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Daisy Chain
Daisy Chain is a collection of short stories that are linked by one line. The last line of each story is the first line of the next. They are otherwise unrelated. This is a concept that came to me a few years ago and it was an extremely fun project to complete. When a writer starts with one sentence and has no idea what the story will be about, it tends to unfold in unexpected ways. The subjects vary from love and betrayal to time travel to magic. I hope people enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
©2013 Nancy Morgan (P)2014 Nancy Morgan
©2013 Nancy Morgan (P)2014 Nancy Morgan
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First published December 25, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 11, 2014
The cover of the book with all the daisies and the title, "Daisy Chain" by Nancy Morgan really brought back childhood memories of when I was going to a girl's camp and we would sit around in a circle and make up stories based on the last line of the previous story while we had piles of daisy and other flowers (mostly dandelions truth be told, only because they were plentiful) and make a chain of them into a circle to wear on our heads. I couldn't pass this book by and after reading it my only wish was I could have told stories as fantastic as these.
The book has ten stories in it and the last line of the previous one is the opening line of the next. The stories are unrelated in almost every other way, they all have their own characters and plots. Even for short stories these really drew me in and I do my reading at night before bed so at times short stories are perfect since I can read one story a night. This didn't happen! Take my warning, if this is your plan then I suggest you start on a Friday night because you'll be up all night reading story after story and getting up in the morning will not come easy. This way if you start on a Friday night (and have weekends off) then you won't have to worry because you will be long done with the book by Sunday bedtime and getting up Monday morning won't be a problem.
The genres covered are varied from love to paranormal. I really don't want to say too much about it because they are short stories and even telling you what each story is about will be/can be a spoiler but I think there is something for everyone.
The characters in each story are well enough developed to completely understand them and the story. I was even able to connect with some of them and 'feel' for them while they expressed their emotions or understanding. They are all basically believable. In fact, one of them could have been me the author was writing about.
The stories are at a fast pace since they are short stories but don't take this as a negative, they don't feel rushed at all. The pace is pretty steady throughout each story and throughout the book since there is no stalling for character or plot development even though, as I said, both characters and plot were developed.
Either the editing is perfect or I was so engrossed in the stories I didn't notice any errors. I can't really be sure which it is but it goes to show you that if there were typos or such, they didn't take away from the book.
The author said she did this for fun. I sure hope she has some more days she wants some fun because I totally enjoyed these stories. As I said, I couldn't put the book down. I highly recommend this book!
The book has ten stories in it and the last line of the previous one is the opening line of the next. The stories are unrelated in almost every other way, they all have their own characters and plots. Even for short stories these really drew me in and I do my reading at night before bed so at times short stories are perfect since I can read one story a night. This didn't happen! Take my warning, if this is your plan then I suggest you start on a Friday night because you'll be up all night reading story after story and getting up in the morning will not come easy. This way if you start on a Friday night (and have weekends off) then you won't have to worry because you will be long done with the book by Sunday bedtime and getting up Monday morning won't be a problem.
The genres covered are varied from love to paranormal. I really don't want to say too much about it because they are short stories and even telling you what each story is about will be/can be a spoiler but I think there is something for everyone.
The characters in each story are well enough developed to completely understand them and the story. I was even able to connect with some of them and 'feel' for them while they expressed their emotions or understanding. They are all basically believable. In fact, one of them could have been me the author was writing about.
The stories are at a fast pace since they are short stories but don't take this as a negative, they don't feel rushed at all. The pace is pretty steady throughout each story and throughout the book since there is no stalling for character or plot development even though, as I said, both characters and plot were developed.
Either the editing is perfect or I was so engrossed in the stories I didn't notice any errors. I can't really be sure which it is but it goes to show you that if there were typos or such, they didn't take away from the book.
The author said she did this for fun. I sure hope she has some more days she wants some fun because I totally enjoyed these stories. As I said, I couldn't put the book down. I highly recommend this book!
March 23, 2014
“Daisy Chain” by Nancy Morgan is a collection of ten short stories with an interesting twist: each story begins with the same sentence the previous story ended with. However, each story is completely unrelated to the others. Just to keep it consistent throughout, Nancy even ended the last story in the book with the same sentence the first story began with.
I don’t know if this is the first time this has been done, but I can certainly see how it could be a real challenge for an author, particularly since the stories are unrelated. In spite of the challenges, Nancy Morgan did a very admirable job of writing each of these stories. I do not believe there was even one story in this collection that I found to be anything short of noteworthy. In fact, they were all quite good.
“Daisy Chain” begins with a very believable story about a popular High School guy – Class President, starting Quarterback, great grades, and girls fawning over him; and a not-so-bright lower classmate whose mother wanted to get him a tutor. To earn money for college, Mr. Popular, Travis Hopkins, had just qualified to be a tutor in the very subject nerdy Paul Unger needed help with.
Paul’s father was killed by his own stupidity when Paul was ten, while his mother was rapidly becoming unstable in her grief. Paul had no friends because he was awkward, pimple-faced, pudgy, and clumsy. Paul was very glad to have the popular Travis for a tutor, until he realized Travis refused to acknowledge him, and even joined his friends in ridiculing Paul while at school. Thus begins a tale of a bizarre obsession.
From this auspicious beginning, “Daisy Chain” continues to present some really fascinating tales. This is a book I had to put down at bedtime, but when I awoke around 2:00 AM, and could not get back to sleep, I got up to finish reading it. I don’t necessarily recommend getting up at that time to read this, or any, book, but I definitely recommend reading “Daisy Chain” at whatever time you can. There are some great stories to be found therein.
NOTE: After completing this review I looked at the synopsis at Amazon.com. I was very surprised to see that the official description of this book is very similar to my first paragraph. However, I hereby affirm that I came up with my review text independent of the Amazon description.
I don’t know if this is the first time this has been done, but I can certainly see how it could be a real challenge for an author, particularly since the stories are unrelated. In spite of the challenges, Nancy Morgan did a very admirable job of writing each of these stories. I do not believe there was even one story in this collection that I found to be anything short of noteworthy. In fact, they were all quite good.
“Daisy Chain” begins with a very believable story about a popular High School guy – Class President, starting Quarterback, great grades, and girls fawning over him; and a not-so-bright lower classmate whose mother wanted to get him a tutor. To earn money for college, Mr. Popular, Travis Hopkins, had just qualified to be a tutor in the very subject nerdy Paul Unger needed help with.
Paul’s father was killed by his own stupidity when Paul was ten, while his mother was rapidly becoming unstable in her grief. Paul had no friends because he was awkward, pimple-faced, pudgy, and clumsy. Paul was very glad to have the popular Travis for a tutor, until he realized Travis refused to acknowledge him, and even joined his friends in ridiculing Paul while at school. Thus begins a tale of a bizarre obsession.
From this auspicious beginning, “Daisy Chain” continues to present some really fascinating tales. This is a book I had to put down at bedtime, but when I awoke around 2:00 AM, and could not get back to sleep, I got up to finish reading it. I don’t necessarily recommend getting up at that time to read this, or any, book, but I definitely recommend reading “Daisy Chain” at whatever time you can. There are some great stories to be found therein.
NOTE: After completing this review I looked at the synopsis at Amazon.com. I was very surprised to see that the official description of this book is very similar to my first paragraph. However, I hereby affirm that I came up with my review text independent of the Amazon description.
August 13, 2016
This is my unbiased review for Daisy Chain by Nancy Morgan. The opinions expressed are entirely my own and were in no way influenced by anyone else.
I don't normally go for short stories, I've always been more of a novel gal. I picked up this book purely based on the premise. It's something that most of us have either done as kids or as a party game. Taking the ending line of the story before to start the next story. You have to build the story around just a few words. And the collection of stories truly comes full circle because the beginning of the first story is also the ending of the last story. I really enjoyed this collection.
I really enjoyed most of the stories. There were a couple that didn't really appeal to me as a person, but I think it's more because of my taste than the writing or the story itself. Each story was filled with good characters and a good plot. Even in the limited space of the short story, the author was able to quickly draw me into each story and I was left satisfied each time and looking forward to the next story when I saw that last line.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes short stories but also to anyone wanting to experience something a little different from the everyday novel.
I don't normally go for short stories, I've always been more of a novel gal. I picked up this book purely based on the premise. It's something that most of us have either done as kids or as a party game. Taking the ending line of the story before to start the next story. You have to build the story around just a few words. And the collection of stories truly comes full circle because the beginning of the first story is also the ending of the last story. I really enjoyed this collection.
I really enjoyed most of the stories. There were a couple that didn't really appeal to me as a person, but I think it's more because of my taste than the writing or the story itself. Each story was filled with good characters and a good plot. Even in the limited space of the short story, the author was able to quickly draw me into each story and I was left satisfied each time and looking forward to the next story when I saw that last line.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes short stories but also to anyone wanting to experience something a little different from the everyday novel.
April 2, 2014
What happens when you challenge yourself to write a story based on the last line of the story you just wrote? What if you kept that up for 10 stories? Author Nancy Morgan has done just that with Daisy Chain. While some of the stories have similar elements, none of the stories are related to each other. Characters come in the form of a woman slowly losing herself, a man mourning the death of his best friend, a gambler who may be willing to part with her youth, a middle aged woman desperate for a baby, and woman recovering from a brain injury, among others.
I love academic challenges like this, and I like them even better when they are good enough to publish, and Morgan’s certainly is. While she has a distinct writing style, all of the stories are independent and hold their own as short stories - although I think some could easily be turned into novellas or even full novels. There is a spiritual element to many, and I like the unknown playing a part in the stories. I’m also impressed that she fleshed out full characters in such a short word count, and didn’t rely on an ensemble to get her point across. Interesting challenge, I hope she comes up with more ways to challenge herself and publishes them.
I love academic challenges like this, and I like them even better when they are good enough to publish, and Morgan’s certainly is. While she has a distinct writing style, all of the stories are independent and hold their own as short stories - although I think some could easily be turned into novellas or even full novels. There is a spiritual element to many, and I like the unknown playing a part in the stories. I’m also impressed that she fleshed out full characters in such a short word count, and didn’t rely on an ensemble to get her point across. Interesting challenge, I hope she comes up with more ways to challenge herself and publishes them.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews