Whew, just finished the first draft of an entry. Very excited. Unblinking is right, 500 words is hard. But I made it work. Here's hoping...
I do hope PodCastle's Flash Contest goes back up to the 750 word count, though. I already have two fantasy stories for that contest cut, trimmed, squeezed, hacked, wasted, and bled down to 750 words. I don't think I could make them any shorter.