I hatched this idea after reading a story in Wired in which top-shelf writers were asked to do futuristic six-word stories modeled after Hemingway’s infamous masterpiece - supposedly the story he called his best: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn”.

I’m no Hemingway, but I felt I could do at least as well as some of the Wired pieces, and an exercise in joyful diversion was born. (Here’s my first attempt.)

As much as I enjoy Wired (sometimes), visiting their website and seeing the un-interactive, comment-free page trapped behind the Conde Nast copyright firewall, even though it includes some good online-only stories, I couldn’t help feeling the editors had missed an opportunity to stimulate real creativity.  I came up with the idea of creating an open platform for publishing and sharing these with other tech-minded folks.

I have since discovered an active web mosaic of “flash fiction” already exists, and I’ll add sites I come across to the blogroll. But there’s something about the simplicity of this that appeals to me, and there’s no turning back.

I hope you enjoy and find a way to contribute to this site, and I look forward to seeing where it all goes.

November 12, 2006 @ BarcampLA2