Melissa Bartell : The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub

<p><a href="https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DDOA-04.jpg"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2741" src="https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DDOA-04-1024x576.jpg" alt="DDOA-04" width="698" height="393" srcset="https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DDOA-04-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DDOA-04-300x169.jpg 300w, https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DDOA-04-768x432.jpg 768w, https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DDOA-04.jpg 1080w" sizes="(max-width: 698px) 100vw, 698px" /></a></p> <audio class="wp-audio-shortcode" id="audio-2739-1" preload="none" style="width: 100%;" controls="controls"><source type="audio/mpeg" src="https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/TBM-2512-04-DDOA-Snowglobe.mp3?_=1" /><a href="https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/TBM-2512-04-DDOA-Snowglobe.mp3">https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/TBM-2512-04-DDOA-Snowglobe.mp3</a></audio> <h3>Description:</h3> <p>Welcome to the Dog Days of Advent. I made a list of prompts, and wrote a bite-sized story for each one. They don’t live in the same universe, but they’re all a little off-kilter from what you might expect from holiday fare. And if you pay attention, you’ll notice that the last line of each story becomes the first line of the next. Today’s prompt is <em>Snowglobe.</em></p> <h3>Excerpt:</h3> <blockquote><p>The lights above them pulse, soft as breathing. She remembers that first storm — the fear of the power failing, the scramble to secure the greenhouse domes, the way they’d worked side by side in the cold until dawn. That was when it began, really: not the flirtation or the laughter, but the quiet respect that came from surviving something together.</p></blockquote> <h3 data-start="698" data-end="809"><strong>Episode Cast:</strong></h3> <p><a href="https://www.missmeliss.com/">Melissa A. Bartell</a></p> <h3>Links and References</h3> <ul> <li>Transcript: <a href="https://www.missmeliss.com/2025/12/fictionadvent-04-snowglobe/">Snowglobe</a></li> <li><a href="https://dogdaysofpodcasting.com/">Dog Days of Advent</a></li> </ul> <h3>Credits:</h3> <ul> <li><em>The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub</em> is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.</li> <li>Bathtub Mermaid blog header art was created by Rebecca Moran of <a href="http://remoran.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Moran Media</a></li> <li>Sound Effects and Music are from <a href="https://freesound.org/">Freesound</a> and <a href="https://uppbeat.io/">UppBeat</a></li> </ul> <h3>Contact:</h3> <ul> <li>BlueSky: <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/melysse.bsky.social">@melysse.bsky.social</a></li> <li>Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/missmelysse">MissMelysse</a></li> <li>Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/melysse/">@Melysse</a></li> <li>Mastodon: <a href="https://tenforward.social/@Melysse">@Melysse</a></li> <li>Email: <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a></li> <li>Or, leave a comment on this page.</li> </ul> <p> </p>