#atozchallenge: Endings Are Beginnings

2014: A Year In Stories , a project of Pure Slush Books. All work is copyrighted to the individual authors.
So trite: every ending is a beginning. Right up there in the list of Truisms Everyone Hates To Hear, just under "If you love something, set it free," and above "Everything happens for a reason."

But this post isn't about motivational crap. I'm talking storytelling.

And no, I don't mean in the sense of "start as close to the end as possible" either. Very valid advice, but this is about actual endings. Finito. Se acabó. Klaar.

Ever noticed how many stories begin with an ending? The end of a relationship, the end of hope, the end of a way of life--even the end of a life. (What would Agatha Christie whodunits be without a dead body in the first chapter?)

Endings are the ultimate, irrevocable, turning point. They create tension like a motherfucker.

Today Etheline is twelve days old. I'm her mum, Melodie Margaret Pritchett, and I'm twelve days dead. Today was my funeral.Twelve Days Old, by Kimberlee Smith, 2014 January Vol. 1

2014 January Vol. 1
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Yesterday morning I moved my just-divorced self into a new house. In the afternoon I went to the dentist.Breakable, by Gary Percesepe, xxxxxxxxxxx2014 January Vol. 1

I ball up old newspapers and my wife's Vogue magazines and start a fire in the sink. I go to the bedroom and rummage through her dresser drawers, returning with lacy bras and thongs, most with the price tags still on. They're slow to catch flame, smoldering a ghostlike smoke.
Storm Lake, by Len Kuntz, xxxxxxxxxxxxxx2014 January Vol. 1

Nachos sound good, but I would have traded all the queso in the world for her to never grab her suitcase from the closet.
Isa, by Rachel Ambrose, 2014 January Vol. 1

He said he'd be home tonight, but maybe not tonight, "maybe" meaning go to bed and don't think about it. Not this time. She's sick of being let down. She tiptoes into the kids' room, slides open drawers, and quietly pulls out underwear, t-shirts, jeans, sweatshirts.The Storm, by Gay Degani, 2014 January Vol. 1

What do you think? Are endings are good beginnings for fiction--and for life?


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A grateful, if cybernetic, hug to all you readers that keep coming back for more of the 2014 project. Your enthusiasm means everything--not just for me, but for every other writer in the series. The Thirty-One 2014ers salute you. 
See you Monday for Family & Fiends!