A Vacant Lot and A Viennese Waltz - Cindy Kluck-Nygren

Description

Dillon’s connection with Dana is undeniably a transformational love. Is it also an unrequited love? After the love of his life experiences a horrifying accident, Dillon is left alone to ponder if she ever really loved him or if she simply scurried away, unable to cope with her traumatic and life-altering fall.

In A Vacant Lot and A Viennese Waltz, Ms. Kluck-Nygren takes us to the final days of Dillon and Dana and their individual, but parallel, struggles for closure and finality within their shared past. Will he carry his love for the lady he lost to the end? Will she reach out and offer him her hand one final time? A singular love story that’s told as two halves of the same whole, A Vacant Lot and A Viennese Waltz first presents Dillon’s viewpoint and then shares Dana’s perspective as seen through the eyes of her daughter.

Ms. Kluck-Nygren’s story subtly and artfully tells the poignant tale of an enduring love spanning decades and invites us to reminisce about the "what might have been" loves in our own lives.

About the Author

Cindy Kluck-Nygren is the winner of the 2026 Roe River Review Editor’s Prize, received second place in the Briefly Write Poetry Prize 2025, and received an Honorable Mention from Allegory. Her fiction has been published in Möbius Blvd and Roe River Review, and her nonfiction has been published in Epistle Literary Magazine and Christmas Gifts 2024, an anthology. She is a Chicago native currently living in Texas. She is an avid fan of live music, travel, small batch baking, and long walks. And the long walks are only so she can continue small batch baking.