From AI Chat v2: “Shin’ichi Hoshi is considered the “king of the short-short story” in Japan. He was a prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy stories, and his work is known for its imagination and originality. Hoshi was born in 1929 and died in 2012. He published over 100 short story collections and novels, and his work has been translated into many languages.

Hoshi’s stories often explore the themes of technology, artificial intelligence, and the future of humanity. He was also a pioneer of the “short-short story,” which is a story that is only a few pages long. Hoshi’s short-short stories are known for their brevity and their ability to pack a lot of emotion and meaning into a small space.”

Other titles that could apply myself toward.

• Bard of Boredom
• Muse of Mindfulness
• Dad of Depression

And, well, looking at Amazon for his stories is a lot more complex than you might imagine. It appears Mr. Hoshi’s works have just recently been ported to English. The meta data on the titles is odd. Of course, the “look inside” feature is non-existent, I mean, imagine giving access to the greatest short-short story in the world to everyone? In the preview! It makes no sense. Okay, so if this guy is the king of the short-short story, I’m going to do my Jim Carey impression and say, “So there’s still a chance.”

I try and stay in the present moment. Write the story. Don’t think about The New Yorker or submission processes or the “market” for short stories. We don’t do it for the market. Fame? From writing? Give me a break. I learned recently that D. H. Lawrence was somewhat of a pauper. Get that. During his lifetime, he had patrons, supporters, and very little commercial success. The sensors agreed, his works were too salacious. Adultery and all that business about the groundskeeper. Made a fairly good soft-porn movie on Netflix, according to my girlfriend. I’ve never seen it. I do remember the Emmanuelle riots of the 70s (that’s a lie) when the banned European film was brought to the United States and release as an X film, in selected theaters, no one under 17 admitted. It’s kinda like Lady Chatterly’s Lover before porn hit the mainstream and evolved into a private section of your local Blockbuster video store. The whole technical revolution has been led by porn. Go look it up. VHS tape. DVDs. Streaming. Probably VR, but I wouldn’t know.

Today, short stories, porn, and reality television compete for our ever-shrinking souls. We simply don’t have enough attention for a novel, much less a full-length short story. Time for the modern short-short story. First popularized by O. Henry. Later drawn and quartered by ME. You’re reading the words of the next King of the Short-Short Story.

Welcome, I’m glad you are here.

Read more Short-Short Stories from John.