“Short Fuse,” my twisted flash fiction piece about going off the deep end is published
in the December 2013 issue of The Bitchin’ Kitsch.
Humble and heartfelt thanks to
Chris Talbot-Heindl ~ Co-creator and Editor of
“The Bitchin’ Kitsch ~ A zine for open creativity”
Follow the link below and go to Page 29
http://www.talbot-heindl.com/dec2013
Apologies to those who received an earlier version of this post with malfunctioning links.
I am honored this week to be guest editor of Editor’s Eye on the Fictionaut Blog. This installment of Editor’s Eye features prose from writers Vincent Fino, H. L. Puaf, Dallas Woodburn, Carl Santoro, Bud Smith, Glynnis Eldridge, Ron Burch and Deborah Oster Pannell. Check it out!
http://www.fictionaut.com/wordpress/2013/10/07/editors-eye-michael-gillan-maxwell/
An Embarrassment of Riches
Back in June I experienced the surprise of my life when my piece “Funky Little Blaze Orange Pork Pie Hats” was selected as the first place winner in the FLASH MOB 2013 Flash Fiction Day Competition.
LIke I said then, I’ve won stuff. Lottsa stuff. A bike at a school blacktop carnival. A pie at St. Anthony’s parish festival. A bag of groceries. A two dollar lottery ticket. A karaoke contest in Tokyo. A bonus round on the slots at a casino in Cleveland. An arm wrestling contest. Yeah, I’ve won stuff. Lottsa stuff.
But I never expected to win that kind of honor in FLASH MOB 2013. That was overwhelming enough. Then, unexpectedly, surprises began to arrive in the mail. The surprises were the 1st place prize in the form of the latest books authored by so many of the writers whose work I admire. It is an honor of the highest sort.
Included in this unexpected bounty is a copy of Gears ~ A Collection by Alex Pruteanu, Thank You For Your Sperm by Marcus Speh, Three Squares a Day With Occasional Torture by Julie Innis, The Merrill Diaries by Susan Tepper, and The Cheese and Onion Sandwich and other New Zealand Icons by Vivienne Plumb.
It is with a sense of deep gratitude and appreciation that I welcome these works to my library and accept the responsibility for their care and feeding, but most importantly, for their reading and appreciation! I only hope that some of the genius of these authors might rub off on my work!
Once again, my gratitude and appreciation goes out to the participants, organizers and judges of FLASH MOB 2013, including Christopher Allen, Michelle Elvy, Marcus Speh, Robert Vaughan, Leah McMenamin and Nuala Ní Chonchúir and Linda Simoni-Wastila, and to the aforementioned authors for their work ~ Alex Pruteanu, Marcus Speh, Julie Innis, Susan Tepper and Vivienne Plumb. Thank you one and all. I look forward to paying it forward if I am ever presented with the opportunity to do so!
I am thrilled and honored to have my 100 word shorty short “Good Help Is Hard To Find” in The 2013 issue of the Santa Fe Literary Review alongside so many writers whose work I admire. Thank you Meg Tuite for your time and positive energy in this and congratulations to all on your great work! :-)Includes work from Sheila O’ Connor, Mary Stone Dockery, James Joseph Brown, Mathieu Cailler, Robert Vaughan, Alex Pruteanu, Timothy Gager, Teisha Dawn Twomey, Libby Hall, James Claffey, Mia Avramut and others.
Meg Tuite’s interview with Sheila O’Connor is a fascinating glimpse at the creative process.
Follow the link below for online access to the entire journal. My story is on Page 53.
Santa Fe Literary ReviewPoems, stories and essays from Santa Fe’s up and coming writers.
This is a repost because I inadvertently posted a link that didn’t work. I apologize for any inconvenience or aggravation!
My piece “Funky Little Blaze Orange Pork Pie Hats” is up on the Metazen site. Thank you Christopher Allen and the rest of the editorial staff for publishing my work! http://www.metazen.ca/?p=13207
When Flash Mob 2013 called for entries, I jumped in there just to be part of a mob. Not the kind of mob that involves irate villagers with flaming torches, but the other kind of mob, the good kind of mob. It’s something I’ve not had the opportunity to do since the heady student protest days in the 60’s.
I hoped by rubbing elbows in close quarters with so many fantastic writers their mojo might rub off on me. I thought what the Hell and sent in my quirkiest piece. One of my favorite pieces, freshly rewritten, but had never seen the light of day. I made believe I was a pitcher throwing a screwball, then a football QB heaving a Hail Mary pass. Or not.
Anyway, I was just happy to be in a mob and livin’ it up with all my fellow mobsters! Lightin’ cigars with hundred dollar bills. Struttin’ our stuff & shuckin’ and jivin’ in our zoot suits. You get the picture. Because I was preoccupied with intense summer solstice rituals (it’s Saturday bitches and it’s summer!) and because of the super moon, hugest.full moon.ever. I forgot to even check to see what was going on, and it was not until a friend called to congratulate me that I found out I’d won.
“You won!”
“Huh? What now? Who’s on first?”
“I called to congratulate you.”
Long pause.
“Um….congratulate me …. for ……. not getting arrested …what…what?”
“You won!”
Long period of speechlessness followed by ranting and raving.
It’s not like I’ve never won anything. I’ve won stuff. Lottsa stuff. A bike at a school blacktop carnival. A pie at St. Anthony’s parish festival. A bag of groceries. A two dollar lottery ticket. A karaoke contest in Tokyo. A bonus round on the slots at a casino in Cleveland. An arm wrestling contest. Yeah, I’ve won stuff. Lottsa stuff.
But to be honored in this event …. well, all I can say is
I am humbled, honored and giddy as all git out!
Thank you Flashmob people and all my fellow mobsters!
FLASH MOB 2013 showcases more than 100 stories from more than 100 participating writers from all over the globe.
Click the link below to jump in with the Flash Mob
http://flashmob2013.wordpress.com/winners
Funky Little Blaze Orange Pork Pie Hats
Driving into town daydreaming about the dream I had last night. Not the one about my father, but the one about designing a line of men’s wear made exclusively from potato skins with snappy names like Dudz from Spudz, Potato Pants and Tater Tees. I pass fluttery paper cornstalks, vineyards rusting under sullen skies, pickup trucks clustered at trail heads and men with shotguns creeping toward corn fields.
Walt Whitman’s redneck body double is in the diner, writing on a napkin at the counter. Could be a shopping list, directions to his hunting camp, or a new collection of radiant poems. Seems like I’m the only one in the place not wearing green and beige camo and a funky, little blaze orange pork pie hat. Where are the Fashion Police when you need them?
A man and a teenage girl stand at the counter, their hands are covered with blood.
The girl shows off a photo she just shot with her phone of the buck she just shot with her gun.
Walt Whitman says: “That’s a big deer sweetheart! How old are you anyway?”
“Fifteen, but my dad let’s me drive his pickup.” She leaves to wash her hands.
In the grocery store I spot a man in the produce department squeezing bananas. With his meticulously groomed white goatee and wire rimmed glasses, he’s a dead ringer for Sigmund Freud. I want to tell him about the dream I had last night. Not the one about my father, but the one about Henrietta swimming through a sea of roses.
I want to say: “Doctor, would you mind if I lie down on your couch over here by the tomatoes for just a few minutes? I need to tell you about my mother.”
Hello all,
This is the story I posted June 9th as my entry in Flash Mob 2013 The International Flash Fiction Day Competition.
Click the link below to jump in with the Flash Mob
http://flashmob2013.wordpress.com/
Funky Little Blaze Orange Pork Pie Hats
Driving into town daydreaming about the dream I had last night. Not the one about my father, but the one about designing a line of men’s wear made exclusively from potato skins with snappy names like Dudz from Spudz, Potato Pants and Tater Tees. I pass fluttery paper cornstalks, vineyards rusting under sullen skies, pickup trucks clustered at trail heads and men with shotguns creeping toward corn fields.
Walt Whitman’s redneck body double is in the diner, writing on a napkin at the counter. Could be a shopping list, directions to his hunting camp, or a new collection of radiant poems. Seems like I’m the only one in the place not wearing green and beige camo and a funky, little blaze orange pork pie hat. Where are the Fashion Police when you need them?
A man and a teenage girl stand at the counter, their hands are covered with blood.
The girl shows off a photo she just shot with her phone of the buck she just shot with her gun.
Walt Whitman says: “That’s a big deer sweetheart! How old are you anyway?”
“Fifteen, but my dad let’s me drive his pickup.” She leaves to wash her hands.
In the grocery store I spot a man in the produce department squeezing bananas. With his meticulously groomed white goatee and wire rimmed glasses, he’s a dead ringer for Sigmund Freud. I want to tell him about the dream I had last night. Not the one about my father, but the one about Henrietta swimming through a sea of roses.
I want to say: “Doctor, would you mind if I lie down on your couch over here by the tomatoes for just a few minutes? I need to tell you about my mother.”
My piece “Group Therapy” is up on the Lascaux Flash Fiction Contest website. Thank you editors Stephan Parrish and Wendy Russ.
The link is below:
http://www.lascauxflash.com/2013/03/21-group-therapy.html
Flash Fiction Fridays
Hi there boys and girls! This is Michael Gillan Maxwell bringing you another book report from the Alice B. Toklas Book Journal. Writer, author, teacher and radio personality, Robert Vaughan has delivered the goods with his sparkling debut anthology: Flash Fiction Fridays. Robert Vaughan is the host of the innovative monthly radio show Flash Fiction Fridays, which airs on Milwaukee Public Radio’s WUWM Lake Effect and has put together a truly delightful anthology of 34 stories from local and international authors whose work appeared on its namesake radio show each month during 2011.
I am a Milwaukee expatriate, born and raised there, now living in exile in upstate New York. However, I’m still a hardcore fan of most anything that comes out of Wisconsin, except for the current governor. So soon as I heard that Robert Vaughan had put together this collection of short fiction I ordered it immediately, not only to support the home town team, but also because I knew it would be great. A prolific writer and accomplished author in his own right, Robert Vaughan is on his way to being one of the preeminent authors of flash fiction today. In this anthology, he has assembled a collection of some of the best flash fiction written by the rising stars working within the context of this genre.
Don’t let the label “flash fiction” fool you into thinking that these pieces are like light snacks without substance. Brevity is power. This is the undiluted stuff. Each piece is a little package of dynamite, full of vivid imagery, emotion and humanity. Flash Fiction Fridays is available on Lulu.com and Amazon.com. The physical book is a slick and professional, aesthetically pleasing, high quality volume and it was on my doorstep within three business days. If you want to read some of the freshest contemporary flash, this is a must-have book for your library. It will leave you wanting more. I can only hope that Robert Vaughan is already working on this year’s collection because I’m already looking forward to Flash Fiction Fridays: Volume II, and I think that you will too!
Your Own Back Yard - Michael Gillan Maxwell 