"Gert Fram" | |
---|---|
Short story by Orson Scott Card | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Publication | |
Published in | Ensign |
Publication type | Periodical |
Publisher | LDS Church |
Media type | Print (Magazine) |
Publication date | 1977 |
"Gert Fram" is a short story that is written by American author Orson Scott Card. It appears in his short story collection Maps in a Mirror , but it originally appeared in the July 1977 fine arts issue of Ensign magazine under the pen name Byron Walley. It is Card's first published work. [1]
A clumsy and imaginative thirteen-year-old girl named Susan Parker is having a very bad day. At school she pokes one of her classmates with a pencil and breaks her teacher's fishbowl. At home things get worse - she continues to make mistakes, knock things over and get into trouble. Although her parents are patient with Susan, she becomes convinced that they all hate her. Upset with herself, Susan begins writing a short novel called Susan the Jerk using her pen name Gert Fram. When Susan's father later goes to her room to talk to her, she lets him read Susan the Jerk. Realizing how badly she feels, her father tells her how much she is loved and that she is not a “jerk”. When Susan says that she is having a hard time believing this, her father begins to cry and she realizes how much he loves her. Feeling better, she gives her novel a happier ending and goes to bed.
In the Q&A section of his website, Card said that he published the short story "Gert Fram" under the name Byron Walley because he had a non-fiction article “Family Art”, a poem “Looking West” and a short play "The Rag Mission" (published under the name Brian Green) appearing in the same issue of Ensign magazine. [2] He used the pseudonym to avoid appearing overrepresented in the single issue of the periodical.
Card used the pseudonym again while editing Dragons of Darkness , an anthology. He wanted to include two of his short stories: "A Plague of Butterflies" and "Middle Woman". Both stories appeared in the book, but "Middle Woman" was under the Walley pen name. [2]
In his short story collection Maps in a Mirror, Card said that Gert Fram was the childhood pen name of his sister-in-law, Nancy Allen Black, and that while the idea for the story was his own, the character Gert Fram and all the "novels" she wrote (except Susan the Jerk) were created by his sister-in-law as a child. [3]
Card wrote that, although his short story "Gert Fram" was based on his sister-in-law Nancy Allen Black, her young adult book Gert Fram - A Kid's Book for Grown-ups (1991) ISBN 0-9624049-4-2 is not based on his short story but on her own childhood experiences. [4]
Patricia Kathryn Helms Kidd was an American author. Many of her books concern the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She co-wrote some of her works with her husband, Clark L. Kidd, and also co-wrote a novel with Orson Scott Card.
Lost Boys (1992) is a horror novel by American author Orson Scott Card. The premise of the novel revolves around the daily lives of a Mormon family, and the challenges they face after a move to North Carolina. The story primarily follows the family's troubles at work, church, and the oldest child Stevie's difficulty fitting in at school, which lead to him becoming increasingly withdrawn.
The Ender's Game series is a series of science fiction books written by American author Orson Scott Card. The series started with the novelette Ender's Game, which was later expanded into the novel of the same title. It currently consists of sixteen novels, thirteen short stories, 47 comic issues, an audioplay, and a film. The first two novels in the series, Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, each won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
The Tales of Alvin Maker is a series of six alternate history fantasy novels written by American novelist Orson Scott Card, published from 1987 to 2003, with one more planned. They explore the experiences of a young man, Alvin Miller, who realizes he has incredible powers for creating and shaping things around him.
Seventh Son (1987) is an alternate history/fantasy novel by American writer Orson Scott Card. It is the first book in Card's The Tales of Alvin Maker series and is about Alvin Miller, the seventh son of a seventh son. Seventh Son won a Locus Award and was nominated for both the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards in 1988. Seventh sons have strong "knacks", and seventh sons of seventh sons are both extraordinarily rare and powerful. In fact, young Alvin appears to be the only one in the world. His abilities make him the target of the Unmaker, who recognizes Alvin's powers as those of a Maker, only the second ever, and it had been a long time since the first had walked on water and turned water to wine. The Unmaker works largely by water and tries to kill Alvin in his early years before he can master his abilities.
Enchantment is an English language fantasy novel by American writer Orson Scott Card. First published in 1999, the novel is based on the Ukrainian version of Sleeping Beauty and other folk tales. Various forms of magic, potions, and immortal deities also play an important role in the story.
Maps in a Mirror (1990) is a collection of short stories by American writer Orson Scott Card. Like Card's novels, most of the stories have a science fiction or fantasy theme. Some of the stories, such as "Ender's Game", "Lost Boys", and "Mikal's Songbird" were later expanded into novels. Each of the smaller volumes that make up the larger collection as a whole are centered on a theme or genre. For instance, Volume 1, The Changed Man, reprints several of Card's horror stories. The collection won the Locus Award in 1991.
InterGalactic Medicine Show was an American online fantasy and science fiction magazine. It was founded in 2005 by multiple award-winning author Orson Scott Card and was edited by Edmund R. Schubert from 2006–2016, after which Scott Roberts took over. It was originally biannual, but became quarterly in 2008 and bimonthly in 2009, except for a brief hiatus in 2010. The magazine ceased publication in June 2019.
Lovelock is a 1994 science fiction novel by American writers Orson Scott Card and Kathryn H. Kidd. The novel's eponymous narrator, a sentient monkey, takes his name from James Lovelock, the scientist-inventor who formulated the Gaia hypothesis, which figures heavily in the book.
Ender in Exile is a science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card, part of the Ender's Game series, published on November 11, 2008. It takes place between the two award-winning novels Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. It could also be considered a parallel novel to the first three sequels in the Shadow Saga, since the entirety of this trilogy takes place in the span of Ender in Exile. The novel concludes a dangling story line of the Shadow Saga, while it makes several references to events that take place during the Shadow Saga. From yet another perspective, the novel expands the last chapter of the original novel Ender's Game. On the one hand, it fills the gap right before the last chapter, and on the other hand, it fills the gap between the last chapter and the original (first) sequel. Ender in Exile begins one year after Ender has won the bugger war, and begins with the short story "Ender's Homecoming" from Card's webzine Intergalactic Medicine Show. Other short stories that were published elsewhere are included as chapters of the novel.
Orson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card coproduced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
The Orson Scott Card bibliography contains a list of works published by Orson Scott Card.
Saints (1984) is a historical fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card. It tells the story of the fictional protagonist, Dinah Kirkham, a native of Manchester, England, who immigrates to the United States and becomes one of the plural wives of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.
"A Plague of Butterflies" is a short story by American writer Orson Scott Card. It was originally published in Amazing, in 1981, and shortly afterwards in an anthology, edited by Card, entitled Dragons of Darkness. His short story "Middle Woman" appeared in the same book under the pseudonym Byron Walley. A Plague of Butterflies was later reprinted in his short story collection Maps in a Mirror.
"Middle Woman" is a short story by American writer Orson Scott Card, originally published in the Dragons of Darkness, edited by Card himself, under the name Byron Walley. It also appears in his short story collections Cardography and Maps in a Mirror.
"Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow" is a poem by Orson Scott Card. The poem was the basis for Card's The Tales of Alvin Maker series.
Jay Atwell Parry is an American author. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his LDS nonfiction and his books about George Washington.
Hamlet's Father is a 2008 novella by Orson Scott Card, which retells William Shakespeare's Hamlet in modernist prose, and which makes several changes to the characters' motivations and backstory. It has drawn substantial criticism for its portrayal of King Hamlet as a pedophile who molested Laertes, Horatio, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and the implication that this in turn made them homosexuals.
The Pathfinder series is a completed series of novels by Orson Scott Card that is notable for its unusual fusion of the themes of science fiction and fantasy, with some elements of historical fiction. One significant aspect of the Pathfinder series is its uniquely complex but well documented set of time travel rules.
Mira, Mirror is a 2004 young adult fantasy novel written by Mette Ivie Harrison. The story of the novel is told from the viewpoint of the magic mirror from the fairy tale "Snow White". "Mira" is a main character.