365 Challenge Day minus 29

Day minus 29 till I start my 365 short story writing challenge in 2021.

Today, I want to outline the challenge itself:

• it is to write 365 short stories in 2021,
• this equates to one story for each day of the year,
• this allows for any days when it might not be possible to complete a story
• each story will between 900 - 1,200 words
• that is will equate to 12 books (30 stories in each)
• each story will be based on a ‘single’ word
• some or all of the words will provided by friends, family or complete strangers on social media platforms
• in addition, I will be looking for twelve book titles

I have twenty-nine days to assemble a list of 365 words.

Lemon Meringue (Book 3)

My original plan was that my 3rd book was to be called; Lemon Meringue. This was to be my first book based on randomly chosen words. These words I had already chosen, planning was well underway, and I was ready to start writing.

Then, I discovered that my friend and artist, Martine Finucane, had died. This came as a shock. In fact, this came as a surprise to her family too. This was a set back. Martine really understood what I was looking for with my artwork. She had re-designed all my the cover designs. She was working on the corrections to the lemon Meringue cover at the time of her death.

Link to Tribute to Martine Finucane: https://projectlemonzest.blogspot.com/2020/10/a-tribute-to-martine-finucane.html

I diverted my attentions to completing my first novel; Equal Force - Chapter one - New Identity. This transformation from short stories to novel was very difficult for me. Would love to hear from any other authors who experienced the problems I had encountered. Anyway, writing the final scene was very satisfying. The turn of a new year and decade brought Lemon Meringue back on the table, but then the word was plunged into chaos as COVID19 spread unchecked across the globe.

Like many I found myself in daze. Everything stopped. 2020 was either on hold or cancelled. I hadn’t worked out which. Like millions around the world I followed all the COVID developments wanting to understand more. I became very frustrated with the chaos, misinformation, the lies and the distorted statistics. In March, we had to cancel our trip to France and this hit me hard. An escape to the Pyrenees would have been great.

In April 2020 (as mentioned), I decided to write 30 short stories in 30 days. I needed to escape the chaos and find that space to think, create and write again. I embarked on my writing challenge.

Tomorrow, I will explore the ways in which I would like to share this journey. Sharing my daily blog is one of the ways in which people can follow this challenge. I have other ideas that need to be explored further.