Meat Me at Nine

Okay, boys and girls. Listen up: I’m officially a Flashshooter.

What is a Flashshooter? I hear you ask. Let me explain. It’s someone whose fiction has been accepted for publication in Flashshot, an on-line magazine that provides the reader with daily doses of micro fiction.

For a story to qualify as micro fiction it has to be 100 words or less. And let me tell you, if you think writing a novel is hard, try coming up with a plot that you can resolve in as many words as it takes to write the accompanying bio.

It’s like creating an entire world inside a single drop of water.

One word of warning though; it can be quite addictive.

My first attempt at this is called “Meat Me at Nine”.

I’d like to tell you more about this piece, but I'm afraid the teaser would end up being longer than the story itself.

“Meat Me at Nine” will appear in Flashshot sometime in March 2010. You can keep an eye out for it by visiting Flashshot’s homepage:

http://www.gwthomas.org/flashshotindex.htm

Next Stop: Midnight in Hell

Well, this year is certainly off to a good start.

Next Stop: Oblivion, a short story I wrote while holidaying in Nelson Bay during the New Year break has been picked up by Midnight in Hell, an awsome on-line mag. The story will be appearing in their Spring 2010 Edition. Check out their site:

http://www.midnightinhell.com

I imagine that Hell is a pretty scary place at the best of times, but at midnight... who knows what could happen.

A Doorway to Endless Possibilities!

Welcome to 2010, dear Reader! Glad to see you made it. I read somewhere that the month of January is named after the god “Janus”—the god of doors. January is not only the gateway to the New Year, but a doorway to endless possibilities!

It is with a sense of wonderment and adventure that I sit here now and consider those possibilities:

There is the 2010 AHWA story competition. My mission is to cobble together a couple of decent entries for that. The deadline for submissions is in May, so I better get cracking. I didn’t realise how tough the competition is; and really didn’t expect to win last year. I was very surprised when I did. I would have been happy with a commendation. But you know what they say: if you aim for the stars, you might find you can't quite reach, but you won’t end up with a hand full of dirt, either.

My focus this year is to re-write some of my earlier stuff, which, for obvious reasons, I had trouble placing, and try and find appropriate homes for those stories. But overall I would like to spend less time on short stories and more time on completing some longer works. Short stories are fun (and they will always serve as a nice little escape for me), but bigger and better things await!

On another note, I spent some time with the family at beautiful Nelson Bay over the Christmas–New Year break. While I was there, I came across the scariest looking tree I’ve ever seen. Thought I’d share a pic of it with you; see if you agree:

Best wishes for the New Year, dear Reader. And remember to squeeze as much out of the next 365 days as you can!