I was really pleased to see that reports of Ray Gun Revival’s demise were, ultimately, greatly exaggerated. Thanks to the good folks over at Every Day Publishing, RGR is back as an e-zine, and publishing science fiction in the grand tradition. And hey, they even have this cool trailer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdFfrgbyDfE

A few weeks ago I received some copies of Every Day Fiction’s second annual year’s best anthology, and I’ve been reading a story or two here and there. I’m not done yet, but so far the anthology has proven to be as enjoyable and rewarding as its predecessor. Containing 100 flash fiction stories from EDF’s second year of operations, the book contains such a myriad of voices, styles, techniques, and types of stories that you will never find yourself reading the same thing twice. It’s a  perfect ‘slow read’ anthology, the sort of thing you can dip into one little piece at a time for months.

I’m pleased to say that two of my stories, Davy’s Toy Box and The Goon Eternal, were selected for inclusion in the anthology — and, as a matter of fact, The Goon Eternal actually closes out the book. That’s a fantastic honor for a story in any anthology, and even moreso in such a fine collection as the EDF folks have assembled. Hats off to Jordan, Camille, Steven, and the rest of the EDF crew for their continuing success with such a groundbreaking publication — here’s hoping they’ll have many more ‘years best’ anthologies in their future.

So, you’re feeling a bit down. Maybe things aren’t going the way you’d have imagined for yourself when, as a wee child, you had visions of your success as a star of stage and screen, or as an international playboy and jetsetter, celebrity look-a-like, ruthless cybernetic mankiller, or affable variety show host with secret knowledge of the end times. Such are the disappointments of modern life. But hey, it could be worse, you could see the signs that your whole being exists as part of an endless loop of bit parts in somebody else’s drama. You could even get the notion that you’re fictional.

Over at EDF today I’ve got a quickie that poses just that, The Goon Eternal. So put on your good shoes and third best suit — and stick a Raymond Chandler novel in the left pocket and a Philip K. Dick one in the right — and go check it out. Oh, and vote. Unless of course you didn’t like it, then don’t vote — you don’t have to lie for me. Although, you know, if you wanted to that would bring us a whole lot closer and I’d start telling people what wonderful friends you and I are.

Having been out of the loop for a while, I completely missed Every Day Fiction’s new Flash Fiction blog until recently, but it’s been a pleasure to catch up on the entries over there. Flash Fiction Chronicles, edited by EDF regular Gay Degani, is exactly what it appears to be: a blog focused completely on the art and phenomenon of flash fiction.

Start with Gay’s own post ‘Flash by Defintion‘ on what flash is, and isn’t, by way of introduction. From there you might want to check out the posts from the EDF team that originally appeared in The Best of EDF; Jordan, Camille, and Steven each sharing their own perspective on Flash Fiction and on the fantastic first year of EDF’s existence. But there is a lot more, posts from EDF regulars like K.C. Ball, Oonah V. Joslin, and Sarah Hilary (among others) ranging from story analyses and nitty-gritty dissections of the craft of writing flash, to personal anecdotes and words of inspiration. I think the blog is off to a great start, with something there for anyone interested in writing flash, whether they’ve never done it before or already have a dozen stories under their belt.

The first thing I have for you today is my story Davy’s Toy Box, which is Every Day Fiction’s story of the day. You should read it, for not only is it enjoyable in story-terms, but I have it on good authority that reading Davy’s Toy Box is good for your overall cardio-vascular health. So, if you’ve been skipping the gym lately, I think my story can help.

Heading in the direction of Blog Gate today you may notice the way is littered with an odd assortment of paper products — playing cards, matchbook covers, old receipts and envelopes and sticky-notes. That’s because I’m expounding on the overlooked phenomenon of bookmarks, how they accumulate, how they disappear, and how some of them rise to become sentimental favorites and others — well, others are just bits of paper.

Get more than one of these unfinished books together — I have a shelf for this — and you’ll see a different pictures. Depending on what you use as a bookmark, of course, your unfinished collection with all its sprouting bookmark-ends may resemble a thicket of trees, or a perhaps a flotilla of sailing vessels jostling in harbor. But what I see are protuberant, taunting tongues — a grand razzberry emanating from each volume, salvoed in contempt of my lack of perseverance.

Oh, and how about the circle of Hell reserved for book offenders?

And, given that so many of the world’s small, flat objects function adequately as bookmarks, I’m always confounded by dogears. Marginalia I can understand, though it is not my practice, as it can create a second and sometimes interesting dialogue between book and reader(s), but dogears are pure defacement. I suspect there is a circle of hell populated by turners of book corners — perhaps they busy themselves getting the crease out of a zillion pages while their fellow offenders, book store employees, spend their eons of torment trying to scrape the price label sticky gum off of a trillion dust jackets. It’s a pleasant thought.

Click here for Davy’s Toy Box

And click here for ‘On Bookmarks’

Every Day Fiction’s first anthology is now available for purchase in both hardcover and paperback — just in time to make a nice gift. It contains 100 flash fiction stories published over the last year at EDF, and I have two stories in there; Junkyard Rats, and Priority Won. To have a look at the Table of Contents and see the many talented authors involved in the project, check out my first post about the anthology.

More from EDF:

The Best of Every Day Fiction 2008 brings together one hundred flash fiction pieces selected from Every Day Fiction’s first year of publication. These stories cross boundaries of genre and geography, with tastes of science fiction, humour, romance, fantasy, horror, and surrealism alongside the more traditional literary pieces, from authors writing in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Finland, India, Israel, Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Click here to purchase a copy of The Best of Everyday Fiction 2008

Congratulations to Jordan Lapp, Camille Gooderham Campbell, and all the EDF staff, as well as all the authors, for a fine finish to a great first year.