Once a Prompt a Time: Stories Sparked by Quirky Contest Prompts - Hardcover

O'Connor Stephans, Laurie

Hardcover

ISBN 13: 9798995057611

Publisher: Peggy's Library Card Publishing, 2026

Synopsis

What happens when a writer is given strange, challenging, and completely unexpected prompts?

The result is Once a Prompt a Time: 44 innovative short stories spanning multiple genres, and each inspired by a unique writing contest prompt. Whether 100 words or 3,000, each story was written under a tight deadline (sometimes just 24 hours!) and within the guidelines of specific and decidedly unusual prompts.

Like the prompts themselves, the book is one-of-a-kind in that the original prompt appears at the end of the story it inspired, allowing readers to experience the story with no spoilers or preconceived notions.

Ideal for Readers

• If you enjoy short fiction and love to explore a variety of genres, this book is for you.
• Likewise, if you tend to keep to one genre, it’s also a great read. It allows you to test the waters by just dipping your toe versus being pushed into the deep end of the pool.
• A terrific option for your Book Club—something for everyone and guaranteed to spur lively discussion!

Indispensable for Writers

• New to prompted writing contests? Here’s a playbook to get you started.
• Need a push out of your genre comfort zone? See how another writer overcame the same trepidation and the resulting stories.
• Simply looking for another avenue of inspiration? You’ll find it here.

About this title

About the Author

Laurie O'Connor Stephans lives in a far western suburb of her birthplace, Chicago (aka the greatest city in the world). By day, she works at a law firm. By night (when not fighting crime), she exercises her writing muscles in favor of the real ones. Most of her fiction features humor and twist endings, while she observes real life on the pages of her website blog, We B Late (https://laurieoconnorstephans.com/). She and her husband, Mike, share their empty nest with two ridiculously entitled dogs that (most days) they wouldn't trade for anything in the world. She credits their harmonious forty-plus years of marriage to the shared joy of grandparenthood, and not the catharsis that comes from killing off characters whose resemblance to actual husbands, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Laurie loves theater (especially musicals), the Chicago Blackhawks (and hockey in general), reading (of course), puzzles (crossword and jigsaw), games (especially trivia), and watching Jeopardy ("I'll take overuse of parentheses for $1,000, Alex").

Edition details

• Publisher: Peggy's Library Card Publishing
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798995057611
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 222