Andrew B. Gardner

I began writing a long story about the aftermath of World War III in my junior year in high school. It was the height of the cold war: fall out shelters, duck and cover, the war in Indochina.

In my sophomore year in college I took to writing short stories about alienation and loneliness and started my collection of rejection slips.

Then I put aside my creative writing for many decades and became an artist and designer. I did write a book half way through that period: "The Artist's Silkscreen Manual," which stayed in print for twenty years.

About two years ago after dodging the bullet (cancer) I began writing short-short stories and started a new collection of rejection slips. I enjoy the challenge of short fiction for the same reasons I enjoy writing haiku. The economy and explicitness that is necessary to convey a wider world in a small space. The stories I wrote were about what is lost, forgotten, perhaps remembered, perhaps found. I wrote what I enjoyed reading. What used to be called general fiction. A tale well told.

Then my stories grew longer as more characters entered the stage, leading everyone off in a new direction. But I enjoy writing the way I read. No quite knowing where I am going and definitely not sure of the destination. So I went along for the journey.

The result is my novel, "The Bric-a-Brac Mystery," which will soon be published.

Now, I am on a new journey, and again not sure where the story is going or where it will end.