"Forty Years" on the Mormon Lit Blitz

So, today’s the day that my story is posted on the Mormon Lit Blitz. You can read the story here, and if you would like to participate in a discussion about it, go here. While the contest is obviously Mormon, I think many of the pieces (including mine) speak to an audience beyond Mormons (although some do not translate out very well). So if you like flash fiction, you might give these a try anyway.

I’ve loved reading the pieces this year. As always, not every story speaks to me, but so many of them do that it’s always worth reading and thinking. Plus, they’re really short, so what have you got to lose?

Voting will take place next week, June 12–14, and if you’re so inclined, it would be lovely of you to go read and vote. I don’t even care (mostly) if you don’t vote for me, just as long as you vote for what you loved the most.

In case you’re wondering, my favorites were (in chronological order):

“Celestial Accounting” by Katherine Cowley. I just loved this idea so much. Important truth contained in a funny story.

“Sonata in Three Movements” by Jeanine Bee. Beautiful imagery, sweet and musical. Intergenerational too, like mine.

“There Wrestled a Man in Parowan” by Wm Morris. Ha! A funny piece that made me smile.

“Daughters of Ishmael” by Annaliese Lemmon. This one definitely doesn’t translate out of Mormondom at all, but I loved imagining these sisters and their family ties.

 (Of course) “Forty Years” by me. It’s only very vaguely, very semi-semi-autobiographical, in case you were wondering. (Especially since, you know, I’m only thirty-six and don’t have any grown children.)

What were your favorites? (Better yet, don’t answer me here, but go and discuss them on the blog posts about them. You can get there through the second link above. Writers love to hear that something they wrote made you think or that you connected with it in some way.)