At Flash Fiction Chronicles

Gay Degani is in Vermont for a month-long writer’s retreat (she’s blogging about it at Words in Place) , but before she left, we chatted about this and that for an interview at Flash Fiction Chronicles.

It’s posted today, if you would like to slip on over there and check it out.

What is the plural of flash?

The last few words of Wayfarer still elude me, so I focused on a couple pieces of flash this past week — The First Time and The Maple Leaf Maneuver.

Two stories couldn’t be any more different.

The First Time is somber and melancholy.  It’s about one of my most returned to topic, death and the process of dying.  Rachael says I focus on it so much that I should change my name to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.

The Maple Leaf Maneuver is a snarky bit of fun that uses Canada’s recent changes it its Citizenship statutes as a jumping off point.  This is one of those stories that if you asked how much of it is true, I would have to say all of it — except for the parts that I made up.

I sent it off to a flash fiction contest at Gemini Magazine.  I’ll let you know how it goes.  I haven’t figured out where to send the other piece yet.  We’ll see.

Flash fiction chronicles contest

Gay Degani is running a nifty writing contest over at Flash Fiction Chronicles through August 16th.

Just 250 words and the 1st Place Winner will have his or her story published at Every Day Fiction in October.  In addition, the winner gets a copy of The Best of Every Day Fiction 2008 and an “I Write Every Day” t-shirt.

2nd and 3rd Place Winners will have their stories published at Flash Fiction Chronicles and receive a copy of The Best of Every Day Fiction 2008.

Check it out, why don’t you?

Top of the world, ma …

Some of you may have heard the news already.

The results are in for the 1st Quarter Writers of the Future competition and my short story, Coward’s Steel, won third prize.

This is not your average neighborhood speculative fiction contest.

I was told that there were more than one thousand SF entrants for 1st Quarter, from all over the English-speaking world. Third prize netted me $500 in cash, a slick-looking trophy, participation in a week-long expenses-paid writers’ workshop in California and — this is the one I like — publication in the 26th annual edition of the Writers’ of the Future XXVI anthology, summer 2010.

The competition is administered by Author Services, an offshoot of the Hubbard Foundation.  Joni Lebaqui, program administrator, and the folks at Author Services are a swell bunch.

Joni called Thursday morning to tell me I had won and I babbled for ten or fifteen minutes, while she listened. Thanks for your patience and understanding, Joni.

First place went to Tom Crosshill of New York for Seeing Double and second place went to Alex Black of Oregon for Lisa with Child. Winners of the competition have gone on to publish some two hundred fifty novels and two thousand five-hundred short stories.

Check it out at Writers of the Future. It is well worth the effort of entering.

BTW, the win marks my second professional-rates sale. The first was At Both Ends, which is set to appear soon at Flash Fiction Online. I’m please to say that the two sales meet one of my goals for the year!

Writers of the future

It’s official. I’m one of the eight finalists in the 1st quarter 2009 Writers of the Future competition.

The contest, sponsored by the L. Ron Hubbard Foundation, is open to writers of science fiction or fantasy who haven’t yet placed three or more of their short stories in pro-level publications.

Four times a year, eight finalists are selected from a field of 1,000+ entrants by novelist K.D. Wenworth, a two-time Nebula Award finalist, and those eight stories are passed along for final judging by a team of judges that includes the likes of Algis Budrys, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Orson Scott Card, Kevin J. Anderson, Greg Benson, Tim Powers and other notables.

The seven other finalists for 1st quarter are Alex Black of Oregon, Tom Crosshill of Connecticut. David Gullen of Surrey, England, Vincent Jorgensen of California, Robert Pritchard of California, Lee Seentes of New Zealand and Brad Torgersen of Utah.

Three winners — first, second and third — will be selected by the judges and that’s when things get a bit giddy.

The first place winner receives a cash prize of $1,000; second place gets $750 and third, $500. Each of the three winning stories also earn a place in the annual Writers of the Future anthology.

There’s more.

Each August, the twelve winners from the previous year are invited to attend a week-long workshop, all expenses paid by the Hubbard Foundation, and at the end of the week, the winners are honored at a black-tie awards ceremony.

I haven’t made it that far yet, but I can dream. And I am pretty psyched about making finalist with my first entry in the contest.

If you’re interested in knowing more about the competition, check out the Writers’ of the Future web site. Jordan Lapp, managing editor of Every Day Fiction, and 1st place winner in the 3rd quarter 2008 competition, also has a raft of great links at his blog, Without Really Trying.

Wish me luck, if you will. Winning this would be a real leg up.