Soul to Soul: Tiny Stories of Hope and Resilience

By Faye Rapoport DesPres

From a girl being comforted by a loyal stray dog to the inspiration found from a waterfall, from a Grammy-winning musician to a girl with her viola, from a hard-working father to the pleasure of spotting sparrows in any backyard, Soul to Soul: Tiny Stories of Hope and Resilience takes readers of all ages and

• Language: English
• Publisher: Huntsville Independent Press
• Release date: Dec 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798218269173

Faye Rapoport DesPres

Faye Rapoport DesPres is the author of five books, including the memoir-in-essays Message From a Blue Jay, the three children's books in the Stray Cat Stories children's book series, and Soul to Soul: Tiny Stories of Hope and Resilience. She earned her MFA from the Solstice Creative Writing Program and has published creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry in a variety of literary journals.

Book preview

Tiny Stories of Hope and Resilience

Faye Rapoport DesPres

Published by Huntsville Independent Press

2112 Morningside Drive NW, Huntsville, AL 35810

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2023 by Faye Rapoport DesPres

All illustrations copyright © 2023 by Anya Lauchlan

All rights reserved, including the right of

reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Huntsville Independent Press at [phone] or [e-mail].

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For more information or to book an event, contact Huntsville Independent Press at [phone] or visit our website at www.HuntsvilleIndependent.com.

Also available in a HIP hardcover edition

Cover design by Anya Lauchlan

Interior design by HMDPUBLISHING

The text for this book was set in Garamond.

Manufactured in the United States of America

First HIP paperback edition December 2023

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Names: DesPres, Faye, author.

Title: Soul to Soul: Tiny Stories of Hope and Resilience

Identifiers: LCCN (2023945496) ISBN 9798218269166 (pbk)

ISBN 9798218269173 (eBook) | ISBN 9798218270599 (hc)

To Jean-Paul

Every day with you is a tiny story.

Contents

Introduction

PERSISTENCE

Ninth Inning

Darkness

By the Sea

No Way

Persistence

Saved

Waiting

This Work

The Kitten

Fighting Back

Pearls

The Angel ICDI

Wishing on a Star

The Memories

The Mobile

They Skied

A Marriage

INSPIRATION

Friends

Coming Home

The Sea in October

The House

Don’t Be Late

Intended

Her Face

Enrico

Soul to Soul

The Artist

Check Mate

Xinyi

What Dancing is Like

The Elephant

Clad in Socks

The Trade-off

Crazy Cat Lady

Dreams

She Waited

Trees

REALIZATIONS

The Woods

She Wondered

The Giver

Skating

Press, Swipe, Press

Holiday Hassles

Superman

Gone

The Golden Swan

Red Planet

Seeing

Young Faces

Something They Needed

The Lead Singer

The Place

The Audience

Happy As He Was

The Disagreement

RESILIENCE

Contraband

The Blinds

Party Clown

A Cardinal

Their Old House

Up the Mountain

Generations

The Last Gift

Hemshil

The War

The Attic

Olympian

Imagine

Waterfall

Sandcastle

Nell

Finally

Show and Tell

Her Voice

Dark Night

The Airport

Her Time

LIFE

Her Smile

Rock On

Old Bones

Carousel of Happiness™

An Act of Kindness

The Lonely Path

Butterflies

Lunch

Children’s Books

The Children

Syrup

After Six

Monica

The Park

Her Song

He Wanted to Tell Her

Birth Day

Stunning

Steadfast

Pink Umbrellas

Classic Rock

Sophie

The Survivor’s Daughter

Acknowledgments

Previously Published Work

About the Illustrator

About the Author

Introduction

Dear reader, you might ask: After years of writing stories containing 1000, 2000, 5000 words or more, why did you write one hundred 100-word stories?

The answer is both simple and not-so-simple (as are the stories).

It started with a writing exercise I took part in with a friend. To nudge ourselves to write daily (a habit I’d gotten away from), we each committed to writing at least 100 words per day. Those words could be in any form—a paragraph from a personal essay or story, a re-write of part of a piece we were working on…anything. The only goal was to write at least 100 words.

As a writer, I do well with goals and structure. The exercise inspired me to return to a daily writing practice. Interestingly, from the start, I began crafting complete stories in 100 words. I didn’t start out with that intention. The first time I did it, I