Your June Creativity Mini-Challenge + New, Exclusive Short Story by Me!

A quick, 5-minute creative hit to kick off your weekend

Hello, Protagonists!

It’s a common myth that creativity has to be a huge undertaking. I actually believe we can spark it with just small moments, and anyone can do it, not just professional artists.

Also, these little bursts of creativity can lead to larger inspiration or simply bring a smile. Both are wonderful and enough in their own ways.

So here is your Creativity Mini-Challenge for this month. It’s based on a picture I took and will only take you five minutes. (Below, you’ll find my take on it.)

1. Look at the photo of the wooden heart below (alt text available for accessibility).

2. Where did this wooden heart come from? Tell yourself a super short story or doodle something about it.

3. Share how this challenge made you feel. The more creative sparks we make together, the brighter we all become!

REMEMBER—This is supposed to be whimsically rough! It’s not about perfection. It’s five minutes to dream—just for you. Have fun!

CREATIVE.INSPIRED.HAPPY is a warm, vibrant community of thousands who believe that anyone can spark creativity and build an inspired, happier life.

My whimsically rough, super short story:

Klara saw the wooden heart on the deck. She’d rented this AirBNB in Maine to get away from the muggy humidity of Atlanta, and the listing had said the house would have everything she needed. But there was nothing here—not a single piece of furniture, potted plant, or even a wandering ant. Only the heart.

She picked it up and turned it over in her palm. Despite being grumpy about the rental house, she had to admire the heart’s craftsmanship. The wood had a reddish tint that turned almost pink in the setting sunlight, and she liked how its surface was polished smooth in most places but slightly rough in others. She liked even more that the heart was a bit crooked, because that was certainly how her own felt.

Someone knocked on the front door, which she’d left ajar when she brought in her suitcase.

“Hello?” he called out.

Klara hurried to the front of the house.

The sun glowed bright from behind him, so she couldn’t make out any of his features, just the silhouette of him framed in the door.

“Sorry to bother you,” he said. “I was staying here last week and I just checked out, but I left my heart in—”

“My hands.” She blinked, suddenly bewildered by what she was holding.

But that was silly. It was only a carving.

Yet, a small swell of hope bloomed in Klara’s chest, because she had been looking for love everywhere in Atlanta and never found it. Perhaps love was the sort of thing you couldn’t see if you squinted too hard, but if you stopped searching so myopically, it would appear, 1300 miles away and when you least expected it.

The man stepped out of the doorframe and away from the too-bright light behind him, and she could finally see him. His face was smooth in most places but slightly rough where the evening stubble patched through. His smile was like that, too, just a little bit crooked.

Like his heart. Like her own.

“I’m Jack,” he said, offering his hand.

Klara shook it, holding his heart between their palms.

“The listing on AirBNB said the house would have everything I needed,” she said.

Jack kept hold of her hand and smiled. “It told me the same thing, too.”

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*the photo is actually of a wooden heart that Tom carved for me, to celebrate the publication of my novel The Hundred Loves of Juliet.

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Want more of my writing?

If you want to support my writing, you can buy some of my books for yourself or a reader in your life! ~xoxo, evelyn

My publisher is running a special promotion right now:

Pre-order my next book, One Year Ago in Spain, from either Meet Cute Bookshop or The Ripped Bodice, and you’ll get the paperback book +

• an exclusive art print of Matías painting Claire with honey and crushed berries (illustration by the talented Sally Pham)

• a custom designed One Year Ago in Spain bookplate, autographed by me

I will not be offering these outside of the pre-order campaign, so get them while supplies last!

Book description:

“An utterly romantic, infinitely lovely story about second chances, opposites complementing each other, and the power of love. Skye’s writing is beautiful, uplifting, and full of heart!” —Ali Hazelwood, #1 New York Times bestselling author

A woman must woo her lover’s soul back into his body to wake him from a coma—or risk losing him forever—in this moving novel from the author of The Hundred Loves of Juliet.

Claire Walker has always had her life in perfect order, including her high-powered job at one of Manhattan’s top corporate law firms. Yet the one thing she cannot seem to find is a perfect love to complete it, until fate pushes Matías de León into her path. Matías is a Spanish artist who is everything that Claire is not: free-spirited and creative, chaos to her order. She falls for him, hard—and he for her.

A year later, however, Claire begins to question everything about their relationship. How can they possibly work long-term when they’re so different? Might it be best to end it before they are both in too deep?

Then tragedy strikes while Matías is visiting family, leaving him gravely wounded in a Madrid hospital. And when Claire drops everything to race to his side, she finds she is the only one who can see and talk to Matías’s soul, detached from his comatose body. But that soul has no memories of his year in New York, of her, or of their relationship. Claire soon realizes that in order to lure Matías back to his body, she will have to convince him to fall in love with her all over again. But can lightning strike twice? Can the same magic that brought them together once do so again?