iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Day 25 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories “The Leaf-Sweeper” by Muriel Spark “But perhaps you don’t know how repulsive and loathsome is the ghost of a living man.” Loved Christmas in May reading with y’all!

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Day 24 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories The Thieves Who Couldn’t Help Sneezing by Thomas Hardy “The tumult of sneezes became really extra extraordinary to listen to – there was no sensation. It was like wind, rain, and see battling in a hurricane.” As a serial sneezer, I can relate!

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Day 23 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Anaheim by Jennifer Croft “Boredom was the best thing about childhood.”

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Day 22 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories The One with the Multiverse by Josh Riedel “He imagined writing an in-depth profile on Kipper that charted how the man’s sense of reality had become unhinged.”

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Yes! I had a very strong physical reaction. Just from a little 7 page story!

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

When he wants her to watch him from the window as he chopped wood and then blush when he turns to look at her just made me want to vomit! I think she thinks about him in a way of remembering and not longing.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Day 21 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Wars and Winters by Hannah Pittard “It was the first relationship that I’d felt a part of.” And it’s an awful and toxic one! His narcissism, her youth and insecurity. Great story.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Ugh… I hate that I have a typo and I can’t edit the post.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Exactly! I loved it, despite all the yucky feelings it brought up in me.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

I think the marriages and divorces were hers. And I don’t think they ever got together after those 3 winters. This is an example of a great story that I was very uncomfortable reading. I think good art elicits reaction positive or negative… And their relationship was so toxic and he was so awful.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Day 20 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories The Things Eric Eats Before He Eats Himself by Carmen Maria Machado “You can’t hurt your heart if you don’t have one.” WTAH did I just read?

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

It was such a slog. It felt like it was 50 pages.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Day 19 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Chris Cornell by Damian Tarnopolsky “Back then I thought I was a young man; now when I look back I think I was a boy.” Unfortunately, this one did not work for me.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Day 18 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories The Exhibition by Alexandra Wuest “While Iris contorted her face in an expression meant to convey Artist, artistic appreciation, she was actually busy planning her next meal.” This maybe a perfect story. It’s currently my favorite of the collection.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

This might be my favorite of the collection so far!

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Day 17 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories You Again by Seth Fried “Arnold paid me forty dollars NOT to tap dance.” I thought this was hilarious… Certainly more so than Anna did. Lovely story. 💙

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Day 16 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Conversation Over the Holidays by Jessica Westhead “They were not the ones who had caused all the problems, it was the billionaires and the oil industry, and the celebrities flying around in their private jets.”

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

The writing was really good. I wanted more from the ending.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Day 15 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Down Burned Road by Jacqueline Baker “He had frowned, genuinely puzzled. Why do we want people to find us?”

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Day 14 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories The Lottery “Looking back, I want to say it wasn’t as happy of a moment as it should’ve been, but really, I think I could see that even in the moment, a moment of dreadful calm like in a slash movie right before the killer burst out of the closet.”

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Day 13 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories “The Crown Derby Plate” by Marjorie Bowen “…the lonely house with the grave in the garden was dreary enough around which to create a legend.” I’m officially copying you, @mrmuleman!

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Day 12 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Shopping Cart by Christopher Boucher “I walked away and the cart followed.”

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

I also quoted part of what you quoted!

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Day 11 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Children of a Carless God by Elizabeth Gonzalez James “Was there any reason to uphold virtue when judgment might never come?” Wildly good and disturbing. Kind of giving Lord of the Flies vibes, but with cats.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Day 10 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Tardy Suit by Thomas Pierce “Paintings, jewelry, clothes, etc. — we load all valuables into Tardy bins. This our job. Protect things. But not ppl.” Ah, truth in fiction! A sad commentary.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Day 9 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories What to Call You by Casey Plett “What I miss is that feeling, that understanding of being next to someone new and suddenly realizing you can spend time around them, that there’s kinship and it’s real.”

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Day 8 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories Ham by John Jodzio “Are you sure you want a felon on your payroll?” I asked Larry, running my thumb over the race letters on my business card. “A felon is exactly what I need,” he said.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Maybe YOU should stop copying ME! 😉

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Day 7 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories The Renovation by Kenan Orhun “Nothing about this felt like it would turn out well for me, and yet I couldn’t help wanting to stay.”

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

This one was SO GOOD! I’d never heard of him before!

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Day 6 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories For John by Kim Fu “He felt suddenly certain that he would never be able to explain why he found it beautiful, and she would never be able to explain why she found it ugly, and they would remain fundamentally unknowable to each other.” Loved this!

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Day 5 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #ShortStories My Smell Journal [orange peels, ink, coffee filters] by Katya Apekina “A month ago, I noticed something changing in me. My senses had begun to shift around and vie for power.”

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

I like this one a lot more than I expected to.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Yep, that's the standout line! I quoted it too.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Day 4 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #shortstories "This, anyway, I knew to be real: if you are on a knife's edge between death and life, a strong will can make a difference." Vandring by J. Robert Lennon

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

I didn’t love this one… But we did pick the same sentence to quote.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Day 3 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #shortstories “Eat Pray Click” by Ed Park “Basically, he longed for a text that wasn’t set in stone, something more akin to a living organism - a story with free will.”

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

I loved her first collection Single, Carefree, and Mellow.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Day 2 #ssac2024 #christmasinmay #shortstories The Hookup by Katherine Heiny “Despite his future eyebrows, Bodi has a girlfriend.” This has nothing to do with the story, but it made me laugh. I’ve long enjoyed Katherine Heiny’s writing.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Day 1, #ssac2024 #ChristmasinMay #ShortStoryMonth “In The Stacks” by Robin Sloan. “I wasn’t hiding,” Maisie said. “I was learning.” Oh, Maisie is a gem! As is this first story.

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

I have snagged the 2024, 2023, and 2022 collections. May is Short Story Month - holler if you're interested in reading (or re-reading for you) the 2024 collection with me! Also, I am a big holiday music fan. If you have Spotify, enjoy 20 years of playlist making! open.spotify.com/playlist/0pk...

open.spotify.com

Merry Mixmas Bigmas

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

Thanks to @mrmuleman.bsky.social for the invitation to participate in the 2025 Short Story Advent Calendar read along! And loved the warm welcome @barbaramcveigh.bsky.social, @ttbrader.bsky.social, and @mkcanuck.bsky.social. See comments for a read along proposal and a special holiday treat!

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onelitchick.bsky.social @onelitchick.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

#12DoS2025 #ssac2025 Day 12 “A Very Mario Lopez Christmas" by Megan Giddings - 4.5 ⭐️ Hilarious and weird and wonderful. Just like Kevin Wilson. Fitting that this is the last of his marvelously curated Short Story Advent Calendar!

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