Judy's Journal: Judy's Journal, #1

By Judy Lunsford

Collected short stories from 2019.

2019 was a year where my only refuge was fiction. 

My husband had a heart transplant in late December of 2018, and I was his caregiver throughout most of 2018-2019. While my husband was getting better every day, it was still a difficult, emotional, and physically exhausting year for both of us.

My refuge was fiction. Reading it and writing it. This collection consists of the short stories I wrote and published in 2019.

The collection includes:

• Airship Pilot Waffles

• The Monster Bed

• My Fairy Godmother Wears Biker Boots

• The Rule of Three

• Again Upon a Time

• The Dollhouse

• Language: English
• Publisher: Judy Lunsford
• Release date: Jan 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393991519

Judy Lunsford

Born and raised in California, Judy now lives in Arizona with her husband and Giant Schnoodle. Judy writes with dyslexia and a chronic illness & is a breast cancer survivor. She writes mostly fantasy, but delves into suspense, horror, romance, and poetry. She has written books and short stories for all ages. You can find her books and short stories at your favorite online retailers.

Book preview

Introduction

2018 was probably the worst year of my life. It started with my older brother dying from a massive heart attack. It ended with my husband getting a heart transplant after a year of suffering through heart failure which included four months with an artificial heart. Christmas and New Year’s were spent with my husband in a hospital that was over two hours away from our home.

2019 promised to be better. My husband was doing much better, even though the lifestyle changes from a heart transplant are terrifyingly difficult. He was alive and we were very willing to make the adjustments necessary to keep him that way. 

One of the things we did during 2019 is reassess our lives. Nearly losing your life/spouse does that. Lots of reassessment. And both of us being creative people, we realized that neither one of us was taking our creative endeavors seriously enough.

This collection is the result of me refocusing on my writing. I published my first book nearly 10 years ago, but only a smattering of writing followed. In 2019, even though the caregiving side of my life was what dominated a majority of the year and my own chronic illness was also fighting for first place, I was able to retreat into the fantasy worlds that I love so much and lean on them to help get me through.

Each short story in this volume is representative of a different stage or person that helped me get through 2019. 

Airship Pilot Waffles was inspired by my mother and my service dog and their love for giraffes. The Monster Bed was inspired by all of the time spent in hospital rooms with my husband. I have a wonderful friend named Almerry, who was extremely supportive throughout the whole ordeal of 2018-2019. A conversation we had one day while making a large amount of food to feed me for days while my husband was in the hospital was the inspiration for My Fairy Godmother Wears Biker Boots.

Kristine Katherine Rusch wrote a book called Writing with Chronic Illness, and her husband Dean Wesley Smith has a series of workshops for writers on Teachable. Their wonderful books, workshops, and advice were the inspiration for The Rule of Three and also Again Upon a Time. 

The Dollhouse, also inspired by a workshop of Dean’s, is loosely based on a real-life childhood memory of my father. Unfortunately, the little girl in the story was much faster than I was in real life to learn the lessons involved.

This volume is hopefully the first of many to come. And the short stories contained herein are ones that will hopefully stick in my mind to remind me that even in rough waters, there is always a lifeboat in the land of fiction.

Judy Lunsford

December 28, 2019

San Tan Valley, AZ

Airship Pilot Waffles

Once upon a time, there was a giraffe named Waffles. He was short and gangly and young, and all of the other giraffes his age would tease him because he wasn’t anywhere near as tall as they were. He would watch as the other giraffes could reach the leaves high up in the trees, where the sun made them sweeter and tastier. At least the other giraffes told him those leaves were more tasty. He himself had never been able to reach up that far to taste them for himself.

One day, Waffles looked up in the sky and saw what looked like a pirate ship with huge balloons and sails. It floated majestically overhead and he watched it as it went off on its merry way far into the distance.

What a view that must have! Waffles thought to himself.

Waffles went and asked his mother what the big ship in the sky was, and she had simply told him that it was an airship. Waffles concluded that she didn’t know any more about it than he did, but from that day forward, Waffles had a big dream.

Waffles’ big dream was to fly an airship.

When the other giraffes found out Waffles wanted to fly an airship, they laughed at him and mocked him even more.

His mother tried to console him, telling him not to worry, someday he would grow into a big and tall giraffe like his father and would have a herd of his own. It didn’t help. Everywhere Waffles went, there were whispers and the laughter of his fellow giraffes making fun of him.

So Waffles went to the edge of the savanna and into the thick trees of the forest. It was where he went to get away from the other giraffes. Waffles was short enough to go into the denser areas where the other giraffes were too tall to go.

As he wandered through the forest, he came to a clearing. Peering around a tree, he saw something in the middle of the clearing that amazed him.

It was an airship.

Waffles wandered closer to get a better look.

The ship was full of large birds that scurried around on the deck of the ship. As Waffles got closer, the ship seemed to get bigger and bigger. It towered high into the sky and when he was close enough, he couldn’t see the deck anymore.

Waffles wandered around to the far side of the ship, taking it all in. He could hear the birds up on the deck, calling back and forth to each other in an accent he had never heard before.

On the other side of the ship, a long wide plank came down from high up on the deck and was touching the ground, making a perfect ramp for Waffles to wander up to get a better look.

When Waffles got to the top of the ramp, he peered on to the deck and saw the gangly long legged and long necked birds trying to stack up wooden boxes next to a long pole.

G’day, mate. What’s your name? a thickly accented voice said.

Waffles was taken off guard and stammered back, Uh, uhm, I’m Waffles.

Waffles looked towards where the voice was coming from and one of the birds came towards him. He was wearing an eye-patch and had a short sword belted around his middle. Waffles, eh?

Ye-yes, sir, Waffles stammered back.

Well Waffles, the bird said. What are you doing on my ship?

I was just having a look, Waffles said timidly.

Behind the bird with the eyepatch, the other birds were trying to climb the stack of boxes.

I could help with that, Waffles said, indicating to the birds on the boxes.

You want to help now, do you? the eye-patched bird said. All right then, let’s see what you’ve got.

Waffles walked past the birds and stepped easily onto one of the boxes.

We’re trying to get that rope there, one of the birds said.

Waffles saw a rope dangling far out of the birds’ reach, but Waffles was easily able to reach up and grab it with his mouth. He pulled the rope down to the birds on the deck, who took the end from him in their beaks and all heaved together.

Waffles pulled on the rope with the birds and watched in amazement as a sail was hoisted higher and higher with every pull.

When the sail was pulled all the way to the top of the