Glimpse.
Lisa Mathisen
Author Bio
Born in rural Appalachia, Lisa Mathisen dreamed of traveling the world after seeing the Venetian canals on television. After working every type of menial job one can imagine she took off backpacking through Europe while her peers went to college. Inevitably falling in love with Scandinavia and marrying a Dane, she attended business college in Copenhagen, delivering newspapers at night and studying all day. She graduated as the first woman in Denmark to achieve a Business Innovation degree, shocking even herself. Raised in a family of educators she was always a fan of writing. Her father; also a published author, taught her to be as concise as possible. Her sister’s expert level editing was also a strong influence. Mathisen prefers to write fiction that marries humor with poignancy. Such is life as she sees it. Returning to Ohio many years later she began a career in export and remains enthralled by the joys of selling American made goods all over the world. Mathisen currently lives in Columbus with her rescue
corgi Coco Puff, enjoying boxed wine and Belgian chocolate every chance she gets. She has yet to see Venice.
Description
Forty imagined scenes from forty imagined lives. Glimpse is a different kind of short story collection, highlighting scenes or short “glimpses” into the lives of the characters. Cry with a Goth rocker in London in one scene, then blink and travel to heaven with an angel in another. Laugh with a middle aged woman on a crowded bus, then flip to another scene and soar with a seagull in search of Cheetos. Some scenes are poignant; some hilarious, some sad, some ironic. Just like life.
Book excerpt
5.
Spring Fashion News 2035: CLOAKING JEANS!
She had to have them. At any cost. Tonara heard about them cruising the illegal web at the cyber hideout. The Aisianese researchers had developed a fabric with holographic fibers that literally shaved off half your body size to the naked eye.
It is a dystopian world. I deserve to have my ass match my food ration, she mused.
After selling her kidney last month to The National Shared Health Facility just to keep a roof over her head she had nothing left to sell. And the DHSEPA agents were cracking down on any luxury imports
without a Friend of Gov’t tattoo allowing her to buy new goods. Ah, what she wouldn’t give to peel off the harsh rubber leggings and slide on a soft pair of jeans…..and these magic jeans!
She suddenly remembered her friend at the cafe who faked tattoos. He owed her one. If caught she
would be depersoned under the vanity law, but she didn’t care. Some things are worth fighting for. She learned about the Founder Kardashian in grade school. A chief agitator during the Social War, she had bravely fought for the right to self promotion. Gosh darnit, Tonara. You’re just a patriot.
2 weeks later her magic jeans were her source of constant joy. She would stare at herself in the 3D imager for hours, wonder struck at technology. And then it happened. That which always happens with new technology. A glitch.
The fibers were progressively getting stronger, working too well. She now resembled the pitiful old ones in the work camps. Gone was even the whisper of a body. She could no longer see anyone in her imager. She was gone.
Summer 2036 : The worker Tonara has been officially erased from all records after searches for her were unsuccessful. The United People’s Parliament declared it so with the swipe of a hand on a digifier.
There was sadly no record of her small ass anywhere, anymore.
