Month: July 2025

On to Round 2!

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

The results of the first round of the nycMidnight Flash Fiction Challenge are in.

The writers of the top 7 stories in each group move on to round 2. There are 88 groups, each with apparently 30-35 stories. In my group, my story came in 6th. Whew.

On Friday, at midnight NYC-time, I’ll be assigned to a new group. Like round 1, we’ll get a genre, a setting, and an object. Then we have 48 hours to write a 1000-word or less story in that genre, set in that place, including that object. Only this time my competition will be people who have already proven their ability to write a decent flash fiction story.

I’m hoping that this round goes a little mor smoothly for me than round 1. Can I get a genre like sci-fi or fantasy or fairytale or comedy? All those were given to some groups in round 1. Political Satire was quite the challenge for me. I think my odds are good of getting a genre that’s a more natural fit for me, but historical fiction and romance are still out there like landmines waiting to blow up in my face.

I was also at my parents’ place for most of round 1’s window. Honestly, the political friction that exists between my folks and me might have helped the genre part of the story, but otherwise it was a big distraction. Round 2’s distraction (as mentioned in my last post) is the start of the school year. Friday is my first in-service day. Fortunately, the writing window is the weekend, so I’m hoping to avoid too much back-to-school distraction. Maybe I can use that atmosphere to my story’s advantage like I did with the last one.

I’m happy to make it to round 2. I was very nervous that I took too many liberties with the setting and object for round 1. I’m going to need a better showing if I want to make round 3. For now, I’m going to polish up that round 1 story and send it out to and editor. I’m supposed to let 10 days pass before publishing the story anywhere, but a 10-day turnaround for a response would be very fast, let alone sub-to-pub. I think there are some markets that “TruthSerum.ai” would fit into nicely. Let’s find out.

Almost That Time…and That Time…and…

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

As July ticks to its end, it is almost time for a bunch of things. It’s almost time for the NFL preseason games to start. It’s almost time to renew my car’s registration. It’s almost time for my root canal appointment. Hopefully, it’s almost time for this wave of sweltering heat advisory days to chill out. Of course these aren’t the almosts I’m most interested in. So what are they?

Almost time for the nycMidnight Flash Fiction round 1 results

Wow, that was a mouthful. This one is very near as they are due to drop today. I was a little surprised to wake up and find no results posted, but I have since discovered that they usually post around midnight EDT. Yes, that’s midnight New York City time. I see what they did there. Branding at its most literal.

As I mentioned a few posts back, this was my first foray into one of nycMidnight’s challenges. Depending on the results, it might be the end of that experiment. Only the top few finishers in each group go on to round 2. It’s a bit pricey for a one-and-done event, so I’m hoping I make the cut. Of course, so is everyone else.

Good news has been nonexistent for me in the writing category of late, so I really need something to smile about. Godfather Death has been selling like coldcakes (that’s the opposite of hotcakes, right?); my short story submissions have been missing their marks; even my latest work-in-progress has stalled out after a promising start. So I’ll be up at midnight (11:00 PM here) spamming refresh with crossed fingers.

Almost time for school to start

As a teacher by day, this upcoming event is quite profound for me. This being my 24th first-day-of-school as a teacher, it’s kind of old hat, but that doesn’t make it any less of an event. Time to start crawling out of bed before the sun, write my name on the board, and start learning names. Time to instill math knowledge against student’s will. Time to watch the blood-borne pathogens video. Time to train on what to do if a kid decides to come to the building with a duffle bag of firearms and make his inadequacies everyone’s problem. Hooray.

This year does bring some new things. My school now has weapon detection at its major entrances. (Does that make me feel better or worse about the duffle bag scenario?) We are moving to a true block schedule, meaning my students will be done with their course in December and I get a new pack of hooligans pupils in January. (I’ve taught that way before, but it’s been about a decade.) Possibly most profound for me, my child won’t be at the school anymore. Why not? That falls under the next almost…

Almost time for my kid to start college

Yup, they’re a freshman again. Dad doesn’t have any clout to pull strings for them anymore. We’ve already found ourselves behind the 8-ball with late student loan applications and the like, but if you know me and/or my kid, you know how predictable that is. We’re figuring it out. Slowly.

The kid’s going to be a film major, if you were curious.

Am I nervous about the kid crawling out from under my protective wing and striking out on their own? A bit. They’re still living at home, so the striking out is by baby steps, but it’s still scary. In a lot of ways my kid is quite mature. In a lot of other ways…coldcakes.

Almost time for almost to become is

The scariest part of almost, for me, is the anticipation. Once the event arrives, it’s just a thing that’s happening or that already happened. Is that better or worse? Only one way to find out…