The Toast
From the June issue of Deb’s Quill
Chet’s been sober for a year, and tonight, he has to give a toast at his daughter, Zoey’s, wedding. That part is easy, because he can speak from his heart. What he hasn’t figured out is how to survive the rest of the night — the open bar forty feet away, his ex-wife who’s moved on, and the daughter who’s leaving Calgary for good. The Toast is a story about a man doing everything right, and how close he still is to the edge.
While you’re here, stories from the Deb’s Quill archive are listed below, and free to read on site.
Read Past Stories In Full:
The Key
From the May issue of Deb’s Quill
The Key is a story about what it costs to do the right thing when you have almost nothing left to give. Eighteen-year-old Colin is sleeping in a cardboard box, surviving on soup kitchen crackers and dumpster bagels, when he finds a key in the pocket of a second-hand coat. He could ignore it. Instead, he walks five blocks out of his way — into something he didn’t expect.
Past Imperfect
Past Imperfect is a sharp, quietly devastating story about a woman who has spent years absorbing the wants and demands of everyone around her — a cheating husband, an ungrateful boss, a resentful daughter. When a high school reunion forces Liz to confront the gap between who she was and who she has become, she finds herself dealing with an unexpected admirer whose attention quickly turns uncomfortable. What begins as nostalgia ends as a reckoning — and the first time in a long time that Liz decides to stop accommodating and start saying no.
Faceless
Faceless is a short story about identity, fear, and the fragile courage it takes to let love back in. After a devastating accident leaves her unable to recognize faces, Kristina retreats from the world — and from the man she loves most. But when he refuses to let go, she must decide whether a life shaped by uncertainty can still hold connection, trust, and hope.
Artificial Heart
Artificial Heart is a short story about the profound grief of losing a life partner, and how, as the years pass, sorrow can quietly slip into self-pity and isolation. Sometimes, it takes the people who love us most to pull us back into the world of the living, and sometimes that help comes with an unexpected twist.
The Promise
The Promise is a moving short story about love, aging, and the unbearable weight of keeping a vow. As Charlie watches his wife Gladys slowly slip into dementia, small forgotten moments grow into heartbreaking truths he can no longer ignore. When a long-buried letter reveals the promise he once made to her, Charlie is forced to confront an impossible choice between honoring her wishes and holding on to the woman he loves.
Read this story in 30 minutes
The Letter
The Letter is a poignant tale about a forgotten message that resurfaces after thirty-five years, unraveling the misunderstanding that destroyed a marriage. When retired mailman Frank hand delivers the lost letter to Margaret, she learns that a cruel rumor, not betrayal, ended her life with John. As she reaches out for forgiveness, Margaret discovers that time has built walls truth alone cannot tear down, while a small act of kindness offers comfort when closure remains uncertain.
Read this story in 20 minutes
A Bone-A-Fide Mystery
A Bone-a-Fide Mystery is a cozy, ghost-light mystery about Maggie, a small-town woman who inherits her great-grandmother’s crumbling manor and discovers a talkative skeleton with unfinished business. As she helps Mortimer Marrow uncover the truth behind his death, Maggie finds herself caught between solving a mystery and forming an unexpected friendship she’s not ready to lose.
Read this story in 25 minutes.
A Line in Her Yearbook
A Line in Her Yearbook is a poignant short story about first love, forgotten moments, and the questions that linger for decades. When bestselling novelist Claire meets a man at a book signing who once wrote I think I love you in her yearbook, a shared conversation uncovers long-buried truths and the quiet understanding that some “what ifs” are best left in the past.
Read this story in x minutes
Between Silence and Fire
Between Silence and Fire is a quietly powerful short story about two neighbours drawn together in a city stirred by protest and change. As Nora rebuilds her life after divorce and Liam hides from a past he cannot release, their tentative connection deepens when activism close to home forces them to confront fear, courage, and the unexpected ways people heal one another.
Read this story in x minutes
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