• Skip to main content

Jim the Writer

a literary blog

  • About me
  • Publications
  • Contact
  • Disclaimer
  • El Morro
  • 100 Words

publication

The Tiny Shop of Hope

By Jim Anderson

She was a writer, working on a book about antique furniture restoration. Her research was a collection of disparate facts.

No theme, no center. Would it ever come together? Would anyone care if it did not? Aside from her publisher, of course, whose deadlines were scratched in granite.

She went on searching. It’s what you did. You went on. Today, she found herself in a two-light town west of the city, alone, standing at the threshold of a shop on a musty side street, her hand trembling as she reached for the knob, her heart full of something like hope.


I wrote this story for the 100 Word Challenge #379 at Velvet Verbosity.

Ship

By Jim Anderson

“Ship, tell me a story,” the traveler commanded.

“Long or short, sir?” asked a disembodied contralto.

“Short.  I grow sleepy.”

“Happy? Sad?”

“Happy.  I desire a pleasant hibernation.”

“Very well.  There once was a gentle woman who loved a man from Autumn World.”

“I hail from Autumn World!”

“Indeed, he had your dark looks and cruel smile.”

“Cruel smile?  Ship, are you joking?”

“Alas, he abandoned her to marry another.”

“Stop!  I ordered a happy story.”

“In her despair, she joined the Phoenix Corps, and was reborn a starship.”

“A starship? Which starship?”

The air chilled.

“Happy dreams, my love.”

 

“Ship” was published by 101Fiction, now defunct, as the lead story in the September 2013 issue. The goal for the issue was to write a 100-word science fiction or fantasy story with a one-word title, using the themes of “autumn” and/or “phoenix.”

© 2013–2025 James E. Anderson. All rights reserved.
A production of Anderfam Enterprises LLC.
  • Fiction
  • Non-Fiction