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.
“Cough” is the title of the story. Remember, it was written 2+ years ago, when a coughing person was not viewed with such fear. How things have changed. Anyway, Look here to read it.
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
I like the way the cougher looks somewhat furtive about the coughing, knowing he is being judged. It is interesting just how guilty one can feel nowadays for coughing and sneezing in public now. I have bad seasonal allergies so have been the object of many sideways glances and glares and scowls when in the supermarket these past few months.
When my husband coughs I look around to see if anyone is near, feeling apologetic. For no reason. It’s allergies. But…no one knows that, do they?
Its never been a good idea to sit in a public place and cough. (K)
Yes, and now…it has those added overtones…
It’s funny, I keep having dreams where I go places and no one is wearing masks. BTW did you see the study where gaiters are actually worse than no mask? I read it in 3 places yesterday. I use one in the winter for my asthma, but will not be doing so this winter. I just thought you should know, since I saw in your tour of your last hike that is what you used. I was happy to see that cloth masks did OK. I use a 3 layer one with a Mr. Coffee filter inside, which makes it more comfortable to wear as well as adding protection. My daughter told me about using a coffee filter early on.
I read the mask study and I am now officially done with mask advice from “experts” and “studies”. I wear the “correct” mask in the “correct” circumstances, in fact have a whole collection of them I made, and I believe in them and all that plus I can’t go inside a building here without one, etc. But as for the trail, or walking on our empty suburban streets, all I need is a quick coverup for the 10 seconds four or five times I might have to get as close as 6 feet to another passerby. A mask does not work well for this and so, if now the buff is bad too, well, I’ll carry my mask in case I get caught in a situation but otherwise I will just go along maintaining social distance as I have been already and forget the buff. I could always stick my head in a paper bag I guess. (a friend of mine in NC’s husband saw a guy doing just that while waiting in line at the DMV.)