As those of you who've read my short story, "The Cold, Hard Facts of Life," already know, the One Word Story Project didn't quite come together this year. But that doesn't mean that its participants didn't write great fiction! So here are links to two more of the short stories written for the project, hosted on their authors' websites for free. Like I did, they wanted to release these one-word-inspired stories out into the world!

First, Anya Davis's "the Kindness of Kingfishers" uses halcyon as the inspiration for a love story, one perhaps doomed from the start but blessed with a beautiful use of language to tell it.

Second, Darci Cole gives us "Boys, Baseball, and Biology," all subjects that often appear obfuscated to me. There's plenty of adolescent miscommunication in this one...and plenty of cute, adolescent hormones as well. Yes, I just called hormones cute.

Finally, you can read four stories published on Team Hellions for the project, all in one place! Of them, Eve Jacob's "Akasha" stood out for her entertaining duo of space-faring sisters on the hunt for a book on an ancient Earth religion. Rob Kristoffersen's "Home is Where the Haunting Is" also painted a haunting portrait of the lingering effects of divorce.

Enjoy!