First off, I was a little excited to see the 5-Saturday month fell in November. Which meant I finally was able to do a Thanksgiving story and didn’t have to come up with another Christmas story. I think – without fact checking – I’ve done a Halloween story (back when I was doing 4-part short stories) and at least a couple of Christmas stories. But this year I can now add a Thanksgiving story to my little collection.
Although I realize Thanksgiving ended up not really playing a part in the story at all. But at least it’s in the title.
This was one of my most fun stories to write and I actually finished it before I had all my poems in place for the month.
As far as I know, the Elegant Elephant is not real. At least, not as I described it. I needed to come up with some kind of family heirloom and possible choices included The Broken Chicken or The Giant Giraffe or even The Homely Hen. In the end, I chose the Elegant Elephant after the fact. That’s why it is not included in the title but really is the main star of the story. After all, you know the name of the elephant but you never know the name of the narrator. Poor writing skills? Yeah, I know but it also made it a fun challenge not to use the name once.
The style of the storytelling was heavily influenced by Benjamin Stevenson’s Ernest Cunningham series Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone and the sequel Everyone On this Train is a Suspect. I finished both books the month before and since they were a fun read I let their style heavily influence my short story. But, of course, I didn’t want there to be an actual murder involved. I certainly am not at that level of making murder entertaining. A broken heirloom though, that’s my speed.
I hope you enjoyed the short story. Looking at the calendar, my next attempt won’t be until March. No, I have no ideas at this moment. I’m just going to enjoy the holiday season now.
ck's days 