In October 2017 I came across an internet blog challenge for a story written in two sentences. I wrote a story. Liking the format, I did another one. Another one. And another.
Quite a few stories later, I had enough for a book. Not only did I have stories, but I had written a short poem and created a brush and India ink illustration for each one as well.
The result was Minuscule, published in 2018. I’m now going to show you the book illustrations as an ongoing feature on this blog, once a week. I’ll link back to the story (they have been published one by one on my poetry blog).
If you want to hold the entire book in your hand, the print version is available on Amazon.
“Anticlimax” is the name of the story…
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
At first glance I thought it said “spill your sonnets”–I’d like to see that!
Most of our secrets are much smaller than we would like to believe…(k)
I like the idea of spilling sonnets too. Just open your mouth and speak! Think about how it would be if we spoke that way. And yes, most of our secrets, we cherish them, and no one else cares. I envision it like a house clearing out after a death or downsizing – they vanish like that old chair in the living room that’s has been sitting in the same corner for decades.
A perfect analogy.
Love this piece!
Thank you. This is one of my favorites, myself.
Fantastic composition for this piece. The asymmetry seems to me to speak to how the main character views herself as set apart from everyone else and their more intriguing lives and the figures all being piled up on top of each other echos that idea of “spilling”. And I see that this is a story I had somehow missed out on reading first time around so I was glad to have this prompt to go read it. I think we all have a tendency to think that our own lives are mundane compared to those of others. It is only when others comment that our anecdotes are so fascinating that we realise everyone has had an interesting life.
Yes, this is something I have thought a lot about, how only rich or famous or notorious people might have their stories told or remembered, but, everyone has complexity and depth, and at least one secret or story to be told that is intriguing and unique.