Shotgun Honey - a brief review

I'm not sure how I found the Shotgun Honey website, but I'm glad I did. I suspect that I found a link for it on Paul D. Brazill's or Chris F. Holm's blog. It's regularly updated and features a variety of noir, crime and hardboiled stories of 700 words or less. It's a mixed bag and I confess that most of the authors are unfamiliar to me, that said, the quality is impressive.

At the time of writing this a story by Chris Rhatigan (Somnambulist) featured on the site. It's worth the few minutes it will take to read the 609 words and is a good representation of what the site has to offer. There's a pretty large archive as well, much of which I've delved into. I'm reading for enjoyment, because they are, well enjoyable but I'm also reading for research purposes as I want to get one of my stories published on the site. I've read the submission guidelines and am on the third draft of my first attempt. 

I'd love to have the confidence and arrogance to think it will be immediately accepted and that I will be heralded as a new player on the hardboiled scene, but I fully expect a rejection. What I hope beyond hope is that the rejection might come with some advice, some guidance that can help me with my second effort. That's where I've gone wrong over the last few years. I've not submitted my work or for that matter redrafted anything. While Shotgun Honey doesn't pay for stories, the mere act of putting my work 'out there', putting it up to be judged, criticised or potentially laughed at is for me a very exciting prospect and certainly feels like the right thing to do. 

I'll submit my story before the end of the month and am already working on some concepts for some other sub 700 word offerings. 

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If you like the combination of Flash Fiction and Noir/Hardboiled get yourself over to ShotgunHoney.net on a regular basis - you won't be disappointed.