Valentine’s Bastard Child of Romance

Short Story Writer’s Journal: Might Contain Spoilers

Story #11 was intended to be a love story for Valentine’s Day. Alas, the joys of romance and yours truly did not see eye to eye, and what emerged eight writing days later was a bastard child of betrayal and supernatural horror.

Or did it?

I’m now expecting to be surprised by how many of these short stories twist and turn away from what I thought they might be. The finale to Leaping for Love is a good example.

It veered all over the place and at one point the couple in question looked to be headed for happy ever after. But no, we can’t be having that now, can we. hahaha.

I enjoyed messing about with an acrostic poem using Valentine as the starter word and this occupied several of the early writing sessions. Great fun and with no goal to write a story, as such, trusting that it would trigger a trail to follow. And it did. A very messy, bloody trail of a tale indeed.

It’s missed the Story for Valentine Day market rush but there is also the summer ghost/horror story market angle. These are popular here in Japan when the days and nights become sticky sweat boxes (the weather that is, haha) and so stories that chill to the bone get an eager audience.

2020 Update: This story now appears in my second short fiction collection, Brain Read, under the title: “Reliving the First Day of the Dead.”

A summary listing of all short stories in this challenge can be found by clicking 52-in-52.)