Palm Readings: Stories from Southern California

"Palm Readings" is a collection of short fiction by seven women in Southern California, edited by Eve La Salle Caram. In addition to short stories these women of vairous cultural backgrounds, "Palm Readings" also contains a detailed chapter of fiction writing exercises and editing techniques which will be of use to educators and beginning writers. The seven women whose stories are collected here have come to Los Angeles from a number of cultures Stel DeLen and Louinn Lota born in the Philippines, Anita Santiago in Venezuela, Mara Amparo Escandn in Mexico; one is a third and another a fifth generation Californian (Susan Lee and Marnell Jameson) and one (Jacqueline Jaffe) did most of her growing up in Los Angeles. Some have written for years and published widely, others have just begun to write. For several, publication in these pages is a first. For all their differences, coming to terms, in fiction and creative non-fiction, with their identity and their values seems a common thread. All but one have taken courses in The Writers Program, UCLA Extension. Mara Amparo Escandn is a teacher in that program, as I am, and Marnell Jameson is a teacher of writing in the Public Relations Program at UCLA Extension.