UPDATE. “Vanilla” was one of the winning entries, along with “Reflections,” drafted here on 10/17, and “Imaginary i” 1/19. Many thanks to Leslie Anderson for her beautiful paintings, to MWPA and Shanti Arts for sponsoring the contest, to judge Ron Currie, Jr. for selecting my shorties, and again to Shanti Arts for publishing such a beautiful book.
Back to the well of 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 paintings by Maine artist Leslie Anderson. Mainers, the deadline is March 1! Today’s shorty was inspired by Anderson’s “Morton’s Moo.”
Working Title: Vanilla
1st Sentence: Jerry was counting pairs of shorty-shorts—a deeply sad fashion trend he’d hoped would never come back—when he heard the “Here you go” from the bangs-and-ponytail that had taken his order, and turned to claim the Styrofoam cup she had pushed through the window.
Favorite Sentence: “It’s always the nilla-magnariffics who don’t know what they really want,” whispered someone in the crowd, followed by uh-huhs and yeps.
Word Length: 739
Photo by Flickr user Steven Depolo 8/2009.
Another day inspired by the Summer Stories Short Story Competition put together by the 
Maine writers, look sharp! The deadline is drawing near for the Summer Stories Short Story Competition put together by the 
I’m celebrating the end of Week 35 with the tastiest looking picture of a Christmas pudding I’ve ever seen. Samuel Pepys would approve, I’m sure. As for the work of the day, I shouldn’t be surprised that 350 years ago on 
The liveliest of the diary entries yet! Pepys recorded a fat handful of juicy details on 
On 
On this 
On December 27, 1662, Samuel Pepys 
350 years ago today, Samuel Pepys 
If I’m ever feeling full of myself for writing a story every day for so many months, I need only remind myself of Samuel Pepys to prevent ego-bloat. The man wrote a diary entry every single day for 10 years, from January 1, 1660, until the end of 1669. Now THAT is a commitment! I’ve been alternating story-prompt weeks with non-story-prompt weeks, and it’s time for prompts again. In brainstorming possible prompts, I thought of old Sam’s diary, which I’d always heard was pretty lively. Turns out, a man named 
Congrats to me for finishing off Week 33! Crème caramel all around! And the best sound of the week served as the day’s story prompt: gargling, selected by the husband from 
The day’s sound prompt was sleigh bells, selected by the husband at 
Applause! I started my day with a round of clapping, chosen by the husband at 
The husband chose the sound of a cash register from 
The sound prompt for the day was boiling water, selected by the husband from 
For the day’s shorty prompt, my husband chose from f
I’m writing this on December 18 but per usual, I’m back-dating to match the day I wrote the story I’m documenting in this post. First a word on this ongoing story-a-day challenge: This last week has been the hardest full week so far. I absolutely could not do anything more on this project than just get each day’s story written, and many days that was a close-run thing. But I did it. And I’m building a little energy again for documenting the process. The shorty for December 11 was inspired by the sound of a cricket chirping, which my husband selected from the site 
Today’s inspirational postcard has a picture of Bates College’s Hathorn Hall (photo credit below). My husband works at Bates and we live within easy walking distance, so I’m on campus all the time. Hathorn is one of my favorite buildings. It just screams New England.
My inspiration postcard today pictures two young bull moose by the water, sparring. I couldn’t find a picture of two moose online that I like as well as the picture here (photo credit below) so a picture of one will have to do for this post. I have yet to see a moose in my 6+ years in Maine, mostly because I’m unlikely to see one from the couch. I would be delighted to see one of these goofy gus animals in person, but NOT, I sincerely hope, and thank you very much, in my headlights.
I really like the idea for this one but the execution… not so much. Hopefully I’ll work some magic in revision. As for my inspiration, I honestly have no clue how a postcard with the O’Keeffe painting pictured here (see photo credit below) led me to the story I wrote, which appears to have absolutely no connection to the painting. But after a meditation on the image and some note-taking, well, I wrote a story, and that’s that.
Today’s shorty was inspired by a postcard showing the Pissarro painting pictured here (photo credit below). It reminded me of Colonial Williamsburg, VA, on a blurry winter day, which in turn sparked the story.
Once again I find myself catching up on posts (I’m writing this on December 3). I’ve been working hard on polishing some of these shorties to submit to a chapbook contest—yeehaw! Wish me luck. In the meantime, my third postcard, which inspired my November 29 shortie, is one showing two pages from a scrapbook Isabella Gardner made to document a trip to Japan. Pictured here is one of the pages shown on the postcard (photo credit below). I’m slightly embarrassed to say that my plodding brain produced a story about… a scrapbooker. But what can you do. Next!
I have a postcard with the image shown here (see photo credit below) of Barry Flanagan’s sculpture “Thinker on a Rock.” I meditated on this wonderful man-like hare for quite some time and then landed on a certain famous manlike bunny we all know well…. So the day’s shorty turned out to be my first fan fiction!
I buy pretty postcards wherever I go just so they can sit on a shelf. Today I gathered a pile and went through them, selecting the most intriguing as I went. I kept whittling the pile until I had seven to use for story prompts this week. The first, chosen randomly from the seven, was imprinted with the photo you see here of an Edward Steichen painting (see photo credit below). Isn’t it stunning? It took most of the day for me to get a story out of this image because I was so enchanted with it all I could think of were more colors and shapes. Gorgeous.
This challenge more and more shakes up my notion of what makes a story. I love this but just like all good educational experiences, the more I learn the more I discover my own cluelessness. Today’s shorty took hold once I settled on a playful conversation between a woman and her father, sitting at a dining table, waiting for dessert. And I found I wanted to stay firmly in that conversation—the story begins with the mother walking away from the dining table and ends when she returns. There is nothing approaching a traditional beginning, middle, and end, and there’s no story arc to speak of. I tried to develop an unspoken conversation beneath the surface of the exchanges, but I don’t know that I was terribly successful. And is this a story? It is a fiction and I was very conscious of my own decision about how to begin it and how to end it. But does that make it a story? All I know is that for the purposes of my Daily Shorty challenge, it is. And the photo today is pulling double-duty. The dessert our protagonists await is an apple pie. Let’s enjoy this gorgeous pie, too, as a celebration for completing Week 29. Yahoo!
This morning’s fragrance was… Worcestershire sauce. Nothing smells quite like it, yes? A big whiff of it made me think of my mother preparing the kind of food you take to a party—dips, sauces. Which in turn made me think of deviled eggs. Which in turn made me think of family reunions.
Oy, another tough one. The husband had trouble coming up with a scent for the day so when we went out this morning he drove to the gas station to fill up and I rolled down the window to get a whiff. Doesn’t show itself much in the shorty but the smell of gasoline was indeed its inspiration.
Having a really tough week because I’ve got other commitments that are taking a lot of time. I pulled this one out, inspired by the fragrance of a burning match, but only just. I think I’ve got something that could come good in revision, so okay. Onward!
My husband enjoys few things more than a huge bowl of Cheerios. Whenever he eats Cheerios, which is almost every day and often twice a day, I am struck by the very specific scent of that cereal and I have commented on it. So no surprise when I woke up to discover a giant box of Cheerios as the fragrance prompt the husband chose for my day. I opened the box and sniffed the cereal multiple times but in the end I couldn’t come up with a story until he came home and fixed a bowl for himself. And there it was, the smell I know so well. Maybe there’s something about his eating pleasure that adds to the scent.
Today’s fragrance was a “Christmas Cookie” scented candle from Yankee Candle that was hanging around our apartment somewhere. The husband left it at my bedside this morning. I smelled it. I smelled it again. And I was stumped. I smelled it once more. Still stumped. So I filled my day with other things and then very, very late, thoughts about baking cookies led to thoughts about candy led to a childhood memory led to a complete story. Ergh. Next.
Today marks the start of a week of shorties inspired by fragrance. This morning’s fragrance: freshly sliced orange. I also wave goodbye to Week 28, so I need to post a virtual treat. This lovely orange cake will do very well, yes?
Daily Shorty 