onelitchick.bsky.social

Day 25 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories “The Leaf-Sweeper” by Muriel Spark “But perhaps you don’t know how repulsive and loathsome is the ghost of a living man.” Loved Christmas in May reading with y’all!

Day 24 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories The Thieves Who Couldn’t Help Sneezing by Thomas Hardy “The tumult of sneezes became really extra extraordinary to listen to – there was no sensation. It was like wind, rain, and see battling in a hurricane.” As a serial sneezer, I can relate!

Day 23 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Anaheim by Jennifer Croft “Boredom was the best thing about childhood.”

Day 22 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories The One with the Multiverse by Josh Riedel “He imagined writing an in-depth profile on Kipper that charted how the man’s sense of reality had become unhinged.”

Day 21 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Wars and Winters by Hannah Pittard “It was the first relationship that I’d felt a part of.” And it’s an awful and toxic one! His narcissism, her youth and insecurity. Great story.

Day 20 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories The Things Eric Eats Before He Eats Himself by Carmen Maria Machado “You can’t hurt your heart if you don’t have one.” WTAH did I just read?

Day 19 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Chris Cornell by Damian Tarnopolsky “Back then I thought I was a young man; now when I look back I think I was a boy.” Unfortunately, this one did not work for me.

Day 18 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories The Exhibition by Alexandra Wuest “While Iris contorted her face in an expression meant to convey Artist, artistic appreciation, she was actually busy planning her next meal.” This maybe a perfect story. It’s currently my favorite of the collection.

Day 17 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories You Again by Seth Fried “Arnold paid me forty dollars NOT to tap dance.” I thought this was hilarious… Certainly more so than Anna did. Lovely story. 💙

Day 16 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Conversation Over the Holidays by Jessica Westhead “They were not the ones who had caused all the problems, it was the billionaires and the oil industry, and the celebrities flying around in their private jets.”

Day 15 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Down Burned Road by Jacqueline Baker “He had frowned, genuinely puzzled. Why do we want people to find us?”

Day 13 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories “The Crown Derby Plate” by Marjorie Bowen “…the lonely house with the grave in the garden was dreary enough around which to create a legend.” I’m officially copying you, @mrmuleman!

Day 12 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Shopping Cart by Christopher Boucher “I walked away and the cart followed.”

Day 11 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Children of a Carless God by Elizabeth Gonzalez James “Was there any reason to uphold virtue when judgment might never come?” Wildly good and disturbing. Kind of giving Lord of the Flies vibes, but with cats.

Day 10 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Tardy Suit by Thomas Pierce “Paintings, jewelry, clothes, etc. — we load all valuables into Tardy bins. This our job. Protect things. But not ppl.” Ah, truth in fiction! A sad commentary.

Day 9 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories What to Call You by Casey Plett “What I miss is that feeling, that understanding of being next to someone new and suddenly realizing you can spend time around them, that there’s kinship and it’s real.”

Day 8 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Ham by John Jodzio “Are you sure you want a felon on your payroll?” I asked Larry, running my thumb over the race letters on my business card. “A felon is exactly what I need,” he said.

Day 7 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories The Renovation by Kenan Orhun “Nothing about this felt like it would turn out well for me, and yet I couldn’t help wanting to stay.”

Day 6 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories For John by Kim Fu “He felt suddenly certain that he would never be able to explain why he found it beautiful, and she would never be able to explain why she found it ugly, and they would remain fundamentally unknowable to each other.” Loved this!

Day 5 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories My Smell Journal [orange peels, ink, coffee filters] by Katya Apekina “A month ago, I noticed something changing in me. My senses had begun to shift around and vie for power.”

Day 4 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #shortstories "This, anyway, I knew to be real: if you are on a knife's edge between death and life, a strong will can make a difference." Vandring by J. Robert Lennon

Day 3 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #shortstories “Eat Pray Click” by Ed Park “Basically, he longed for a text that wasn’t set in stone, something more akin to a living organism - a story with free will.”

Day 2 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #shortstories The Hookup by Katherine Heiny “Despite his future eyebrows, Bodi has a girlfriend.” This has nothing to do with the story, but it made me laugh. I’ve long enjoyed Katherine Heiny’s writing.

Day 1, #ssac2024 #ChristmasinMay #ShortStoryMonth “In The Stacks” by Robin Sloan. “I wasn’t hiding,” Maisie said. “I was learning.” Oh, Maisie is a gem! As is this first story.

What book are you closing 2025 with?

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 12 “A Very Mario Lopez Christmas" by Megan Giddings - 4.5 ⭐️ Hilarious and weird and wonderful. Just like Kevin Wilson. Fitting that this is the last of his marvelously curated Short Story Advent Calendar!

Dear Santa: All I want for Christmas is for the Oxford comma to be cherished, loved, and respected.

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 9 “The Rent-Controlled Ghost” by Lee Conell - 3.75 ⭐️ “Big, rich, important men were waiting for the old lady in 4C to die.” Great writing, but it was missing something… I’m not sure what. Maybe Halina will let me know.

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 8 “The Old Ways” by Silas House - 5 ⭐️ “I don’t mean it in a bad way, honey. That’s just who you are. You hate it here until you’re gone and then you get homesick.” This story is perfection—as rich as the peanut butter candy Grandma Alpha and Blue are making during it.

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 7 “Beneath the Softness of Snow” by Chanel Sutherland - 4 ⭐️ “You watch the snow piling up against the glass and on the roof of the phone booth, and you’re overcome by an irresistible longing to lie down and let it bury you.” I never knew of the West Indian Domestic Scheme!

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 6 “How to Milk a Sheep” by Stephanie Dennee - 4.5 ⭐️ “Pretend you know how to lasso a sheep. No. Instead, go back to the house and call your mom.” This could be my personal account of housesitting at a farmhouse.

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 5 “Protections” by Paola Peroni - 3 ⭐️ “Last year, Antonio Greco committed suicide after attempting to kill his wife with a hammer.” That opener was strong! But the story ended in a whimper.

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 4 “Storm Windows” by Charles Haverty 4.5 ⭐️ “By 7:30 my father hadn’t come home, so we sat down to dinner without him.” This is the opening sentence. The final sentence is just as good.

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 3 “The Idler” by Tyler Barton 3 ⭐️ “The idler’s been outside our apartment nearly every night since November.”

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 2 “Remedies” by Kali Fajardo Anstine 4.5 ⭐️ “My hair had recently grown extra-long with the help of Grandma Estrella’s tea.”

Participating in my very first #SSAC2025! Thanks @mrmuleman.bsky.social Story 1 - Two-Man Luge: A Love Story by Claire Battershill - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️