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.