This is the last set of stories I wrote for the Christmas contest. (You can read most of the others here and here. I’m not going to post the slice of life or satire stories. They are the weakest.)
I bent the rules a little here. The stories were supposed to be a maximum of 500 words, but there was no prohibition in the rules against sequels. So the following four are linked. The viewpoint character changes from one story to the next. I’ve posted the original stories, not the ones I submitted for the contest, meaning not all of them will be under 500 words.
I was participating NaNoWriMo when I wrote these and used them for my word count. I was writing short fiction, not a novel. I used these stories as personal challenges and tried writing things I wouldn’t normally write, just to stretch myself. For example, the first three of these stories are what is considered sweet romance. (This is not a genre I typically read, much less write.) You can read the first three without reading the fourth, although the observant reader may pick up on a slight discrepancy between the first and second parts.
The fourth story resolves the discrepancy, changes the reader’s understanding of what is going on, and makes the whole thing dark fantasy. Continue reading
