28 Comments
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Victor D. Sandiego's avatar

Okay Mark! You made me laugh. And to remember to always keep your time machine fully charged!

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Mark Starlin's avatar

Thanks, Victor. That is hard lesson to learn. 🤣

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Dascha Paylor 🇨🇦🍁🐻‍❄'s avatar

A great issue, Mark. Punny and funny!

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Mark Starlin's avatar

Thanks Dascha. I try to get a good mix of things. 🤓

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Alexa Tuttle's avatar

Holy smokes, I love this! So glad I just discovered your Substack, and already cannot wait for the next newsletter! I agree with @Thomas Bubb that your multi format style is great. What compelled you to start writing humorous flash fiction? What publications, authors, and works are your inspiration? I’m totally geeking out over here. 🤩 (using stock photos as funny short story inspo is genius! 😆)

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Mark Starlin's avatar

Thank you so much, Alexa. I love getting comments like this. 🤣

I have always been "witty." I runs on my mother's side of the family. 🤓 I suppose the Sunday comics (Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side are favorites) and Mad magazine were how it started. I just enjoy humor and making people laugh.

I started writing short humor in 2008 when I discovered Facebook (it was still fun back then.) I started posting short humor bits there and people loved it. I was hooked. By the time I couldn't stand Facebook anymore (2018), I found Medium and started posting humor there. I found a cool creative writer community there. I started writing fiction, poetry, and other creative writing also. That lasted three years. But constant changes ruined Medium and most of the writers I loved left.

Two years ago, I discovered Substack and started posting humor here, and have gradually figured out what worked for me (and doesn't work - over committing.) Since I mainly write short things, combining multiple short stories into one newsletter seemed like a natural thing to do.

So that is what I do now. I have signed up for your newsletter. I look forward to some giggles. 😀

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Alexa Tuttle's avatar

That’s awesome. I’m glad you’ve found an appreciative audience here on Substack. I look forward to more of your short funnies! Oh, and burnout... 🫠 I had a similar experience with burnout. I wanted to test self publishing strategies and tactics to see if I could make a living with my writing. I was going to publish my humorous spy adventure but wanted to prove I knew what I was doing first. So I did research, determined steamy romance was the hottest genre (pun intended), created a pen name and wrote steamy romcom shorts and novellas for a year. I proved that I did know what I was doing, learned a whole lot about writing to market, became a better storyteller, even hit the best seller list in my categories a few times, and proved to myself that I could make a living! But... I totally burned out. Couldn’t even bring myself to READ, can you believe it? For a whole year and a half!

I just recently crawled out of the hole eager to return to my true love of writing humorous adventures. I’ve got some fun stuff up my sleep, but am definitely terrified of burning out like a flaming ball of promise so I’ll be taking it slower than before. Thank you so much for subscribing! I can’t wait to share with you the zany world and colorful characters of T.O.P.S.E.C.R.E.T. espionage 😂👀

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Mark Starlin's avatar

Great. Yes, burnout is a terrible thing. I have not heard of Space Team. I will check it out. Thanks!

I started a serial space sitcom before burnout hit me. It is still on my Substack. It is called Space Traveler Fargone. I hope to return to it eventually. 🤓

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Alexa Tuttle's avatar

I’ll definitely check it out!

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Alexa Tuttle's avatar

Also, my brief exposure your work has already inspired a domino effect of fun ideas in my head. Thank you for sharing your humor! It’s awesome to discover a kindred spirit who thinks funny like me. If you haven’t already heard of it, I think you might enjoy Barry J Hutchison’s SPACE TEAM book series. It’s ridiculous!

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Dascha Paylor 🇨🇦🍁🐻‍❄'s avatar

You also found some of the writers who left Medium, and we are again a community!

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Mark Starlin's avatar

Yes. Thankfully, some of the old Medium gang is on Substack now. And that creative community feel is growing on Substack.

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Michael Mohr's avatar

Professional sleeper sounds not bad!

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Mark Starlin's avatar

I have the skills. 😉🤣

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Cyn Taylor's avatar

I too am a professional sleeper. And I was worried I was the only one!

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Mark Starlin's avatar

They are more common than you think. I am keeping my amateur status in case they add it as an event in the Olympics.

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V. C. Ackerman's avatar

Time Travel Issues - Whelp, time to invent car batteries!

Bananapalooza 2022 - Bana-nah

Sleeping On The Job - Making money while you sleep. Sounds like a dream job.

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Mark Starlin's avatar

I see what you did there. Clever. 🤓

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Justin Deming's avatar

Haha! All the stories gave me a good laugh, but for some reason the banana jokes had me busting up. (FYI, I was going to insert a clever banana pun but my brain is fried. Ahh...guess I’ll just leave those for you to take care of. 😄)

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Mark Starlin's avatar

I think I used most of them. 🤣 Thanks, Justin.

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Jack Herlocker's avatar

Your time travel story made me zip over to Wikipedia to determine when batteries were invented... which then turned into when batteries that could do better than 1.1V were invented... and alas, in 1863 your time traveler was indeed SOL. 😫

But if he had some way of knowing when lightning would strike a particular place... ⚡️🕞

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Mark Starlin's avatar

Ah, the Wikipedia rabbit hole. I have been down it many times. I believe I researched batteries when I wrote this. Or at least cars. 🤓 And of course there is the DeLorean option. 😉🤣

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Claire Walster's avatar

The time travel one 😂😂 Wonderful assortment as always, Mark!

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Mark Starlin's avatar

Thank you, Claire. Time travel machines can be a real hassle!

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Kim Smyth's avatar

Those were all very funny, Mark! I like starting Monday with a smile!

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Mark Starlin's avatar

Thanks Kim. That is my hope for readers. 🤓

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Thomas Bubb's avatar

These were all hilarious, Mark! I’m sorry I haven’t been on your Substack in a bit but wanted to tell you I think your multi format style is very entertaining. Thanks for sharing!

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Mark Starlin's avatar

No worries, Thomas. I love variety and write a lot of short things, so it works for me. Thanks!

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