Mini post about micro fiction

Full of ideas but no time? Here's the perfect outlet - you've got until Tuesday to come up with a short story of only 100 words. Entry details are here. This micro fiction competition is organised by the good people at National Flash Fiction Day, to be held on May 16th this year.

First time novels

Picture this: you're struggling to write your first novel and the last thing you want to hear is some bloke on the radio opine that "debut novels need a big idea to stand out from the pack". He's got one of those authoritative BBC voices so that even though you try to dismiss them, the words lodge themselves in a cranny of your subconscious where they echo each time you dare to think about the already remote chances of ever getting published in the traditional way. Worst of all his words chime with something you heard a couple of years ago, from the mouth of a publisher, about would-be published writers needing to be "the complete package". 

A childhood rabbit

Happy New Year to you all! The first post of 2012 is by Yelena Furman - a writer, academic and new mother who lives in Los Angeles but originally hails from Ukraine. It was prompted by an earlier post about an encounter with a rabbit:

A couple of months ago, as I was walking to my car, I saw a rabbit.  This was not a usual occurrence, as this was in a rather industrial part of Los Angeles.  The rabbit, which was black and white, appeared in front of me seemingly out of nowhere and hopped to the grassy part of the curb, where it sat for a few moments and looked around.  I only saw it briefly before I got into the car and went home.


When I was growing up, we had a pet rabbit.  Rather unimaginatively, and without actually having seen Bambi, I named him Thumper.  Thumper was small and brown and lived in a cage in our backyard.