occasion, but also what happens in her life next.) One small quibble: 'joing' seems to be a typo for 'joining' and pretty much detracts from what is otherwise a lovely sentence. I do wish you would make the correction.
  • My Dream as a Reality on Sep. 10, 2011
    star star star star
    A very interesting, engaging, and pleasant short story about what appears to be the first blossoming of love. Any man, one hopes, would consider himself fortunate to be met at the door by such a young woman offering a rose and calm penetrating look, both freely given with the unstated reassurance that "the world of unreality is gone forever." Nicely done, Arezou.
  • Homer's Odyssey: A Retelling in Prose on Sep. 21, 2011
    star star star star star
    Enjoyable and unpretentious. A simple retelling that makes this ancient masterwork entirely accessible to the modern reader. Bravo!
  • Tess and All Kinds on Oct. 02, 2011
    star star star star star
    A slightly enigmatic little work, both pleasant and troubling. There are some beautiful sentences here, subtly symbolic. "It was windy now, and the breeze wandered behind her head and down the back of her neck." Soon the imagery expands to include a shell "rolled in a paper towel. She unwrapped it gently, looking at how the folds of the shell turned around on each other." A gift from her missing mother's boyfriend, it has "sleek lines and soft colors" and maybe "if she held it to her ears, she could hear the ocean." Finally, a pink barette (matching neither her shirts or single dress) subtly recalls not only the shell but the wind in her hair and the unheard sound of the ocean. Such language, rife with meaning and memory, defies easy explication. But it's entirely in keeping with the mood of this story and very gratifying to read.
  • Nut Weevil Screw on Feb. 29, 2012
    star star star star star
    A gem of a story, quirky and wrenching. Jeffra Hays certainly knows how to tell a substantial yet fast-paced tale that holds the reader's attention.
  • Agricultural Production in the Sudan on June 15, 2012
    star star star star star
    I just finished reading this concise and thought-provoking narrative. Believable description and dialogue imbue the telling of this slightly fantastic, innocuous event with understated support for the supposition that if evil is banal, its presence also often goes unrecognized among us; indeed it might even, at first, be mistaken for something entirely different. As a reader accostumed to being disappointed by the caliber of writing too-often put on display here at Smashwords, I find it personally gratifying to occasionally discover an entirely adept and subtle short story; this one will stay with - and likely haunt - me for quite some time to come.
  • Red Hills of Africa (a novella) on June 24, 2012
    star star star star star
    I enjoyed this quick and lively book immensely. It contains a wealth of descriptive (not to mention informative) narrative throughout, without once being labored or pedantic. The characters are entirely believable (if not entirely lovable) and their dialogue sometimes witty, sometimes witless, but always and ever engaging. Archer, the main character, comes across as a somewhat confused and sometimes even pathetic character, believing somehow he is adhering to the Hemingway code by implementing a personal campaign against cruelty to animals. His ethic requires that he not eat any amount of meat or animal-product, which in the course of the story presents challenges (sexual and otherwise) for this would-be Hemingway hero; it occurs to me perhaps the author is suggesting the wryest of comparisons to Jake Barnes, who is after all an authentic Hemingway hero (if a rather odd one in some respect, given the popular conception of what that entails.) There are echoes of The Sun Also Rises (and other works) resonating throughout, and the reader with a grounding in Hemingway will no doubt appreciate the clever and deft manner in which Mathew Asprey works them into his story. But the story also stands firmly on its own, and I would recommend it to anyone who has a good sense of humor and is not squeamish to read about boorish behaviour and bodily functions.
  • Just a Look on Aug. 03, 2012
    star star star star
    The emotion in this short book of prose poems reminded me somewhat of the outpouring of grief exhibited by Caitlin Thomas on the death of her beloved Dylan. The sense of loss is quite palpable, and the tears no less intense for being spilled in this instance over one still living.
  • Schrodinger's Kitty: A Short and Uncertain Story on Nov. 06, 2012
    star star star star star
    An encounter between strangers leads to a random yet predictable outcome. At once playfully sexy and serious, the story is an exquisite pleasure to read.
  • Eating Out and Other Disorders on Nov. 28, 2012
    star star star star star
    Encountering this collection, the reader meets with a somewhat daunting and disorienting experience, for the beginning of “Eating Out” places one midway in a seemingly disordered stream-of-consciousness-like sequence that initially makes little sense, though eventually everything arranges to a state of perfectly sensible rationality. Despite the initial confusion, at no point does the narrative risk incoherence; in fact, the writing manages the neat trick of being reserved yet copiously descriptive. And despite a banquet of sensory delights—including those of an overtly sexual nature—this smorgasbord of graphic sensuality never descends to the realm of rank, exploitive pornography. Instead, we are allowed a rare glimpse into the interior worlds and essentially pure motivations of two lonely souls, one of whom muses upon the intense but ephemeral act of connection: “We let time move easily away. There was no deadline, there was no compulsory endpoint. It all seemed to be anonymously self-contained in those moments. I suspect I was thinking I was alive. But my thinking had ceased. It seemed as if I was part of life again.” One finds in only the best stories passages similarly recognizable, and so full of hope and despair they should leave any sentient person shaken and breathless. And for that reason, and for this story alone, I give the collection five stars.
  • Feet on Dec. 01, 2012
    star star star
    The story starts rather slowly, and the subject matter is a little upsetting, but the ending is interesting and, all in all, makes the effort of reading worthwhile. Nonetheless, the writing seems obviously hurried at times and even careless. For instance: "To" is used at one point instead of "two", which is either an unfortunate typo or a gross error of cognition. In either case, allowing such obvious errors to stand uncorrected through publication betrays a certain lack of respect for the reader, not to mention one's own work. I look forward to reading more from this writer, but hope in the future he takes more time and extends more care in his effort, edits ruthlessly, and perhaps even finds someone to proofread his work if he is unwilling or incapable of attending to this bit of necessary tedium himself. I realize this may seem a harsh judgment, but I wouldn't bother if I thought the underlying talent was lacking.
  • The Hardest Word on Dec. 06, 2012
    star star star star
    I admit it wasn’t until the end of the story that I fully appreciated the import of the title, which places the action in the context of a morality play. To that point, possibly quite contrary to the author’s intention, I felt more sympathy for the banker than his abductors. Even in the face of physical danger, this particular banker refuses to accept the simplistic contention that it was the bankers alone who screwed up, sending the world economy to the brink of collapse; in fact he does a quite adequate, if not admirable, job of defending his position. I would add that he might have asked his accusers why they did not also wish to indict the politicians who, in this country at least, forced the banks to give mortgages to persons having no reasonable expectation of ever being able to repay them; meanwhile, supposedly savvy investors carelessly flipped house after ever costlier house, riding an unsustainable manic debt escalator that somehow was supposed to end up making them all rich and richer. (The unstated irony—if one wishes to call it that—brought to the fore by the story is that no sooner have we begun to recover from being driven over one fiscal cliff than certain members of our political class appear all-too-eager and even determined to push us over another.) Of course, the bankers were all-too-happy to make those questionable loans—because they could bundle them together and pass them off on unwary or oblivious investors all-too-willing to buy them up—as long as they continued to provide a healthy return. In truth, there was more than enough greed and incompetence to go around and it seems to me unfair to single out and vilify any one group in particular for the subsequent inflation and inevitable bursting of this real-estate and equity market bubble. And yet, however sympathetic I may initially have been to the banker’s point of view, his attitude at the end is entirely intolerable, making me want to reexamine all of my prior assumptions.
  • Red Hotel On The Strand on Jan. 16, 2013
    star star star star star
    The subject of this intriguing and entertaining short read ('An affair of the mind' which seems potentially quite a little more than just that!) could easily be expanded into a full-length novel or novella. I confess to not knowing exactly what is going on, but also to wishing I could continue reading and know more.
  • Stories for Airports on Feb. 02, 2013
    star star star star star
    Every one of these stories is a beautiful gem.
  • The Winds of Astrodon on Feb. 03, 2013
    star star star star star
    Employing subject matter that in lesser hands would amount to little more than pure exploitation, Mr Renner opens a window into a parent's worst nightmare, allowing us to not only empathize but also struggle along with the protagonist to make meaning out of something intrinsically senseless. (Non-spoiler alert: The ending is uplifting and brilliant!)
  • Logotherapy on Feb. 07, 2013
    star star star star
    I enjoyed this short story, and it's brief foray into Man's search for meaning. (The reference to Victor Frankl's work is intermingled nicely with the narrative.) There were a few less than stellar sentences, but for the most part the writing displays competence and a solid command of the essential, if not always finer, points of horse- and bee- keeping, as well as other assorted bits of animal husbandry. I did whince a time or two at what seemed to me an unfair and latently racist characterization of Bapu, "the brown-skinned usurer" - but other than that jarring miscue, I found the narrative predominantly innocent and entertaining. There seems to be not only subject matter for a much longer work, but also room for personal growth in the world-view of the protagonist (as well that of her adolescent charge.) Perhaps we can hope for a longer work delving deeper into, and further developing, the lives and attitudes of the people introduced here.
  • Unbalanced on Feb. 17, 2013
    star star star star star
    A very intense, yet extremely engaging read. I enjoyed the interior monologues wherein Dr. Willow remembers the experiences of his younger self. The parallels with Jaxsie Duerile's exploration of her own past are not only interesting but every bit as explicative as hers. I especially enjoyed the part begining, "She was so unlike him. Her experiences were so different from his own. Yet, for all the apparent differences there was something, a very disquieting something, that linked them." The long discourse on the family clambake that follows is as good a piece of writing as I've ever encountered. This is an excellent novel, and except for the few minor errors in editing, it would be exceptional, deserving six stars. Yet even as it is, five stars seems at least one half star too few.
  • Embers on March 05, 2013
    star star star star star
    Except for “Bad Baby”, (a masterfully told Kafkaesque tale,) and a few that follow, these early works by the author seem to be not so much full-fledged stories as extended —or, conversely, attenuated— narrative conjectures and conceits. You often find this sort of thing in literary magazines, and a little goes a long way. I confess to not really caring for, or about, many of the characters thus portrayed—in some cases they were themselves too insubstantial (or, at least in one instance, incorporeal) to provide the needed weighty antithesis to an oh-so-clever yet too airy narrative; in other instances, as in the abecederios, the characters seemed compelling enough but also entirely undeveloped, inasmuch as their stories are —regrettably— left largely untold. Even so, what is done here is done deftly, with wry verve and grace. Taken in small measures, the reading is a delight to partake. But it is mostly bittersweet dessert, not dinner. Still, all in all, this writer's undeniable talent is always very much in evidence and deserving of five stars.
  • The Pick Up on April 22, 2013
    star star star star
    This story starts out as a fairly straightforward account of an incident that seems out of Kafka, and only gets worse via a plot development that - though entirely plausibe given the world we live in - I admit to not seeing coming. Anyone who has ever been falsely accused will empathize, while the rest would do well to remember there are always two sides to any telling and seldom is anything entirely as it appears.