When I started 400 Words, I thought that the idea — spurring creativity by giving people a writing personal-writing prompt with a rigorous and arbitrary word count — was a pretty cool idea.

Well, much as any time you’ve been thinking about something new and suddenly start seeing it everywhere you go, I’ve since realized that mine is far from the only fun-with-word-counts show in town. That makes me happy. I may roll out a few of my favorites over the coming weeks, but right now I’d like to introduce you to my current darling, a project called “40×365.”

Kristen, an expat who lives in Japan and writes the blog Media Tinker, is writing 40 words every single day about someone she’s known in her life. She started last March, and will presumably be done around the end of February, ‘07.

I think 40×365 is going to become a daily read for me. And I leave you with today’s entry, for “Tom.”

208. Tom
Tom founded a luxury resort in Panama that hosted the elite and famous. His success miffed the local cartel and Tom was left for dead after a fiery raid. He recovered and opened a new resort in the South Pacific.

Short and sweet. That’s how I like it.