When I started participating in Story-a-Day in 2010, I chose a theme. That had to be the best way to approach coming up with an idea every single day for a month.

That first year, the theme was fairytales. I took famous objects (a red hood, a poisoned apple, a pair of dancing shoes), and wrote new stories set in a modern world.

The second year, the theme was romance. Well, not happily-ever-after romance because that isn’t my playground. (It’s a wonderful genre, to be clear, but too hard for me.) Instead, I wrote 31 stories of love-gone-wrong, love-that-isn’t, and some yes-they’re-in-love-but-that’s-not-the-point. (I came up with title then because I’d been thinking about Stephen Hawking’s book, A Brief History of Time.)

About half the stories contained grains of truth. (Yes, in high school a boy gave me a unicorn and it freaked me out–see the last story in the book.) Some stories were me trying to imagine interactions from the other person’s perspective. I may have taken great liberties.

A few others were inspired by an image popping into my head that I wanted to explore. (Like a girl running down the street in a red prom dress. I never did go to prom.) When I was a kid, and my dad and I saw someone jogging down the road, my dad would almost always say, “Who’s chasing them?” or “What are they running from?” The questions still come to mind whenever I see anyone running.

This is a slim book. I chose only ten stories. It seemed like enough.

Story collections are tricky things. Some stories may speak to you. Others may not. A few have a supernatural element in them. Several do not. A couple have real creeps in them and some might just be creepy. Most of them have a bit of hope because I hope is something I believe in. This is not the same as happily ever after though. Not to me anyway.

If you’d like to buy a copy, here is the link! A Brief History of Boyfriends.

Thank you for reading!