It's Official: A Slice of Summer is Here!

This book has been around for a while.  But yesterday was the first time I wrote under its influence.  We were immersed in a day of learning around mentor text and I was fortunate to be among fellow writers, who--even at 3:00 on a summer afternoon--were still enthusiastically engaged in the work.

We studied the effects punctuation has on even the smallest, one-word sentences.  How a single word can carry such different meaning depending on the mark of ink that follows.  

Imagine for a minute you were watching a young man propose to his childhood sweetheart. 
What if she answered, "Yes." or "Yes?" or "Yes!" 
The word doesn't change, but the story that follows definitely does.
This started a brainstorm of other words.  Consider:

Mama.

Mama?

Mama!

Or:

What.

What?

What!

Now put them together:

Mama.

What.

Mama?

What?

Mama!

What! 

(Sound familiar to anyone else? Especially now that summer is here?)

This kind of play doesn't have to stop here.  In fact...

It's time!

Here it is...

The moment we've all been waiting for...(drum roll please)

A Slice of Summer:

Today, Mama?

What?

Is it today?

What?

Our first day of summer?

Oh.

Well?

Yes, baby. It's today.

So?

What? 

What are we gonna do?

Today?

Yes.

Nothing.

Yes!


I bet you won't be able to stop thinking of one word sentences. So come on.  
Try. Try? Yes. Try!