One of the Monkeys Finally Pounds Out a Few Legible Words

Seems some of my scrawl has once again wiggled its way into and between the pages of another actually printed on a printing press collection.  My first published anything was a few years back with a short 500 word piece on the last page of "Dirt Rag", a mountain bike magazine.   This time I have the honor of sharing pages with a group of writing fools from across the globe who put pen to paper on the writing website "Thinking Ten, A writer's Playground".

A nice and patient fellow name of Blake N. Cooper thought up Thinking Ten.  He steers it with a kind tiller.  And somehow, his prompts manage to pull some of the best flash fiction I have read out of folks.  I know some of what I consider my best efforts have been written in ten minutes from his daily prompts.  Okay, none of them ever took just ten minutes, but I always tried to have my first draft done as close to ten as I could get.  There are rules to at least tip our hats to.

I was notified of my inclusion, but no hint of what was included.  Not even a whisper.  In order to find out what he had decided was worthy effort on my part, I had to buy a copy of the book.  I gladly anted up the dollars as I knew any money made would go back into the website.

If any of you still actually turn pages and would like an interesting book that can be consumed five minutes at a time, you should go to Amazon  dot Com and buy not just one, but two of them.  One for the shelf and one to doodle in.  Because Blake has invited readers to edit any or all pieces and then submit their changes back to him for possible inclusion in what I assume will be the final edition of this collection.  Anyway, a neat and interactive idea that gets the reader involved in the writing process.

Blake included the stories, poems, essays into his collection without any edits.  they are as the authors left them.  As his intro states on the front page, "The short, short story telling within these pages is some of the best you'll read anywhere.......but some of these stories need an editor's eye."

Having now spent the better part of two years playing around with fiction writing and a whole life time of writing just to see my thoughts written down, I contend everything I write is and always will be in need of editing.  I have taken a decent story and edited it so much it was worse than when I started.  And on occasion I seem to stop at almost the right point.  But you be the judge.  I read my two offerings and decided one was better than the other in some ways, while one is sneaky and if it was just expanded a tad......you get the picture.  I think writing addiction brings with it the notion that it can always be better.

Twenty five authors are listed in the back pages, but apparently there are at least 26 authors with flash pieces included.  Somehow, my name did not make it into the list of authors.  My fiction did.  And that's cool. I am just thrilled to be included with such a fine group of flash creators.

Thank You Blake, you did good.  So far every story I have read has been very well done.  And yeah, I can see some of the rough around the diamonds, but there is no doubt there are diamonds inside.

Later............................................