The Bread Wife (full PDF version)

Anyone interested in a full, pdf version of The Bread Wife can find it by clicking on the image below. Please feel free to print and share this story as much as you like. This is my little gift to everyone who's been following my little blog for the past few years.

I should mention that this is a slightly edited version of the story. After sitting on this story for a bit I decided to make just a few small changes for clarity and world-building.

Enjoy!

The Bread Wife, Part 4

Here it is! The last, and longest section of The Bread Wife. For anyone who hasn't been following the story, here are links to Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

And there you have it! Thanks to everyone who read along with this little serialized short story experiment, and I hope you enjoyed following along. Feel free to post thoughts and reflections in the comments section below! I plan to make a free printable pdf version available here soon.

A final short note: The bakery in this story, as well as the baker and his daughter, are loosely inspired by a little bakery in Pontremoli called "Forno Tarantola" (yeah, I'm pretty sure that's "Tarantula Bakery") which is run by a very tough, lovely baker girl named Chiara. Chiara is not only a baker, but a power lifter. Somehow it all just fits.

Finally, my own "bread wife" (pictured below, and also very tough). Anna bakes several loaves a week. Some we eat and some goes out in trade for milk or produce. It's all pretty wonderful and inspiring and ...aromatic.

The Bread Wife, Part 3

Oh the poor miller! If you look closely at the illustration of the smoke pouring out of the oven you’ll see that I added a bottle of wine, a bouquet of flowers and a “welcome” card. He really thought this was going to go well...

And now the time has come to talk about Kiki’s Delivery Service: the coming-of-age story of a thirteen year old witch who starts a broomstick-flying delivery service, and one of my Really Big Artistic Influences.

KDS is not only my favorite Studio Ghibli film, it’s one of my favorite movies ever. It’s beautifully animated (the studio apparently nearly went bankrupt making it), charming from start to finish, and it takes place in the 1980s, but in a fictional universe where no World Wars have occurred.

But the real reason I love it best of all is because Kiki and Tombo remind me so much of Anna and me. It’s basically the story of Ben and Anna, and I mean, like, barely metaphorically.

Here's the movie poster. What could be better than this?

Do YOU have a favorite bakery movie?

The Bread Wife, Part 2

For those who missed part one of this short tale, click here. And now let’s pick up where we left off. At only 3 pages, this will be the shortest of our four parts:

There are several sources of inspiration for this little mini-story. A couple people have already mentioned the legendary movie, Kiki’s Delivery Service, but that’s a topic for another post. Today I want to mention how much I love old mills.

The millers mill, as seen in the first illustration (in part 1), is based off the Burwell-Morgan Mill in the little town of Millwood, Virginia. It’s a beautiful stone mill building that was restored through the help of a twice-yearly art show. (I participated one year, though I failed to sell even one painting). It’s a magical place, and wonderful for sketching. The most amazing thing of all is to go into the mill and look at the enormous wheel and complicated, interconnecting gears. All the parts are made of wood and leather. A machine like that, run by water, is incredibly powerful and unsettlingly quiet. It demands respect.

The Burwell-Morgan Mill still grinds grain on weekends. My wife, Anna, has taken wheat there for grinding. It's not just a great homeschool adventure, but a good way to get stone ground flour.

If you look closely at the illustration of the miller mixing the dough, you’ll see I went ahead and gave him the family name of Clarke. Because the Burwell-Morgan mill is in Clarke county and because just recently I found this:

Which sure seems to fit our story.

The Bread Wife, Part 1

This is an experiment.

I’ve been scribbling and doodling a short story in my notebook lately, based on an idea that’s been kicking around upstairs for over a year now. It’s called “The Bread Wife” and I’m going to post it here on the blog in four parts.

I’m not sure if this is the best way to present a story like this. It might be obnoxious to read a story this length broken into little four or five page snippets. Or maybe it’ll work great. I guess we’re going to find out. Feel free to post feedback in the comments.

Now I could ramble on about how this story probably needs more editing that I had time to give it, or about how I’m not sure if I should be drawing the characters or leaving them up to your imaginations (I finally chose to draw them), but instead let’s just jump right in.

Here’s part 1 of The Bread Wife: