Woohoo!

Today's the day!  The day BOFF2 is released!  WOOHOO!!!   BOFF? you ask...   That’d be Best of Friday Flash :)  I’m pretty stoked about it.  And very excited that one of my stories has been included!  Woohoo!  It’s especially exciting for me since I haven’t had time to write much fiction recently, so it brings back happy memories.

A friend of mine first invited me to try submitting a story to Friday Flash a couple years ago.  It was the first story I'd written that I let anybody other than my mother read, and was a bit trepidatiously that I posted the link.  But the response from the (then very small) community was incredibly supportive and I quickly came to enjoy contributing and reading the stories others shared.  And while the number of people involved grew rapidly, the small-town, welcoming environment stuck.

After a while, I'm not sure who suggested it first, but at some point Jon (our fearless leader!) decided it'd be a good idea for a Best Of compilation.  Anybody interested was encouraged to submit up to three stories for consideration and after a few rounds, the stories were selected. I was thrilled to be included, although I suspected our community was small enough that the powers that be were trying hard to include anybody who wished to be included :)

However, by the time a second book was being considered, the FF community had grown significantly and a large number of "real" writers were now participating.  A little more intimidating for those like me who write occasionally when we have time but with no plans or expectations to ever make a living from it.  And yet, I discovered very quickly that those professional writers were just as supportive of any effort as everybody else.  And in many cases had good advice to give and always great stories to read.  

And along with the growing community came a company interested in publishing BOFF2.  Wow.  So this time I was a little more nervous about submitting my story -- only one submission was allowed (how do I know which one to submit?) and I suspected (although I certainly don't know for sure) that the competition would be a little more fierce. 

Time crawled slowly, as it will when you're waiting for anything, but eventually I got the news that my story had been accepted for inclusion into BOFF2!  Woohoo!  And today is the day the wait comes to its conclusion.  Because BOFF2 is being released :)   

BOFF2 can be purchased direct from the publisher at eMergent Publishing or from Amazon at Best of Friday Flash: Volume 2.  And for those who missed it, US Amazon still has Best Of Friday Flash - Volume One: A Collection Of Short Fiction.

Friday Flash attracts authors from the far reaches of the world.  To the best of my knowledge there are four other Canadian authors included in this anthology – check out their posts below!

Alan W. Davidson

Cathy Olliffe-Webster

T.S. Bazelli

Jen Brubacher (who lives in England but is definitely Canadian - in fact, Jen is a little jet-lagged and may not be able to post today but she's hoping)