In my last post to this blog, I had the pleasure of announcing the two winners of the LongShortStories Short Story Contest.

Our SECOND-prize winning short story is a power-packed 150-word Flash Fiction piece, a piece true to our credo that “less is more” when it comes to the magnificient short story form.

But before I introduce this amazing piece, I want to again encourage all readers and writers to submit your best UNPUBLISHED, ORIGINAL short story entries to us as soon as possible. Our Contest rules can be found on our Web site’s Home Page at www.LongShortStories.com . Click on the Contests navigational button.

It is now my distinct pleasure to introduce you to Kendra Lisum of Missoula, Montana. She was recently awarded our Second Prize of $150 cash and a one-year subscription to the first 30 stories in the LongShortStories collection.

Kendra was born and raised in northeast Ohio. She attended the University of Nevada, Reno, and graduated with a degree in Creative Writing in 2006. In pursuit of her writing goals, she moved to Missoula, Montana, where the community and the beauty have influenced her writing in many ways. She loves the challenge of short stories, and has recently finished writing her first book.

Neckties and Lilacs
Kendra Lisum

It wasn’t that I wanted to do it. Not really. I saw you together and it all fell apart. The plan. The story. The ending.
The room smelled of lilacs–stale, faintly sweet. Like bodies after release. I imagine, even now, that I can smell them on the edges of a breeze. But there is no breeze.
If there is a god, I’ll ask him–her, I think it’s a her– I’ll ask her why lilacs smell of fornication and death. The intoxicating, over-before-it-begins smell of life.
The tie is soft but strong. A birthday gift from a nephew I never met. Arrived in the post one day signed “Love, Maria and Thom.” I don’t have a sister named Maria or a nephew named Thom, pronounced “Tom” but with an H. And it wasn’t my birthday.
The definition of irony: I’d never worn a necktie until today.