UPDATE. The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts published this shorty as “But Yearning Still,” here. Many thanks to Managing Editor Randall Brown!
For five weeks now I’ve been using prompts for my daily writing sessions. Having something to focus on right away—as opposed to flitting around, looking for inspiration in my head—seems (most days) to take off the worst edge of the angst that surrounds my need to create a brand new story each day. On August 28, I went to the Wikimedia Commons archive of 2011 “pictures of the day” and selected the image highlighted on each 2011 day that corresponded to 2012’s week of August 28. If I was unsure whether I could use the image, I skipped to the following day’s selection. I dumped the photos into a folder in wait for “Picture of the Day” week. I’m starting this week with the photo here.
Working Title: Her Postcards
1st Sentence: Her postcards never said “Wish you were here.”
Favorite Sentence: I have no memory of what was just like a burnt raisin because what stunned me that day, and others, was not what my artsy, flitty, addled, moth-pinging-on-a-light bulb mother said, but what these big-eyed, fascinated, bated-breath hangers-on tried to make of it.
Word Length: 515
Photo of Jaral de Berrios in Guanajuato, Mexico, by Tomas Castelazo, 2/2011, picture of the day at Wikimedia Commons 8/28/2011.
Daily Shorty 
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