The Prompt
Venture into an unfamiliar thrift shop or antiques market and find an object you’ve never seen before. Even better–one whose function you can only guess! Then, tell a story in which that object plays a key role. Perhaps you can explain how it arrived there; perhaps it’s a lost heirloom or the key to unimaginable power. Or perhaps the object itself isn’t as important as how it brings two strangers together–or sunders a seemingly impenetrable bond.
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The Author
Michele E. Reisinger’s short fiction has been featured online and in print, most recently in editions of Stories That Need to be Told, Sunspot Literary Journal, and Dreamers Creative Writing.
She studied English and Political Science at the Pennsylvania State University and received an MA in English Literature from the University of Delaware. She teaches senior and AP English at a New Jersey high school and lives near Philadelphia with her family. You can find her online at mereisinger.com.
Read A Book, Support An Indie
This year’s StoryADay May official bookseller is Reads & Company, a privately-owned indie bookseller in Pennsylvania. Any purchase from the site this month supports Reads & Co.
Leave a comment and let us know how you used the prompt, and how you’re celebrating!
We’re confined to our house because of a surge in Covid cases in Taiwan. So I’m not able to go to my favorite thrift shop.
So I imagined my character finding and buying an antique mirror while island hopping on vacation. The mirror is cursed, and he finds out too late that every time he stares into it, it steals a little more of his life essence.
Has the prompt for day 20 been posted yet please? I can’t find it. X
A cork from a wine bottle is found in the bottom of a box of oddments picked up for free out from outside an antique shop. It turns out to be from a rare vineyard, no longer in existence. The stamp is identified by new owners of a ruined building on the discarded wine farm. It leads to an unresolved mystery from the previous century being solved.
Always love an excuse to incorporate mysterious antiques!
This story came to me early!
https://tammysreadinglife.wordpress.com/2021/05/20/day-19-storyadaymay2021/
Had to cheat on this one. I went to one thirft store looking for inspiration; got an idea, but ultimately the “item” in my story is also fictional, not something I actually saw today.
A fun prompt, though. I might use it again.
A stereoscope that allows the viewer to enter the scene.