Thread | Brutkey

In 2022 I wrote 154,966 words - that's one novel, and three short stories. I don't have much to share here, as only one of the short stories is published, but I'm proud of what I've accomplished anyway. :)

The published short story is called Sunlight and it's about two women who own a coffee shop struggling with a change in governance that threatens to destroy their business—and their marriage.

You can find it here: https://medium.com/after-the-storm/sunlight-cdb9bb0be8bc

Excerpt attached!

#writing

A screenshot of the story, which reads:

Please be informed, the notification read, that your business, the Sunlight Cafe, has been designated a Moderately Impactful Business. This replaces your current designation as a Negligibly Impactful Business. The Moderately Impactful Business designation comes with increased governance requirements which are listed below. Note that our decision may be appealed and is considered probationary until the appeals process is complete.

Clarissa looked up at Wendy. “They did it,” she said. “They classified us as impactful.”

Wendy watched her for a moment. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah! I’m fine,” Clarissa said. “It’s exciting, right? To have an impact on others.” But her hand, still holding the water pitcher, was shaking. She lowered her voice. “I have no idea how Lou’s going to react.”

Lou — Louisa — was Clarissa’s wife and business partner. She was the chef and the paperwork person; Clarissa was in charge of actually talking to people. It was a division of labor that worked well for them, at least until recently. Until the Impact Council got involved.

Wendy grabbed Clarissa’s hand and squeezed it. “Let me take the kids tonight,” she said. “Give you and Lou a chance to talk this out.”