Time Management Tuesday: My Lenten Reading Project. Yeah, It Didn't Go Well

I am what might be called a cultural Christian. I went to sunrise service at our lake this past Sunday, because it only lasts a half an hour, I could throw a coat on over blue jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt, and when I got home around 7:30 AM I could feel that I had been to church on Easter and now had the rest of the day for other things. I took pictures to prove to family members I'd gone.

I cling to some of the trappings of my Christian life. 

For instance, I like using the beginnings of some of the Christian church seasons as temporal landmarks, a point at which I can start a new project that I complete at the end of the season. I've been successful with my Advent/Holiday Hell projects the last few years. I just finished a Lenten reading project that I'm not as happy with.

Traditionally Catholics and maybe other Christians give up doing something during Lent. That's little Catholic Gail's recollection of Lent--fish sticks or macaroni and cheese for dinner on Fridays and giving something up. Sometime in the more recent past I read a suggestion that instead of giving something up for Lent, we take something on we don't normally do.

I want to point out that I am aware that that writer probably meant taking on something spiritual. I took on some different kinds of reading. While I don't actually feel bad about that, I recognize that I should.

In 2016 I did a Lenten reading project involving nonfiction. And you want to hear something bizarre? I see that that is when I finished reading How to Live: A Life of Montaigne by Sara Bakewell, and a month and a half ago I submitted a personal essay involving Montaigne to an anthology. And just last week I submitted a humor piece involving Montaigne to a humor site. Wow. Is that almost spiritual?

Then in 2023 I read The Essential Ruth Stone during Lent and liked the experience enough that I continued reading the book after Easter until I'd finished it.

2025 Lenten Reading Project

This year I came up with the idea to read a short story a day during Lent...any short story...because I'm focusing on short form writing now and even doing some self-study of short story writing. Expanding my knowledge of short stories seemed like such a good idea.

Except I don't feel I expanded my knowledge much. In fact, I didn't get much out of this project at all. I did read a New Yorker short story I liked a lot and think I can use for next month's Heritage Month Project. But many times, I had to rush to get the reading done for the day and just chose any random piece of flash fiction I could find. Then I wanted to keep a list of everything and that was time consuming.

No, not one of my more successful projects.

Oh, wait. You know what I should have done? I should have done a sentence or two of reader response for each story. Well, live and learn.

Note in the list below that towards the end of Lent, I started reading Shirley Jackson short stories. I have her book, Let Me Tell You, and read some of the essays in that for Women's History Month. If only I'd just read the short stories from that book these past 40 days, I'd probably have finished it. That would have felt like an accomplishment.

In fact, I think that's what was wrong with this project. It wasn't focused enough, the way my reading of Ruth Stone's book was. If I had just read Jackson...yes, that could have worked for me.

My Short Story Reading List

Ash Wednesday, March 5: Good Stretch, Rebecca Meacham https://wigleaf.com/202004stretch.htm

March 6: Maladies, Kevin Yeoman https://www.failbetter.com/content/maladies

March 7: Everyday Miracles, Benjamin Woodard  https://mrbullbull.com/newbull/fiction/everyday-miracles/

March 9: Traps, Kara McKeever https://cutleafjournal.com/content/traps

March 10: This Used to be a Story About a Racoon But Now It’s An Obituary, Ani King   https://gooseberry-pie.com/this-used-to-be/

March 11: Dried Up, Kim Magowan  https://cutleafjournal.com/content/dried-up

March 11 (Catching up for March 8):  “Family Portrait” 1860, Rebecca Meacham https://atticusreview.org/family-portrait-1860/

March 12: Footprint, Jennifer Handy https://flywayjournal.org/fiction/jennifer-handy-footprint/

March 13: The Last Murmuration of Gwyneth, Winnie Bright https://writingdisorder.com/winnie-bright-fiction/

March 14: The Procedure, P.A. Cornell https://www.abyssapexzine.com/2024/01/the-procedure/

March 15: Interesting About E and A, Helen Oyeyemi https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2016/03/interesting-about-e-and-new-short-story-helen-oyeyemi

March 16: The Frenzy, Joyce Carol Oates https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/03/24/the-frenzy-fiction-joyce-carol-oates

March 17: The Golden Hours, Lynda M. Bayley  https://www.frazzledlit.com/p/the-golden-hours

March 18: The Paradise, Shirley Jackson

March 19: How to Bake Without Eggs, Edith-Nicole Cameron https://literarymama.com/articles/departments/2025/03/how-to-bake-without-eggs

March 20: Books and Roses, Helen Oyeyeme https://granta.com/books-and-roses/

March 21: Death and His Family, Francine Witte https://fictivedream.com/2025/03/02/death-and-his-family/

March 22: Firmanet, Engine Roar, Jewels, https://redrockreview.org/issue-51-2-2/fragment-engine-roar-jewels/

March 23: One Minute Thirty-five Seconds, Caleb Ludwick https://fracturedlit.com/one-minute-thirty-five-seconds/

March 24: How Hauntings Happen, Melissa Ostrom https://www.stonecoastreview.org/how-hauntings-happen/

March 25: Outer Space, Tom Saunders Outer Space - SmokeLong Quarterly

March 26: Sanctuary, JJ Amaworo Wilson  https://www.stonecoastreview.org/sanctuary/

Marcy 27: Gulls of the Argarve, Matt Barrett  https://flash-frog.com/2025/03/17/gulls-of-the-algarve-by-matt-barrett/

March 28: Harrison Road, Kate Gehan https://bluestemmagazine.com/sps24/kate-gehan

Mary 29: Snow Queen Seratonin, Mary Buchanan https://www.tinymolecules.com/issues/twentytwo#mary-buchanan

March 30: Angels, Mary Miller, https://www.vestalreview.net/angel

March 31: Marked, Desiree Cooper https://fracturedlit.com/marked/

April 1: Sorry I Didn’t Call You Back, Arah Ko https://splitlipthemag.com/poetry/0524/arah-ko

April 2: Dream Interpretations for Beginners, Miriam Gershow Issue 19 |Miriam Gershow – LEON Literary Review

April 3: Two Micros, Jeffrey Herman https://okaydonkeymag.com/2024/11/29/2-micros-by-jeffrey-hermann/

April 4: When He Says That You’re A Goddess, Amy Strong https://frictionlit.org/when-he-says-that-youre-a-goddess/

April 5: Materials Needed Kyle Weik https://flash-frog.com/2025/03/31/materials-needed-by-kyle-weik/

April 6: The Books of Losing You https://www.newyorker.com/books/flash-fiction/the-books-of-losing-you

April 7: Micro Monday (3) https://fictivedream.com/2025/04/07/micro-monday-1/

April 9: From, To, David Mezgozis https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/04/14/from-to-fiction-david-bezmozgis

April 10: Paranoia, Shirley Jackson

April 11: Still Life with Teapot and Students, Shirley Jackson

April 12: The Arabian Nights

April 13: Mrs. Spencer and the Oberons, Shirley Jackson

April 14: Easy Street, Steve Trumpeter https://www.bartlebysnopes.com/stories/easy-street.html

April 15: How We Met, Bruce Holland Rogers https://www.flashfictiononline.com/article/how-we-met/

April 16: It Isn’t the Money I Mind, Shirley Jackson

April 17: Company for Dinner, Shirley Jackson

April 18: The Greatest Guy in the World, Shirley Jackson

 

 

This is a Different Kind of Story Behind the Story.

Janko Ferlic on Unsplash

Yesterday Frazzled published my most recent humor piece, Your Child Is Creepy Good. Frazzled is a publication on the Medium platform, and Creepy Good Child was selected for what is known as the Boost Program there. That means the powers that be at Medium will provide it with additional promotion, leading, presumably, to greater readership. Which is always gratifying. 

Seriously, I have no idea how I came up with this story.  I can tell you, though, it began in December during my annual Advent/Holiday Hell Project. During Advent, which, okay, is the month of December, I don't try to work on anything major or even work on anything regularly. Instead, each day I try to start a flash or humor piece. Your Child Is Creepy Good was one of last year's starts. I found it a couple of weeks ago when I was looking for something to work on.

 I'm not making a major effort to publish regularly at Medium anymore, because readership has plummeted. I'm casting my net wider now, as I'm sure I've mentioned here before. However, I'd already done a lot on Creepy Good Child back in December. The big changes/additions involved the teacher/narrator's hostility. That was significant, but it wasn't weeks of work. Because I didn't have to spend a great deal of time on this, because I thought it would work for Frazzled, and because I've had good experiences with Frazzled, I went ahead and submitted it. It was well worth it.

Of my twenty-five 2024 Advent/Holiday Hell Project starts, I've had three published, submitted one, and have a couple I'm working on. That makes the Advent/Holiday Hell Project a success story as far as I'm concerned.

Getting Serious About Humor: A Truly Funny Novel

Timmossholder on Unsplash

While reading humor books, I haven't come across a lot of fiction I found truly funny. Until I read A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales. The book's publisher calls it a "cozy mystery," but I think it's a parody. And not a parody of cozy mysteries, though I don't read a lot of those so I can't be sure. I think it's more a parody of the couple-historical-detective series I'm fond of and Pride and Prejudice. There's also a nod to the classic/horror mash-ups that were popular fifteen or twenty years ago. (Side note: My husband, son, and daughter-in-law all agreed to see Pride and Prejudice and Zombies with me, even though none of them had read Pride and Prejudice. We all liked the movie.) 

A Most Agreeable Murder is such a good parody, I wonder if people unfamiliar with what is being parodied will get it. Must be they do, or enough do, anyway, because a sequel is coming in June.

A Note About the Pride and Prejudice References in A Most Agreeable Murder

Many years ago, I read an essay in which the author noted that while Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice is portrayed as shallow and foolish and only interested in finding husbands for her daughters, she is also entirely correct. Without husbands, her daughters will be in dire straits when their father dies. They will have no income, they won't even have a home. While Mrs. Bennet is going all over the neighborhood frantically trying to find men to take care of her daughters, because in the world they live in they need men, her husband is portrayed as this intelligent, benign soul, disappointed by his choice of wife and burdened with her. Yet he is doing nothing, absolutely nothing, to save his children, leaving all the work to their mother.

Yeah, well the Steele family in A Most Agreeable Murder are clearly the Bennets from Pride and Prejudice, and Mr. Bennet/Steele here gets the treatment he deserves. While Mrs. Bennet/Steele gets a little respect.

A Note About the Couple-Mystery-Detective Series References in A Most Agreeable Murder

The couple-historical-detective series I'm familiar with have all involved heterosexual couples, so I don't know how this would play out with same sex couples. But with the heterosexual couples, the woman is usually (but not always) the main character. The male may or may not have some kind of connection, amateur or professional, to solving crime. The two of them meet in the stereotypical hate-to- love/Pride and Prejudice manner, end up working together, and, at some point in the series, become romantically involved.

The male characters fall into a particular predictable pattern. While manly and intelligent and superior in some way, either through achievement or family status, they are always damaged. They had a bad war experience. (As if there are good ones.) They have daddy issues. They had a bad war experience and have daddy issues. They have migraines. They have migraines and daddy issues. They've had bad experiences with women. They've had bad experiences with women, and they have daddy issues.

They are damaged while the female character is not. Other than being female, of course.

I'm recovering from a couple of mild illnesses, so I'm not going to try to unravel what's going on with that situation. But, certainly, something is.

What I'm getting to here is that Inspector Drake in A Most Agreeable Murder plays to the damage business in a very obvious manner, if you're aware of the damage trope/cliche. And another less obvious manner, which I won't mention because I don't want to give it away.

Some Other Random Thoughts

The unsavory cousin who is set to inherit the Steele daughters' house out from under them and is a variation on the same character in Pride and Prejudice was terrific, though I might have found him over-the-top, if I didn't know the parody business going on with him. 

The multiple murderer possibilities were well done. 

The fart joke was excellent, in large part because it was so incongruous.

This is a funny book that also has quite a decent mystery. I definitely look forward to the next book in what may end up being a series.

The Weekend Writer: Getting Started Living Like a Writer

I recently took a Zoom workshop (Zoomshop? Let's make Zoomshop a thing.) with Lori Rader-Day through the Off Campus Writers' Workshop. While checking out her website, I found her suggestions on how to get started writing. 

What I like about them is that they are things anyone can do. She says nothing here about MFA programs. She says nothing about writers' retreats in remote places. She says nothing about putting your butt in a chair and writing every day or you really aren't interested in being a writer, are you?

What she does do is write about things you can do right away. Like this afternoon. 

 A lot of what she's talking about is what I think of as how writers live. We do:

• Look for low-cost resources (Say, Off Campus Writers' Workshop)
• Take individual classes and workshops (Why, OCWW again.) 
• Go to local book events (Look for bookstore and library events. A self-publishing writers' organization in my state runs enormous numbers of gatherings at vineyards, breweries, and other outside-the-box locations.)
• Follow other writers on social media
• Read and write

You don't need to do something big and elaborate to get started writing. You certainly don't have to wait to get started living like a writer.

We Need Diverse Books Day

We Need Diverse Books began in 2014 as a Twitter hashtag and from there became a nonprofit group. In addition to providing books to schools and libraries, it provides support to and publishes marginalized writers. Today they are celebrating the first We Need Diverse Books Day.

To support their effort, here is a list of books dealing with subjects under the diverse books umbrella that I've enjoyed here at Original Content. 

Picture Books

 A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin by Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet

Fancy Party Gowns by Deborah Blumenthal and Laura Freeman

Bad News for Outlaws by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and R. Gregory Christie 

Company's Coming by Arthur Yorinks and David Small  

Middle Grade

Figure it Out, Henri Weldon by Tanita S. Davis

Don't Hold Me Back by Winfred Rembert

March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Ayden, and Nate Powell      

Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Jasmine Toguchi, Mochi Queen by Debbi Michiko-Florence and Elizabet Vukovic

Strange Fruit by Gary Golio and Charlotte Riley-Webb

YA

Home Field Advantage by Dahlia Adler

Mare's War by Tanita S. Davis

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite

The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz

Open Mic: Riffs on Life Between Cultures in Ten Voices, Mitali Perkins, editor

A Sitting at St. James by Rita Williams-Garcia

Adult Books

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell                                              

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty