The Opening Salvo...

...Of The Reluctant Short Story Writer.

This is kind of odd. I am as vain as the next writer, but I didn't want to have to put up a blog that was devoted to my short stories. Hell, I stumbled on to short stories, virtually by accident. I ran out of Walter Mosley material to read, one day. So I went online and looked for any of his non sci-fi work that I could find. Before anybody takes offense, I love science fiction and it was my refuge at one time, but I've drifted away from it, as the reality of our world becomes worse.

Besides, if some people are pointed out as having a sweet-tooth, my predilection as far as reading, is crime fiction. Noir and neo-noir in specific. I found this nugget, "The Best American Short Stories 2003," which was edited by Walter Mosley and Katarina Kenison. Mind you, I've read short stories by Hammett, Chandler and some crime fiction anthologies, but this was something else. Good stories, diverse stories, things that got me thinking that maybe life isn't always about bullets and broads...though one could argue that those two things are essential to a good story.

As a result, I tried to write short stories here and there. Some of them are decent, some of them are good and that's not in my opinion. I love certain lines or paragraphs of my works, but I rarely love any of my works in their entirety.

The "tags" or labels that follow the story, will tell you just where these stories originally appeared. One place was JJ's, who inspired those of us who were fortunate enough to read his blog, every Friday. You would go to JJ's every Friday afternoon and he would give you a starter sentence. You, the writer, had to have it done and posted to your blog by the following Monday, at noon. He kept thing challenging and his starter sentences could make you doubt your own sanity.

The other place was Tribe's "Flashing In The Gutters," which is no more. You'll have to find out on your own as to why...though I will say that no good deed goes unpunished and that Tribe is as good-hearted a person as you are going to find.

So part of the reason I created this blog was for me to try my hand at writing short stories again and the other part? So that the stories that used to have a home on "Flashing In The Gutters," could be seen again by others. By the way, all editor and wannabe editors, foaming at the mouth is unbecoming. All of the stories will be posted as they were, warts, grammatical errors, clipped syntaxes, and all. Sorry.