DARK VOYAGE

A few weeks ago, I had a skin-cancer scare. I’ve already written about it (over on that other blog), but the rough outline is that I had a mole removed from my left upper arm, and that mole was filled with mutant cells deemed aggressive by a lab. The result was that I had to have some minor surgery to remove the tissue around the mole. Ten stitches and five days later, I got an all-clear on the biopsy.

This episode ended up inspiring fiercely creative short stories from some of my crime-writing friends. It was Dan O’Shea who suggested a flash fiction challenge on the subject of “Hilary’s scar.” Writers were free to make what they would of the topic and the results are simply incredible. Some stories made use of real details (my love of travel, graveyards and gluten-free food all came up), while others were complete inventions (or were they…?).

For your reading pleasure, in alphabetical order:

• Eric Beetner: “Hilary’s Scar”
• A.J. Hayes: “The Gift”
• Chris F. Holm: “Good Prose Don’t Come Cheap”
• Naomi Johnson: “Scars”
• Chris La Tray: “It Should Have Been Easy”
• Ellen Neuborne: “Hilary’s Scar”
• Dan O’Shea: “Hilary’s Scars”
• Doug Telling: “Blade.com”
• Steve Weddle: “The Scar”
• There’s also an anonymous entry: “Hilary’s Scars”

All of them were wonderful reading, and truly appreciated. Seriously, this was the best get-well wish I could have asked for. Thank you all.