Sorry, no Flash Fiction Friday post this week. I’m up to my armpits in edits for Snapshots, my boxed set of overhauled short stories (coming to JMS Books, LLC February 25).

I know my old stuff needed work, but sheesh. I’ve come to the conclusion that for the Dreams overhauls (barely started) I’m not (NOT!) going to go in and simply make changes to what’s currently written. I’m going to have a copy of the story open, but I’m going to treat it like a very detailed outline while I write fresh scenes into a new Word document.

Besides the fact that I think I’m going to convert the first two books to single POV (the third already is…I think (it’s been a while)), I’ve developed a fresh appreciation for editors (and beta readers). Recognizing what specifically needs to be changed in something is harder than writing it correctly in the first place.

Regarding the short stories in Snapshots—excepting Okay, Then, which was recently written and underwent only minor tweaks—the rest were all written back in 2008 and early 2009. They needed…shall we say…a bit of work.

First I made a lot of updates to them. Next, a trusted beta reader had a go at them and came up with fantastic advice. Pretty much nailed down what a few of them (the ones I agreed were weakest) needed and had spot-on comments throughout. I dealt with all of that before sending it in. Now my poor editor has bled all over them, and that’s why I’ve come to that conclusion about how I’m going to handle my Dream rewrites.

Here’s the (as yet unedited) preface I’ve added to the beginning of the collection:

I love short stories. Sometimes a brief “snapshot” taken from a couple’s larger story is all that’s wanted. The narrative of “how they met” is the focus of six of the shorts in this set—quirky tales ranging from meeting at a charity fundraiser, to college kids pranking each other, to a mishap at a XXX adult video arcade.

Also included are a story featuring a well-established couple’s wedding dilemma, a friends-to-lovers tale, a coming-out-of-the-closet drama, and a continuation short that follows one of those how-we-mets. Rounding out this collection is an account revisiting the main characters from ’Til Death Do Us Part.

All of these stories are contemporary, although one has a bit of paranormal flavor to it. Heat ratings range from “fairly sweet” to “rather steamy.” Excepting the final story, all were originally written in 2008 and early 2009. One (Photo Shoot) started out as a prompt word ficlet that I later fleshed out to a more complete story. Each has received a thorough overhaul, some more extensive than others. I hope you’ll enjoy reading them as much as I did writing them.

Click here for more information about Snapshots.

I’ll carry over the prompt word I got last week (sudoku) for my next Flash Fiction Friday post. If anyone wants to add to that in the comments here, that’s perfectly fine, because I haven’t even started it yet.