From the author of the five volume Fork in the Road series of short stories, comes In Sunshine or In Shadow, seven new stories ranging across plot, time, and place.
“The Fork in the Road” is a story triggered by an incident when the author was robbed at an ATM in 2007, it explores three possible outcomes. In the titular story, “In Sunshine or In Shadow,” Adam Winter is a ninety-year-old man reflecting on the inexorable passage of time and relationships formed and fractured. He speculates about the choices made, for good or ill, particularly with his mother and stepfather, and what happened during the Korean War. The fork in the road examines a possible alternate path. In “The Noxious Weed,” jealousy drives a hard bargain when a man tries to frame his wife’s previous lover. “The Alpha and the Omega” explores two vastly different outcomes resulting from an innocent drive into Sydney one Saturday morning. The penultimate tale, “New Day Dawning,” takes place after a young woman’s parents are killed in a car smash as she seeks solace and peace on her grandfather’s farm. Finally, in “Web of Fate,” a man searches for information about his grandfather and family heritage in a North Queensland ghost town. This collection also features a brand-new story, “A Pox on Them.”
Total contents:1. “The Fork in the Road”2. “In Sunshine or In Shadow”3. “The Noxious Weed”4. “The Alpha and the Omega”5. “A Pox on Them”6. “New Day Dawning”7. “Web of Fate”
Eric Drysdale lives in Sydney, Australia, where many of the stories have been set. He became an insurance agent in late 1981 and after 41 years, at the age of 77, retired at the end of June 2023 to concentrate on his writing. With over four decades of experience it was only natural that some of the characters found themselves, for good or ill, in insurance plots. For decades Eric has had a fascination with what he refers to as “The Fork in the Road Syndrome,” both in what he writes and reads. About half the stories that make up The Fork in the Road have been published or broadcast before.View all by Eric J. Drysdale
