My Life in Stories: The List

I love lists. List poems. Lists in the middle of a piece of good fiction. Lists open you up to new worlds, all in the span of a few lines. If a list is really descriptive, you can almost write the whole poem, story, paint the whole picture, all in your imagination. Watch...

long-haired calico cat
fire whistle
sirens
fire trucks
cartoon brat
freshly dug earth
grass in need of mowing
traces of the stench of dying raccoon.

This is a list of the sounds and scenes around me right now. Did you get a mental picture? Did a poem form inside your head? A picture behind your eyelids?

Ah well. I like lists. So, I am officially throwing my hat in the ring of Shelley's My Life in Stories Project.

Here's the start of my story list. When I find out how to make a separate page on my blog, I will.

The List:

1. My first cat. My eleventh. Stay with me while I unravel the mystery of my cat obsession.

2. How I, a mere nine-year-old, walked on hot coals.

3. Don't talk to strangers: or, how a bright, inquisitive, peace-loving journalism student wound up next to the head of the KKK on the nightly news.

4. Don't accept candy from strangers: or, how I met my husband.

5. Putting Women's Day to good use: or, to end an argument, just get naked.

6. The Many Ways I've Escaped Danger By My Own Reckless Hands: or, Do German girls really have hot tempers?

7. I was fourth runner-up & I dreamed it would happen.

8. It's Not Polite to Budge: or, A Reformed Concert Crasher, Bathroom-Line-Jumper Attempts top Teachj Her Son Manners

9. The night I had my picture taken with Elvis' original band, I met the man of my dreasm, but I think he was a drug-runner & he eventually disappeared

10. Finishing the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Dead Last & Oh, 9 Months Pregnant.

11. Snooping at Tens-Years-Old, I Discover My Mother's Lingerie, Her Birth Control Pills, and Vow, Never, Ever to Use Either

Since 11 is my lucky number, I think I will stop here. I sure have my writing work cut out for me. I don't even know where to start...