and the dance goes on

 

So flash fiction. It’s tricky to write, and sometimes feels more like an exercise than it does a free-flowing act of creation. But it’s handy to learn the discipline, to make good with what you can of its length, and not much of that there is. Most of it is 1000 words or fewer. 

 

I’ve written maybe a couple of handfuls in my time, for better or worse. (Usually worse, let’s be honest.) And I should probably write more of them.  “In the White of the Snow,” for instance, is a 1000-word spin on the Snow White fairytale, which was published by Daily Science Fiction some time ago. My even shorter piece, “Near-Death Experience,” appeared once in the small press magazine Fusing Horizons and then was reprinted - at a different though still sub-1000 word length - in a free newspaper available to pick up in supermarkets across Yorkshire. So despite the paucity of words available to you, it gets you read, and that should never be taken for granted.

 

Which brings me around to this:I have a new flash fiction piece in print, written just the other month. It’s already been sent out to subscribers of the Flame Tree Press Publishers’ newsletter. And just the other day the newsletter appeared live on their website. Meaning you can, if you are so inclined, read it there yourselves, free and gratis.

 

It’s a short horror story, and it’s called “And the Dance Goes on.” And you can read it by clicking here.

 

I hope you give it a go. I hope you enjoy it. And I hope you write a few flash pieces yourself.

a song about the end of the world

So here’s a wee piece of flash fiction. A Song About the End of the World’s a whimsical piece about the end of the world, whales, witches, and failing at flying broomsticks. In a moment of weakness, Charles Christian, a dashing fellow if we’re to believe his picture hasn't been photo-shopped, very kindly included it in his online zine, freshly re-branded from GrievousAngel to SciFi-and-Fantasy.land. Give him your support by reading the stuff he puts up there.

Here’s the opening paragraph of my tale:

My girlfriend told me the world was going to end. She’d heard about it from the whales. She understood their song and had been listening in while she took a bath, surrounded by scented candles. 

The story’s a short one, a scant few hundred words, so it won’t take you long to read. It might make you smile, it might not make you smile. The only way to find out is to sweep your eyes over it and see.

To do that, all you gotta do is click here.

waiting for his hair to grow back

And, catching up . . .

I have a short short story called "Waiting For His Hair to Grown Back" in Chester University's literary magazine Flash -- The International Short-Short Story Magazine. It's flash fiction. It's 360 words long. Sometimes it's good to see what you can do when you impose a limit on yourself.

You can get the magazine here, along with submissions details here if you fancy having a go yourself. The magazine is edited by Dr Peter Blair and Dr Ashley Chantler and previous issues of the magazine have a list of impressive contributors, including Margaret Atwood, Beryl Bainbridge, Dan Rhodes, and Ian Rankin. Hopefully I haven't dragged it too far down market . . .

My tale is in Volume 6, Issue One. It's the April of 2013 issue, and so of course I am mentioning it now, in July. Because that's the kind of guy I am and because I only got my complimentary copy last week (which would have been in June, but, you know, picky, picky . . .).