What do a retired educator, homemaker, librarian, corporate sales executive and newspaper man have in common? They are all members of the Westbury Senior Center's 10-week Adult Cultural Enrichment Studies (ACES) program and they all recently participated in a rousing literary event, the first Westbury Senior Center Creative Writing Showcase, featured their own remarkable original stories.

Members of the Westbury Senior Center's Creative Writing Showcase.

To launch the event, students read their version of a flash fiction assignment, which, according to instructor Susannah W. Simpson, should be under 500 words and tell an entire story, from beginning to end. In writing the story, the members were further challenged to start the story with the same lead sentence "If only life could be that easy" - and end with the same final line - "Put a little lipstick on, you'll be fine." Additionally, the writers had to include the words "pajama top," "hot chocolate" "ring" and "enormous brown paper envelope," somewhere in their stories. The audience was delighted by the differing ways the authors chose to weave these elements into their work.

After the flash fiction pieces were read, the audience of about 30 family members, friends and neighbors listened to Science Fiction by Stan Colas, fairy tales from Bill Waters and Evelyn Knaust, a fable by Diane Van Nooten and an environmental myth by Barbara Krampitz. Following the readings, the audience had an opportunity to meet with the writers and refreshments were served.