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Hello everyone,

Well, here in the UK it is Election Day. I'm just about to head out to vote and I urge you to do the same. (If I said I don't care who you vote for, I'd be lying - of course I care - but whoever it is, I just think you should vote.)
Once you've written your X in the box, maybe it's time to sit down and use even more letters to create something almost as wonderful as a functioning democracy. I'm talking, of course, about flash-fictions!
Our Anthology is still open for submissions. This year's theme is 'geography' which covers everything from technical terms about erosion or land-masses to stories rooted firmly in place (galaxy, planet, country, city, village, house, lounge, this chair... the choice is yours.) The closing date is 15th May so you still have time to enter. Details at: http://nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/anth.html
And, we are also running our Micro-Fiction competition looking for stories of 100 words or fewer. This one has prizes including books (some listed on the site, more to be added) and cash! Also, the top ten will be featured in this year's anthology. So, it's definitely worth a go. Full details at http://nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/comp.html.
If you could post, tweet, blog and otherwise share the news of those two opportunities (repeatedly) then we would, as ever, be utterly grateful.
Other things are on the horizon, with Bristol announcing their Flash-Fiction Day activities, including this year's reading being hosted by Foyles!
Big Smoke in Dublin are also gearing up, as are a number of others. We're adding events to the website at http://nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/events.html, so send us yours and we'll put you up there. 
Coming up sooner, for those in and around Manchester, you can see the wondrous David Gaffney, Sarah-Clare Conlon, Nicholas Royle, Kate Feld, Claire Dean, Sarah Butler and more at 'Re/Place – Stories that are right up your street'. It takes place on 20th May and is free. Doors are open at 7.30pm. 30 Manchester Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, M21 9PH. See replacemcr.wordpress.com for more.

Anyway, that's it for now. Share our news, go out and vote, then come back and get writing. 
Happy Flashing!
Calum.

--

Calum Kerr
Director, National Flash-Fiction Day
(This bulletin was originally sent as an email to our mailing list. If you would like to be added, please email us at nationalflashfictionday@gmail.com and we'll put you on the list for future mailings.)

Hello everyone,


Well, it's taken a little longer than usual to get up and running this year (thanks to that thing called 'Life') but here we are, and we're starting to look forward to this year's National Flash-Fiction Day. 

It will be held on Saturday 27th June 2015, some events are already in the pipeline, but now is the time for you to start thinking about what you'd like to do in your area to celebrate Flash-Fiction and short, short stories of all kinds.

In previous years, people have held readings, workshops, and slams, run competitions, compiled anthologies, staged Flash flash-mobs and more. What are you going to do? Let us know and we'll help promote your event.

To get things going we're now accepting submissions for a new issue of our pop-up journal, Flash-Flood. Submissions are open until midnight on Wednesday 15th April, and the journal will appear online all day on Friday 17th April. More information and submission guidelines can be found at http://flashfloodjournal.blogspot.co.uk/ and http://flashfloodjournal.blogspot.co.uk/p/submission-guidelines.html. Please spread the word and, of course, send us your stories.

We will also soon be launching both our Micro-Fiction competition and our Anthology, so stay turned for more information on those.

This is the fourth year of National Flash-Fiction Day and we hope you're as excited as we are. We'll be doing lots of things here, but with your help we can make it the best one yet.

More soon,

Hooray!

It seems to have been on its way for a long time, but the day is finally here.


So Happy National Flash-Fiction Day everyone!

I shan't keep you for long, but just to round up all the things you need to be aware of.

First, we have the events which are running today. Details of those are on the website and on the blog. I shall be in Bristol doing the FREE workshop and the FREE reading, along with loads of other talented writers, so do come along and say 'hi!'. Or, if it's too far away, consider one of the other events.

And if they are all too far, but you want to get involved, then we have launched a Write-In which will be taking place all day. A team of editors are standing by, and a selection of prompts are there to get you started. All that is over at https://thewrite-in.blogspot.com/ so why not pop over and write a quick one!

We are also promoting a range of eBooks, some free, some ridiculously cheap, including both the previous NFFD anthologies and the new one. All the details of that are also on the blog

Paper copies of the new anthology will be on sale at the Bristol events, or you can order one now from Amazon. It is, as ever, a fantastic read. 

And we are, of course, streaming stories out into the world all day, with FlashFlood. So do pop over, read some, and leave the writers some nice comments. 

And, at this point, before I sign off, I need to say a few words of thanks:

First, and most importantly, thanks to my wife, Kath. She had put up with me working long days on NFFD, and being either spaced out or grumpy. And she stepped in as a FlashFlood editor too. So, thanks, love!

Thanks to the judges of our Micro-Fiction competition - Cathy Bryant, Jon Pinnock, Carys Bray, Angela Readman, Kevlin Henney and Tim Stevenson. 

Extra thanks to Tim for rebuilding our website and putting up with me being stroppy, and to Angela for helping to edit the anthology and pull together another amazing selection of stories. And thanks also to Amy Mackelden for sterling work marshaling the stories, preparing manuscripts, keeping track of everything, and even co-editing the anthology. Every despot needs an Amy.

And finally, thanks to all of you. Without the readers and the writers, National Flash-Fiction Day would just be me, in a room, typing to myself. So, I thank you, and my sanity thanks you. 

Now, that's all. Get on with you, you crazy kids, haven;t you got stories to write, or read, or share?


Have a great day.
Calum

Yes, you read that correctly. Not only are we bringing you a host of lovely words and events, but we're bringing you genuine Special Offers!

So, below, please find a list of ebooks, mostly on Kindle, but some not, which will be FREE, DISCOUNTED, or just generally LOW PRICED, all day on 21st June 2014, available all around the world!

Just one thing. The writers of all of these books would appreciate it if, after you read (and hopefully enjoy) their books, you could write them a review either on Amazon or on your own blog. That way other people can enjoy their stories too. Thank  you!

(Please note - timings for Kindle promotions are based on the time in San Francisco, or LA, or one of those West Coast places. So they don't tend to start until about 8am in the UK (and often start late, too!) So check that the price is what you expect before you click the 'Buy' button. Also, this post is coming out early - this is books which will be on offer tomorrow UK time.

Also, please note that all links are to the UK Amazon. If you are elsewhere, simply change the .co.uk in the link to .com, or whatever, and it will take you straight to the right page.)

FREE BOOKS:

Jawbreakers - the 2012 NFFD Anthology
Scraps - the 2013 NFFD Anthology

The Funerals at Christmas by Dixon Barker
Thresholds by David Hartley
75x75 = Flash Fraction by Helena Mallett 
Enough by Valerie O'Riordan
31 by Calum Kerr
Apocalypse by Calum Kerr
The Audacious Adventuress by Calum Kerr
The Grandmaster by Calum Kerr
Lunch Hour by Calum Kerr
Mr & Mrs Flash by Kath Kerr and Calum Kerr

Also:
"Long Stories Short" by Marc Nash (Kindle only)
Marc Nash's third collection of flash fiction (stories of 1000 words or less) sees the master craftsman wrangle language like no other and make daring leaps of narrative style in this 32 story collection. Themes include Royal Wedding street parties, neon cowboys, dating apps, Hollywood directors, angels, assassins, glass eyes, arthritic stand up comedians, Geishas, Warrior-Poets, marionettes, Crime Scene Reconstruction actors, paintballing and waking up; images and metaphors for our modern age. The whole gamut of human emotions, relationships and idiosyncrasies is on show in this collection and all genres are playfully subverted.
e-mail sewell.d@googlemail.com for a Mobi kindle compatible version to be emailed back to you.
Offer closes June 22nd 23.00pm BST

DISCOUNTED & LOW PRICE BOOKS:

Eating My Words - the 2014 NFFD Anthology (New release) 98p

Time by Calum Kerr (New release) 98p
Rapture and what comes after by Virginia Moffatt (New release) 98p
28 Far Cries by Marc Nash (New release) 98p
The Book of Small Changes by Tim Stevenson 98p
The World in a Flash by Calum Kerr (Non-Fiction) 98p

This post is a work in progress. So if you book is going to be free or under £1 tomorrow, send the link to nationalflashfictionday@gmail.com.

Dear all,

Just a quick catch up, while there are a few spare minutes here at NFFD Towers, to bring you up to date.
First, it's National Flash-Fiction Day on Saturday (in case you had forgotten). Various events are taking place, and details of them can be found at http://nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/events.html.
On the day, we are encouraging people at the events to tweet about them, using the hashtag #nffdlive. I know Bristol and Oxford are already taking part, but if you are at any event for the day, please feel free to use it.
In addition, we will be streaming a veritable flood of flashes through our online journal at http://flashfloodjournal.blogspot.co.uk/ and through ourFacebook and Twitter feeds. Stories will start appearing at midnight and run all day, but don't worry, they'll stay up afterwards so you can read them at your leisure. If you would like to submit to FlashFlood, submissions are open until midnight on Thursday (BST) and all the details can be found on the blog.
We are also planning a worldwide writing event for the day, so stay tuned for more on that.
Our anthology, Eating My Words, is now available in Kindle and paperback formats should you want to treat yourself, and it would be really good if you could spread the word about those too.
Other books, including our previous two anthologies, will be available for FREE download on the Day, and an email will come out about that with links to all the various books. If you have a flash-fiction collection on Kindle, and would like to promote it for free on the Day, let us know the link and we'll add you to the list.
Anything else you want to tell us, you know where we are.
I'll be in touch again, on the day (if not before) but if I don't see you, have a wonderful Flash-Fiction Day!
All best
Calum

--

Calum Kerr
Director, National Flash-Fiction Day
(You bulletin was originally sent as an email to our mailing list. If you would like to be added, please email us at nationalflashfictionday@gmail.com and we'll put you on the list for future mailings.)

2

Hello all,

Well, we are just two weeks away from the big day and it's all been happening.
We have now finalised our list for the 2014 anthology. The title will be Eating My Words and it will feature the following stories/writers:
‘The Well’ by A. Joseph Black
‘Taste’ by Adam Wolstenholme
‘Nicotine’ by Amanda Mason
‘Old Friend Dinner’ by Amy Mackelden
‘A Sense of Balance’ by Andrew Jenkinson
‘Tasty’ by Andy Cashmore
‘Sun Synchronous Satellites’ by Andy Lavender
‘Hey, Why Not Be a Daughter?’ by Angela Readman
‘The Sensation of Pain’ by Angi Holden
‘One Rat for Every Person’ by Becky Tipper
‘Random’ by Calum Kerr
‘The Five Senses’ by Caroline Worsley
‘Tomorrow We Will Return’ by Cassandra Parkin
‘A Sticky End’ by Cath Barton
‘Friday Roses’ by Cath Bore
‘Show’ by Cathy Bryant
‘Handle With Care’ by Cathy Lennon
‘Hosting’ by Christopher Allsop
‘Spaghetti and Meat Balls’ by Colin Watts
‘Coming Clean’ by Davina Jones
‘Please Remain Silent for the Benefit of Other Library Users (In Hushed Tones)’ by Debbie Young
‘Launch Pad’ by Diane Simmons
‘Hotdogs’ by Dixon Barker
‘A Sense of Entitlement’ by E.L Norry
‘The Busker’ by Eabha Rose
‘5D’ by Ed Broom
‘The Water is Clear’ by Emmaleene Leahy
‘Skewed Perspective’ by Helen Knotts
‘All the Rage’ by Ian Shine
‘Bread’ by Ingrid Jendrzejewski
‘Dress Sense’ by James Coates
‘Angus Hears Things’ by Jane Roberts
‘Parched’ by Jeanette Sheppard
‘Where Memories Live’ by Jennifer Harvey
‘Postcard to My Best Friend from a Non-Londoner, One ‘Dull… of Soul’’ by Jenny Holden
‘Lear Bus’ by John F King
‘The Sixth Generation’ by Jon Pinnock
‘Cherished’ by Kay Beer
‘On Taking Measures to Eliminate Fair Play’ by Kevlin Henney
‘Strangers’ by L. D. Lapinski
‘A Visitor from the Past’ by Lawrence David Coss
‘Eating My Words’ by Marie Gethins
‘Half-Life’ by Michael Marshall Smith
‘Eye of the Beholder’ by Miranda Roszkowski
‘Fear’ by Moira Conway
‘Chekov's Gun’ by Nigel McLoughlin
‘I Am No Good at Video Games’ by Nik Perring
‘Cider and Simnel’ by Nuala Ní Chonchúir
‘Seven Breaths’ by Pam Plumb
‘To Test the Senses of Worms’ by Pauline Masurel
‘The Sundial’ by Rhys Barter
‘The Working Man's Struggle’ by Richard Holt
‘Bottle of Silence’ by Sal Page
‘What We Do In Our Sleep’ by Santino Prinzi
‘A Shanty for Sawdust and Cotton’ by Sarah Hilary
‘Masha's Burning Memory’ by Selina SIAK Chin Yoke (surname is SIAK)
‘The Notes Play On’ by Shirley Golden
‘What I'll Do to Be In Love With You’ by Simon Sylvester
‘The Law of Attraction in Action’ by Sonya Oldwin
‘The Bedroom Tax’ by Susan Howe
‘The Visitors From Out of Town’ by Tim Stevenson
‘Vinegar’ by Tracey Upchurch
Plus, of course, the winners of the micro-fiction competition:
‘Never Let Me Go’ by Cathy Lennon
‘Night-time Knitting’ by Roz Mascall
‘If Kissed by a Dragon Fish’ by Tania Hershman
‘Dare’ by Simon Sylvester
‘The Star Falling’ by Morgan Downie
‘Sintra’ by Parineeta Singh
‘The Sponge Diver’ by Danielle McLaughlin
‘Peppermint’ by Jennifer Harvey
‘The Invisible Girl’ by Karl A Russell
‘4am’ by Angi Holden
 It was, as ever, a really tough job choosing the stories, and our thanks go out to all of you who submitted. If you didn't make it, chances are it's not because it wasn't good enough, but because we could only fit 50 stories and so we had to make some hard decisions. Best of luck to you all in placing your stories elsewhere, and congratulations to those who made it!
In other news, we have had a slew of events come in which we need to tell you about. They are all listed on our site at http://nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/events.html, but here are the highlights so far:
June 14th 2014 - Bournemouth
Quick as a Flash Slam! 2014
June 14th 2014 - Abergavenny
Write and Read Event
Writing live at 2.30 and 3.30. Write for 15 minutes, then read your work. Free admission. 
June 21st 2014 - Bristol
Bristol Flash 2014 - National Flash-Fiction Day Workshop - Daytime
and Bristol Flash 2014 - National Flash-Fiction Day Readings - Evening
June 21st 2014 - ONLINE
Fish Facebook Flash 2014 - National Flash-Fiction Day Competition
June 21st 2014 - Dublin, Ireland
FLASH FURY 2014 - National Flash-Fiction Day Readings and Competition
June 21st 2014 - Oxford
The Albion Beatnik 2014 national Flash-Fiction Day Reading Event
June 23rd 2014 (closing date) - Online
Twisted Tales Competition
July 8th 2014 - Manchester
Flashtag Writers Short Short Story Slam
If you have an event we haven't listed, or want to set something up quickly - a competition or pop-up journal or something - then please make sure you let us know, and we'll tell the world. 
There will, of course, be other goodies. We're going to be running FlashFlood again, so look out for that. We want to see if we can get the full 144 stories!
Also, on the day, we'd like flash-fiction writers who have Kindle editions to consider offering their books for free. Our older anthologies will be available (as will a selection of my own books!). So, if you would like to join in, send us a link to your book and we'll make sure the world knows about it.
And, if there's anything else you think of, just drop us a line.
As we get closer to the day it would be great if you could spread the word about all these activities, as well as our Facebook page and ourTwitter feed, and please do get involved in one of the events to make this another fantastic day!
Right, that's it for now. So go and sign up for something, set something up, send us an event, send us a book link for our Kindle offer, or whatever flashy thing you fancy, and I'll be back in touch when we have more news on anything.
It's getting quite exciting now, isn't it?!
All the best
Calum
Calum Kerr
Director, National Flash-Fiction Day
(If you would like to receive these bulletins directly, please send an email asking to be added to the list to nationalflashfictionday@gmail.com.)

Well, hello there! 

Hope you're having a sunny day today, and looking forward to the summer and to the 3rd National Flash-Fiction Day on 21st June.
We have some updates for you today on our anthology, some competitions, some events, and some other opportunities. But to start off, I want to point out to you that it's now just 6 weeks until the big day, so if you are planning something, it's time to get the details to us so we can spread the word and get you as much attention as possible. All details, questions, suggestions etc. to us here at this address, and we'll try and get back to you as soon as we can. 
Okay, with that said, let's start with our anthology. We are accepting submissions until 18th May, stories should be 500 words maximum and on the subject of 'the senses' however you might like to interpret that. All selected contributors will receive a free print copy of the book. Full details are at http://host2021.temp.domains/~nationo0/anth.html and it would be extremely helpful if you could spread the word and keep spreading it up to the deadline, so we can get as many great stories as possible and make this year's book as exciting as Jawbreakers and Scraps
As promised, we also have some competitions and opportunities for you:
Winchester Writers' Festival is running a whole host of competitions, including a flash-fiction one being judged by yours truly. The closing date is 16th May. Full details at http://writersfestival.co.uk/competitions.
The Twisted Tales collection is running again (https://ragingaardvarkpublications.submittable.com/submit/28748) looking for stories between 350 and 750 words, with a closing date of 23rd June. 
And if you happen to be in New Zealand, they are running a competition for their NFFD at http://nationalflash.wordpress.com/competition/.
Not a competition, but Brilliant Flash Fiction Mag are looking for your stories over at http://brilliantflashfictionmag.wordpress.com/2014/04/14/welcome-readers-and-writers/comment-page-1/#comment-1.
And, in a turn around, we have someone looking for an opportunity which you might be able to help with. Australian Flash-Fictioneer Richard Holt will be in the UK for the day this year. He has created a flash-fiction video piece (titled 'Flashing the Square') and is wondering about the possibility of somewhere with public screens being willing to show it on the day. So if you can help, or know someone who can, please get in touch with us and we'll put you through to Richard.
On the day, we currently have two events being organised:
Oxford - Albion Beatnik Bookshop are hosting an evening reading event, organised by Virginia Moffat. More details from her at Virginia.Moffatt@ntlworld.com.
And we are once again having our main event in Bristol. More details to follow once we have them, but if you can make it, it would be great to see you there.
And, while I'm on, other flash-fiction things you might be interested in:
I will be doing a workshop at Wigan Literary Festival on 24th May - followed by a panel on getting your work out there. Details at http://www.wlct.org/default.aspx.LocID-0cs00r007001.Lang-EN.emID-970.rss-yes.EventID-16439.htm
Plus I will be doing a workshop as part of the Winchester Writers' Festival on the day after NFFD. Details at http://writersfestival.co.uk/the-festival.
And that's it for the moment. So, if you have news for us, or questions, then please get in touch. Otherwise, please spread the word about the anthology and our events, and let's make this year's NFFD another great success.
All the best
Calum
Calum Kerr
Director, National Flash-Fiction Day
(If you would like to receive these bulletins directly, please send an email asking to be added to the list to nationalflashfictionday@gmail.com.)

6

Well, the waiting is over, and we can finally announce the winners for this year's National Flash-Fiction Day 100 word Micro-Fiction competition!

It was a hard task for the judges, who had to whittle down nearly 400 entries to a list of their favourite twenty five. These lists were then amalgamated to form the shortlist that we posted earlier in the week, and from this they had to chose their top tens. Again we put the lists together, and from that has emerged this final list of winners. 

I'm sure you will agree that these are ten really wonderful micro-stories, but we'd like to send out our congratulations to all of you who entered, for making the judges work so hard. So many wonderful stories - thank you!

Next week we will be opening entries for this year's anthology, which will also feature all of these stories, so stay tuned for that, but let me not hold you in suspense any longer. Here are the results:


FIRST PLACE WINNER:
‘Never Let Me Go’ by Cathy Lennon
SECOND PLACE WINNER:
‘Night-time Knitting’ by Roz Mascall
THIRD PLACE WINNER:
‘If Kissed by a Dragon Fish by Tania Hershman
HIGHLY COMMENDED:
‘Dare by Simon Sylvester
‘The Star Falling’ by Morgan Downie
‘Sintra’ by Parineeta Singh
‘The Sponge Diver by Danielle McLaughlin
‘Peppermint’ by Jennifer Harvey
‘The Invisible Girl’ by Karl A Russell
‘4am by Angi Holden
STORIES:
FIRST PLACE WINNER:
'Never Let Me Go' by Cathy Lennon
First it was cartons and tins on the worktops, then newspapers on the stairs. Each window-sill sparkled with tin foil. He made me a necklace of ring-pulls and bottle tops. Like swans we perched on our bundles of rags and flattened boxes, smoothing the creases from wrappers. The hallway was Manhattan, a canyon of towering piles. Across the no man’s land in our bedroom our fingertips would touch, until one day they couldn’t anymore. From the other side, perplexed, he watched the tears slide down my face. He threw me two empty film canisters to catch them in.
SECOND PLACE WINNER:
'Night-time Knitting' by Roz Mascall
A gorilla is living in my cupboard. Every night, he swaggers onto my bed and waits for me to wake-up. I pretend to be asleep but hear his knitting needles clicking together. He is making a very long scarf for me. Squinting at him from under my blanket, I see his huge hairy hands scratch his scalp in disappointment. He looks sad. A pang of guilt hits me. I sit up and he hands me a ball of pink wool. His watery eyes meet my gaze. He is lonely. We lean against each other and knit until sunrise.
THIRD PLACE WINNER:
'If Kissed by a Dragon Fish' by Tania Hershman
If kissed by a dragonfish, do not bite. If kissed by a dragonfish, make sure you are sitting. Do not worry during the kiss, before the kiss, or after. Do not worry about a scale or two between your teeth. The dragonfish's skin is armoured but its heart beats loud and soft. You will not forget the kiss. You will not forget the coolness of the dragonfish's breath inside your lungs. You will look down through the floor of glass and see nothing, swimming. You will part, like an ocean, and on your sea bed you will pearl.
'Dare' by Simon Sylvester
Every day that summer, we played Dare. On hot afternoons we escaped the sun by hiding in the fort. We ate apples and counted pips and swapped secrets. We sat close, damp with sweat, bare skin sticking. She traced her fingers up my leg. Her fingertips whispered inside my thigh, and my breath caught in my throat.
She always chickened out. I taunted her, urging her higher, but she always chickened out before me.
When that summer was finished, we went back to school. We don’t really talk any more.
I heard she started playing Dare with boys.
'The Star, Falling' by Morgan Downie
When his eyes grew so bad that he could no longer see the horizon he built an artificial one in his garden. Afterwards he persisted in a stubborn refusal to cross it in case he should fall off the edge of the world. Asked, on reflection, if he had realised his intention as a younger man, to live the brief and fiery life of a meteor, he looked out across the universe of his garden, to the wife he still loved indescribably and said,
‘I am a meteor, just moving very, very slowly.’
'Sintra' by Parineeta Singh
I have followed you to this small town. I have walked the same cobblestones that you once trod on. I have stood on those hilltops in the mist you spoke of. I have felt it as smoke in my throat. The air I now exhale was the air you once breathed in. But this is not love; it is nowhere close to it. Love was the time when I put my ear to the flagstones listening for your footfall.
'The Sponge Diver' by Danielle McLaughlin
They knew each other a month when he told her about his Greek grandfather who, as a young man, had been a sponge diver. She closed her eyes, saw a figure – lithe, tanned  –  dive naked from a boat in the blue Aegean. He surfaced, water glittering silver on his skin, as if a shoal of tiny fish had followed him.
Opening her eyes, she noticed how her lover was most unlike a sponge diver.
After it ended, she bought a sea sponge, yellow and pocked. She sat it on her desk at work, and thought about his grandfather.
'Peppermint' by Jennifer Harvey
Afterwards, he thought about the gum stuck underneath the desk. It would still be there.
Every morning he watched as she slipped a finger in her mouth and prised it out, acting coy, though he knew she was aware of him.
Once, she’d looked him in the eye, stretched the gum between her teeth and let it snap, like a flirtatious wink.
He slid his fingers under the rim. It was still there.
Picking it loose, he popped it in his mouth.
It was fragrant, peppermint fresh.  A taste of her he could keep and roll across his tongue.
'The Invisible Girl' by Karl A Russell
It should have been an accident, Mel always thought. Something sciencey and catastrophic. Experimental bombs, or maybe the bite of an irradiated marmoset. That's how it used to happen in the comics anyway; A good dose of cosmic waves transformed you.
And everyone loved you.
Even the villains.
But there were no sciencey accidents in the real world. All it took to make Mel invisible was a split lip, or a black eye, or a few raised voices on a Saturday night, just after chucking out time.
And then, for just a little while, no-one could see her.
'4am' by Angi Holden
I open the bedroom curtains.
Dawn seeps across the horizon. The long grass beneath the hive glistens with dew. Hand-trimming takes patience; this summer I’ve neglected the garden.
I straighten the sheet across your chest. The air cradles the sour milk and vinegar scent of the sickroom.
Downstairs, I fumble with the lock, step into the morning. My slippers absorb the damp. No matter, I have a task to perform. Before I call the doctor, your sister, our son.
I walk down the path, your black crepe bowtie dangling from my hand. There is news I must tell the bees.

Hello all,

Just a very quick post today. We are pleased to announce that our hard-pressed judges have been beavering away and we now have a shortlist of 26 stories for our competition from which the winning 10 will be chosen.

The final decisions are being made as we speak, and as long as all goes to plan, we hope to announce the list of winners on Friday of this week - 11th April 2014, so spread the word and come back on Friday.

In the meantime, congratulations to all who made it down to this shortlist of 26. We received nearly four hundred entries this year, so to get even this far is a huge achievement. The judges have had a hard time choosing these stories, and I'm seriously worried that narrowing it down to only 10 might just finally break them. Assuming it doesn't, come back on Friday to find out who has won!

See you then,
Calum.

SHORTLIST:

'4am' by Angi Holden
'A Story To Be Read Slowly And With Ample Pauses, In A Voice Like Leonard Cohen' by Bob Jacobs
'Dare' by Simon Sylvester
'Elk Back' by Peggy Riley
'Gathering' by Sam Russell
'Harry on A.V.' by Brindley Hallam Dennis
'If Kissed by a Dragon Fish' by Tania Hershman
'Illuminated Relationship' by Jane Roberts
'Literary Costume' by Isabel Rogers
'Little Red' by Neil Murton
'Moments' by Natalie Bowers
'Never Let Me Go' by Cathy Lennon
'Night-time Knitting' by Roz Mascall
'On the rocks' by Francis Hayes
'Peppermint' by Jennifer Harvey
'Secret Admirer' by Clare Kirwan
'Sintra' by Parineeta Singh
'Sleepwalkers' by Pauline Masurel
'String of Smiles' by Allie Rogers
'The Dolls' by L. D. Lapinski
'The Human Body is More than 50% Water' by Żelazko Połysk
'The Invisible Girl' by Karl A Russell
'The Sponge Diver' by Danielle McLaughlin
'The Star Falling' by Morgan Downie
'The Strongest Man' by Elaine Borthwick
'Towards the Light' by Rebecca Swirsky

1

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the first Bulletin of 2014. I hope you are all keeping well and your flash-fiction activities have been running smoothly since we last spoke.
This will be a quick message, as we are just starting to gear up for getting ready for this year's day. However we do have a few messages, and a call for entries to our annual Micro-Fiction competition.
First, I need to direct you to our new website (http://host2021.temp.domains/~nationo0/). It's similar to the old - the same information - but with a shiny new look courtesy of a new logo from Charlotte Henson Design (https://www.facebook.com/charlottehensondesign) and a whole new site courtesy of Tim Stevenson. Many, many thanks to them both. 
Second is, of course, to tell you that the date for this year's NFFD will be Saturday 21st June, so it's time to start planning your event and thinking about what you will do to celebrate this year's day. Send us your information as soon as you have it, and we'll list it on the site.
And, of course, that is true for anything else that you think we need to list on the site - flash-fiction magazines and websites, new authors, or whatever. Please send it through and we will add it and spread the word.
Finally for this bulletin, and the item you have all been waiting for, it's time to announce that we are now open to submissions for this year's Micro-Fiction competition. The word limit is, once again, 100 words, and the closing date is Sunday 9th March, so you have a little over a month to get us your stories. Full details are on the website at http://host2021.temp.domains/~nationo0/comp.html
Prizes will once again be supplied by our sponsors, Salt Publishing, Comma Press and Gumbo Press, and we have an illustrious panel of judges comprising: Carys Bray, Cathy Bryant, Kevlin Henney, Jonathan Pinnock, Angela Readman and Tim Stevenson. 
You will notice that this year we have had to introduce a charge for entering the competition. This decision was not taken lightly, but it has been necessary in order to fund the activities of NFFD, not least the production of our now traditional anthology. We have, however, done our best to keep the cost to a minimum (and lower than many other similar competitions) and we promise not to squander the money on sweets and fizzy pop. Payments are via PayPal, but if you don't have an account with them, you can still use an ordinary credit or debit card. Of course, if you have any problems, please do get in touch.
And that's it for now. Go and have a look at the new site, get thinking about what you are going to do for the day, and start sending us your micro-fictions, we can't wait to read them!
More soon, as and when we have it. Until then, be well.
All best
Calum Kerr

(If you wish to subscribe to this bulletin, please send an email to nationalflashfictionday@gmail.com and we'll add you straight away.