Apologies but I had to absolutely misquote Queen’s song Flash because I have some for you. Flash fiction that is. Or rather slow fiction that is short. I will explain.

I am very pleased to announce my little piece Wilderness has been published today over at Schuylkill Valley Journal Online. It must have been magical timing because it was accepted the same 24 hours it was submitted.

The genesis of this flash fiction began almost 20 years ago, as a middle section of a longer short story that was initially written very quickly – literally in a flash – for a short story writing class. That longer story has since been reworked, edited, renamed, rewritten and submitted over and over with little result and no fanfare. Last year, I took this excerpt out, mainly because I never happy with it. Anyway, with this small section, I edited it, rewrote bits, took other bits out, modified the Australian-isms, completely transformed it by adding more about the character, and it became it’s own, completely new thing. I submitted this new work four times this year in slightly different word lengths. Finally, it has a home out in the world.

I don’t know if there are lessons in this, except to suggest it maybe worthwhile hanging on to the things you write, and occasionally, taking a look at them, to then edit the daylights of them. One day, they might find a home too.

Writing update 2021

• Pending Submissions: 41
• Rejections: 55
• Acceptances: 5