WritersType contacted me a few weeks ago to deliver the good news that my submission, “Baba’s Bananas” ranked as the winner of the March 2011 Flash Fiction competition. One of the perks of placing is that WritersType shares reader comments with the writer. This feedback was helpful in polishing my final version. I also discovered that all stories that place are automatically entered into the category’s yearly competition. So, my story is now one of twenty-four finalists in the annual competition.

I got the idea for the story when I came across this prompt: write about minutes, as in time. The time theme got me thinking about life stages, and in particular, what it would be like to reach a point in time when you have to leave your home. I was inspired by the remarkable John Skarada (my paternal grandfather) and Bertha Charlesworth (my maternal grandmother). This one’s for them.