Allison Perry

.
.AUTHOR

Allison Perry

I am an Integrated Strategic Communications sophomore at the University of Kentucky. I enjoy reading, writing, and listening to music. I am a member of the Freshman Honor Society, Dean's List, and a staff writer for the Kentucky Kernel. One day I hope to develop and design new ad campaigns for companies. I chose an ISC major because I like to brainstorm and be creative - which is also the reason I like to write.

My story involves a crisis that nearly everyone has felt at one time or another - finding the courage to follow your heart. "Chai" tracks a young woman's thoughts and actions as she observes her interest and ultimately makes a decision to rectify the situation. The reader sees the woman's ordeal in two ways, or points of view. In one way, through a 'limited omniscient' third person viewpoint, her thoughts and actions are described, but not interpreted. The story switches back and forth between this and the other point of view - first person. The reader sees exactly what she is thinking through her diary entries, which are alternated with the limited omniscient viewpoint.

I enjoyed writing Chai. It started out as just another assignment for my Creative Writing class, but quickly became fun and challenging as I tried to find the perfect way to convey the main character's thoughts to the audience. My faculty mentor, Leatha Kendrick, was a great help to me in this process, always willing to read over drafts and discussing different suggestions for revision. I would also like to thank the members of my English 207 (Creative Writing: Fiction) class for critiquing the story and offering their suggestions.

April 16

Dear diary,

He drinks chai.

She stopped writing, re-reading the words printed neatly on the page before her. Her teeth gently gnashed the top of her old black Bic pen, as she was prone to do, the tiny teethmarks running up and down the side as evidence. He drinks chai, she thought again to herself. Only three small words, but what a revelation. She removed the pen from between her front teeth and continued.

I thought I was alone in that particular fetish. I don't know anyone else who drinks chai, who likes it, or hell, has even heard of it. Half the coffeehouses in town don't even serve it.

She pondered the last sentence for a moment, before crossing it out lightly and scrawling WHAT COFFEEHOUSES?! in bold ragged capitals in the margin of the notebook. She smiled thinly at her own joke. Ashwood wasn't exactly known for its chic coffee varieties. Actually, apart from the college, it wasn't known for much at all, except for the time the local high school baseball team won the state tournament back in 1984. The people of the town still talked about it. Some called it reminiscing; she preferred to call it "stuck in a time warp."

But somehow he's found it. And he's enjoying a steamy foam cup full of it right now, on this hideously dreary Monday morning. Will wonders never cease?

I know all this not because he told me, but because I can smell it. It sits on the left-upper-hand corner of his desk every day, patiently waiting to be consumed. The scent is that of pumpkin pie, laced with cinnamon and whipped cream. I know it's chai. It's a very distinctive scent.

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Mentor:
Leatha Kendrick,
Instructor,
Creative Writing,
English Department

Novelist John Gardner describes fiction as an extended dream. Readers take up fiction to be transported: to enter unfamiliar (or familiar) mental states and experience them more fully, from the safety of a position outside the story. Writers, on the other hand, must re-experience the often difficult emotions of their characters while maintaining some degree of artistic distance. Allision Perry's short story, "Chai", explores a young woman's romantic preoccupation with an apparently unattainable young man. This is, of course, an old topic, but Allision renders it in a fresh and contemporary way. As I read the story through in several drafts, I watched Allision discover a way to tell this story from both the inside and the outside: using a limited omniscient third person point of view, interleaved with portions of the main character's diary. In the manner of classic short fiction, the action takes place in one room and within the space of an hour. The story's final twist, a move worthy of O. Henry himself, proves that its true subject matter is not obsession, but courage.

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. .AUTHOR	Allison Perry
	I am an Integrated Strategic Communications sophomore at the University of Kentucky. I enjoy reading, writing, and listening to music. I am a member of the Freshman Honor Society, Dean's List, and a staff writer for the Kentucky Kernel. One day I hope to develop and design new ad campaigns for companies. I chose an ISC major because I like to brainstorm and be creative - which is also the reason I like to write. My story involves a crisis that nearly everyone has felt at one time or another - finding the courage to follow your heart. "Chai" tracks a young woman's thoughts and actions as she observes her interest and ultimately makes a decision to rectify the situation. The reader sees the woman's ordeal in two ways, or points of view. In one way, through a 'limited omniscient' third person viewpoint, her thoughts and actions are described, but not interpreted. The story switches back and forth between this and the other point of view - first person. The reader sees exactly what she is thinking through her diary entries, which are alternated with the limited omniscient viewpoint. I enjoyed writing Chai. It started out as just another assignment for my Creative Writing class, but quickly became fun and challenging as I tried to find the perfect way to convey the main character's thoughts to the audience. My faculty mentor, Leatha Kendrick, was a great help to me in this process, always willing to read over drafts and discussing different suggestions for revision. I would also like to thank the members of my English 207 (Creative Writing: Fiction) class for critiquing the story and offering their suggestions.	April 16 Dear diary, He drinks chai. She stopped writing, re-reading the words printed neatly on the page before her. Her teeth gently gnashed the top of her old black Bic pen, as she was prone to do, the tiny teethmarks running up and down the side as evidence. He drinks chai, she thought again to herself. Only three small words, but what a revelation. She removed the pen from between her front teeth and continued. I thought I was alone in that particular fetish. I don't know anyone else who drinks chai, who likes it, or hell, has even heard of it. Half the coffeehouses in town don't even serve it. She pondered the last sentence for a moment, before crossing it out lightly and scrawling WHAT COFFEEHOUSES?! in bold ragged capitals in the margin of the notebook. She smiled thinly at her own joke. Ashwood wasn't exactly known for its chic coffee varieties. Actually, apart from the college, it wasn't known for much at all, except for the time the local high school baseball team won the state tournament back in 1984. The people of the town still talked about it. Some called it reminiscing; she preferred to call it "stuck in a time warp." But somehow he's found it. And he's enjoying a steamy foam cup full of it right now, on this hideously dreary Monday morning. Will wonders never cease? I know all this not because he told me, but because I can smell it. It sits on the left-upper-hand corner of his desk every day, patiently waiting to be consumed. The scent is that of pumpkin pie, laced with cinnamon and whipped cream. I know it's chai. It's a very distinctive scent. Top of Page \| Next Page
Mentor: Leatha Kendrick, Instructor, Creative Writing, English Department
Novelist John Gardner describes fiction as an extended dream. Readers take up fiction to be transported: to enter unfamiliar (or familiar) mental states and experience them more fully, from the safety of a position outside the story. Writers, on the other hand, must re-experience the often difficult emotions of their characters while maintaining some degree of artistic distance. Allision Perry's short story, "Chai", explores a young woman's romantic preoccupation with an apparently unattainable young man. This is, of course, an old topic, but Allision renders it in a fresh and contemporary way. As I read the story through in several drafts, I watched Allision discover a way to tell this story from both the inside and the outside: using a limited omniscient third person point of view, interleaved with portions of the main character's diary. In the manner of classic short fiction, the action takes place in one room and within the space of an hour. The story's final twist, a move worthy of O. Henry himself, proves that its true subject matter is not obsession, but courage.