I sold the flash fiction piece that I wrote in Ireland. It was also my first story that I read in public. It was Jim Kelly’s idea that we write a flash fiction piece of 1,000 words or less overnight for presentation in the workshop the next day—with our names removed! We would crit the story and then try to guess who wrote it. There was only 5 of us. I got all of them wrong (what a weenie.) But I did end up writing an interesting piece. In the heat of the moment it came to me. Jim had suggested that we limit it to 3 characters and a single setting. While he was saying that the mail carrier appeared at the door delivering something. I got the image and that was it. The result was “Ashes” soon to be published in Halfway Down the Stairs (September 2010) in the forthcoming Beginnings and Ends issue. It’s not a speculative fiction piece. Which is all right with me.
Also, when I submitted to Duotrope that I made the sale, this appeared on my control panel:
Acceptance ratio for the past 12 months: 10.34 %
Congratulations! Your overall acceptance ratio is higher than the average for users who have submitted to the same markets.
Pretty cool, huh? 