Bayou Writers Group Conference Speaker - Editor

I am not a short story writer, but I wanna be. Does that count? I've always dabbled with short stories--and now Flash Fiction--but never been too successful at it. These days it's hard for me to identify good short stories. Seems the rules have changed. Just like they've changed for every thing else. I liked book stores before all the different genres hit. I liked the writing markets before the Internet. I love and miss traditional everything. Yep, I've fallen into that category of old person who says, "Awwwwww, the good old days when a book was a book, a short story was more than slice of life, and a literary magazine was something prestigious." For the first time in my life, I feel like an 'old dog' who can't learn any new tricks. Okay, I'd better tone it down or you might get an inkling of what I really think. :)

I get great joy out of introducing our next Bayou Writers Group Conference speaker: David LaBounty--not to be confused with the poet by the same name.

David LaBounty is editor of the literary magazine The First Line. His plays have appeared on stages across the country. His fiction has been published in various magazines including The Friend Magazine, Zu Zu, Young Salvationist, Hopscotch and Kids’ Highway.
The purpose of The First Line is to jump start the imagination-to help writers break through the block that is the blank page. Each issue contains short stories that stem from a common first line; it also provides a forum for discussing favorite first lines in literature. The First Line is an exercise in creativity for writers and a chance for readers to see how many different directions we can take when we start from the same place.

The First Line is the longest running, fully independent journal of 100 pages or less published in North Texas every three months.

Go to The First Line and take a look. Here is proof that we can all take the same sentence--even the same idea--and write hundreds of different stories. What fun! And The First Line is a great little literary magazine.

Guess what: The 2009 sentences have been posted. Check them out here: