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Many authors spend years and years trying to get their work published, but Winchester resident and writer Bill McCann had his accepted on his first try.

“God Hires Gardeners: Modern Works of Flash Fiction Based on Bible Stories” will be published by Finishing Line Press in October.

During a recent interview with the Sun, McCann said that the book comprises several works of flash fiction he has written over the past few years.

Flash fiction is a very brief work that features a plot and character development.

“I like the fact that flash fiction tells a story in a short period of space. One of my pieces is 100 words. The average is probably 500 words, and the longest is around 700-800 words,” McCann said.

McCann, a playwright and regular columnist for the Sun, said he relishes the challenge of telling a story “in very few words.”

The collection of brief stories features updated Bible tales.

“The one about Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden, Adam has a jon boat and Eve has a tablet computer,” McCann said.

The brevity of many Biblical stories suited McCann’s writing style.

“Bible stories, as you probably know, aren’t very long,” McCann said. “Some are split up over a few chapters of the Bible may run around 1,000 words, but you have a lot of little parables in there that are 100 words or less.”

The Bible stories that McCann adapted do not hold any special significance to him but are ones that he felt drawn to when he wrote them.

He did want the stories to feel like they could happen in the contemporary world.

“I put things that are American into these stories and modernized them…I think they are more relevant to what is going on in the world today than slingshots against giants,” McCann said.

More than anything, McCann hopes readers will find joy in his first book.

“I want them to enjoy these stories,” he said. “I think they are fun and kind of offbeat.”

The book’s genesis came during the summer of 2022 when McCann was attending the yearly residency for his master’s of fine arts program at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, featuring guest speaker Leah Maines, an editor at Finishing Line Press.

Maines invited McCann to submit a proposal, which took him by surprise.

“I hadn’t really thought of what I’d been doing as book material, but I compiled 21 of the flash fiction pieces…into a manuscript, I didn’t have a title,” McCann said.

Three weeks after McCann sent the manuscript to the publisher, they informed him that it had been accepted for publication, taking him by surprise yet again.

“I thought, ‘What on Earth am I going to do now?’” McCann said with a chuckle. “If I had sat down and said I was going to write a book, I would not have done it.”

The book is now available for preorder at a special price of $15.99 on Finishing Line Press’ website at www.finishinglinepress.com/product/god-hires-gardeners-modern-works-of-flash-fiction-based-on-bible-stories-by-william-h-mccann-jr/.