Title: Mum's the Word

Publisher / Publication date: Mary Anne Smrz (December 13, 2024)

Language: English

Format / # of Pages: Softcover, 160 pages; eBook, 155 pages

Genre: Non-fiction; short stories; anthology

ISBN: 13-9798300325138

Reviewed by: Pamela Fullerton

Inspirational collection of personal essays and micro-stories

It takes amazing creative inspiration to come up with a physically unique and esthetically beautiful writing prompt that is capable of stimulating essays and stories of such diverse and moving content. Author Mary Anne Smrz did the first. She and her fellow contributing writers accomplished the latter with a flourish, all within the confines of the drabble format. When I approached this slim volume of short writings I didn’t expect to be so consistently delighted by insight and inventiveness. But I should have anticipated that simply based on the premise…

Imagine what your own response would be to a slender red kayak floating serenely down a gentle river…. It is devoid of human life but overflowing with the autumnal beauty of crimson, gold, white, and burgundy-wine colored mums…the quintessential flowers of fall, the harbingers of summers end…the brilliant final splash of rebellion against the approach of winter’s enforced calm.

Could you see a Viking funeral in the fiery colors or is it a mischievous trick played solely to delight all other travelers on the water? Might it be a tribute to a loved one’s passing or an ephemeral work of transient art  intended only to placate some artist’s creative itch, or perhaps it’s a spiritual plea for the  integration and protection of the natural elements; air, earth, and water?

Regardless, the image and the writings to be found in this pleasing little anthology will both rouse and satisfy your own imaginings. It’s a wonderful collection of often moving, occasionally humorous, always spontaneous and inventive personal essays and micro-stories. It makes the reader want to contribute their own musings and that, of course, is the most delightful, most productive action any collection can inspire.