I was chuffed to see that an excerpt from my story, Viennese Blood, is being used as a teaching tool for 6th grade at the Utah Education Network. OK, they got the title wrong, but it’s good to see this story out there in schools. Viennese Blood appears in my story collection, Back Burning, and it can also be read online at The Richmond Review where it was first published. That publication led to an agent contacting me about my work – “Have you got a novel?” Now, ten years later, I can say : “On its way.”
In the meantime, thanks UEN for using my work in your lessons!
<26. Read these passages.
Passage 1, an excerpt from Vienna Blood by Sylvia Petter:
“It was the happiest time of my life. The saddest time, too. I was seventeen. I had arrived from England to work for eight months in a grand Viennese hotel. I was excited. I would at last see the world. Get away from Turnham Green. Go farther than London. It was early May when the train puffed into the grey hangar of the We[s]tbahnhof. The other passengers bustled by me as I lugged my knapsack down the high steps of the train and stood lost on the platform. Suddenly, a large hand clamped on my shoulder. I almost jumped, turned and saw a tall stout man with red shiny cheeks.”>
