30 Words (Or Celebrate the Small Things in Life)

Hi friends,

I was slightly embarrassed at first to share this bit of small news because it seemed so, well, small, but then I remembered: it’s the little things in life that make it grand!

My story “Dear John” was recently selected as a winner in Smokelong Quarterly‘s 30-word story contest.

For anyone counting, that amounts to just 3 sentences in my case.

The best number to me, however, is that only 5 stories made the cut from over 1400 entries. So it feels kind of like being the shy girl in school you think no one notices – but then having the star quarterback ask you to prom. (Ok, that totally never happened to me and doesn’t even work as an analogy. Also, I lusted after the skater boys and genius slackers, more than jocks).

It was fun to take a little break from the monster work of a novel and write something of this size. I find sometimes I’m more creative when given strict constraints. And affirmations keep the fire going: Yes, you *might* just get picked out of a crowd. Chances are slim, but it happens!

Enjoy the bite-sized fiction here. And remember to celebrate the small things!

Yay!