Happy Holidays, everyone. I have added “Reedsy” to the links page to celebrate the posting of my first short story to the Reedsy weekly prompt/short story contest.

Each Friday or Saturday, Reedsy posts five prompts, and in order to submit their story to the contest, writer must write a 1,000 to 3,000-word long story based on one of the prompts and submit it by 9 PM Pacific (12 Eastern) the following Friday. The theme for this week’s contest was “My True Love Gave to Me,” and the prompt I chose for my short story was “Write about someone who is given a bird for the holidays but doesn’t know how to take care of it.“

I wrote about a gay, autistic man who is tasked with taking care of his late uncle’s aviary, full of fifty exotic birds, at Christmastime, in order to receive his share of the estate. He also deals with his bullying cousin, who is tasked with restoring the uncle’s car collection.

I will post the story to Wattpad and this website on January 2nd, after the voting for “My True Love Gave to Me” has concluded.

I am excited about this story. I don’t care about winning, I’m just glad I get to be a part of this contest, and have other people see my work. I’m also proud of the story, and I hope to expand on it soon, maybe as a full-length book.

Thank you, and Happy Holidays! – Matt