12+ Episode 92 (10 May 2024): I've lost a few things over the years but never imagined losing a story! I only realised I'd "lost" A Window Table when I started working on a blog post to mark my fourth anniversary of writing Furious Fictions. However, when I found and read a copy of the story, I didn't recognise its plot or characters.
I wrote the "lost" story, A Window Table, in August 2023 for the Australian Writers' Centre's monthly Furious Fiction writing challenge. The brief was:
- The story had to take place in a RESTAURANT.
- Include a character who smashes something.
- And the words EUPHORIA, LABYRINTH and SILHOUETTE.
There are always stories behind my short stories, but the one for A Window Table is the most mysterious because, as I wrote in The Lost and Found Story blog post, I "lost" the story for six months.
Lost and Found
Thankfully, I found a copy of A Window Table on my computer, though I didn't recognise the plot or characters when I read it. The mystery deepened when I looked in my Writers' Centre email folder. There were submission confirmations for every Furious Fiction, except between July and September 2023, August!
Reading a story I knew must be mine but felt like someone else had written it was weird. But the "DNA" proof that I'd written A Window Table was the restaurant in the first part of the story. I based it on a restaurant I booked for a date in my early twenties that (spoiler alert!) also didn't live up to its "good reviews".
Having lost and found the story, I thought I'd write a blog post about the experience and share it with A Window Table on Tall And True and my Tall And True Short Reads podcast.
More Writing
I hope you enjoy this double feature, The Lost And Found Story - A Window Table. You can read the blog post and short story along with my other posts, stories and writings on Tall And True.
You can also buy my short story collections, including the latest Tall And True Microfiction anthology, from the Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Kobo online bookstores.
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Spread the Word
You can listen to The Lost and Found Story on Acast (player above), the Tall And True Short Reads website, or find it and my other episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and all popular podcasting apps.
The next episode of Tall And True Short Reads will be released soon. In the meantime, please check your feed or the podcast website, TallAndTrueShortReads.com, for earlier episodes from all four seasons. And follow or subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it via your favourite podcasting app — doing so helps share my storytelling.
Finally, please share this blog post and podcast episode with family and friends and spread the word about Tall And True Short Reads and the Tall And True writers' website.
© 2024 Robert Fairhead
N.B. You might like to read this blog post introducing Tall And True Short Reads - Season Four.
Robert is a writer and editor at Tall And True and blogs on his eponymous website, RobertFairhead.com. He also writes and narrates episodes for the Tall And True Short Reads storytelling podcast, featuring his short stories, blog posts and other writing from Tall And True.
Robert's book reviews and other writing have appeared in print and online media. In 2020, he published his début collection of short stories, Both Sides of the Story. In 2021, Robert published his first twelve short stories for the Furious Fiction writing competition, Twelve Furious Months, and in 2022, his second collection of Furious Fictions, Twelve More Furious Months. And in 2023, he published an anthology of his microfiction, Tall And True Microfiction.
Besides writing, Robert's favourite pastimes include reading, watching Aussie Rules football with his son and walking his dog.
He has also enjoyed a one-night stand as a stand-up comic.
