Another day inspired by the Summer Stories Short Story Competition put together by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance and Shanti Arts Publishing. Maine writers are invited to write and submit short stories in response to a series of delightful paintings by Maine artist Leslie Anderson. The deadline is March 1 and submissions need to be snail-mailed: Details here. I wrote today’s shorty after meditating on Anderson’s “Lake Rower.” And yes, I do know that this painting does not feature a kayak but I like the sound of the words “holy kayak” much more than “holy rowboat.”
Working Title: Holy Kayak
1st Sentence: He had been taught to call the bird an egret and she had been taught to call it a heron and somehow neither had stumbled over the common knowledge that the two words were often interchangeable, particularly if you are not an expert in ornithology, which neither was, and so they missed the simple truth that they were, in fact, BOTH right.
Favorite Sentence: After a few decades of extreme muscle-condescension, if you, Mr. Bigger and Stronger, decide to get in her way, on a day when she happens to be holding a paddle in her hands—a paddle that she is quite handy with, a paddle that has sculpted her small shoulders and arms—will she use that paddle as a weapon?
Word Length: 1,036
Photo by Walter Siegmund 4/2009.
Daily Shorty 
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