Help me start out.
Books, online classes? Any advice would be appreciated.
Google for “flash tutorials” and go nuts. I have a paid account at lynda.com and find their tutorials to be excellent.
Flash is fun. Get the basics down and then concentrate on learning ActionScript. It’s what separates the pros from the schmoes.
flashkit is a good resource for flash tutorials. Generally I would say you should figure out what you want to make and then figure out a way to do it.
I downloaded a trial version of Macromedia Flash some time ago and it came with a tutorial on how to build a flash animation advertising a concept car. I found it to be a pretty good overview and hopefully they still make it available.