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Published on Leave a comment on NFFD – Bulletin 5

Dear All,

Well, is it just me, or is 16th May starting to look really close? Only 5 weeks to go!
And, with the day drawing closer, things are hotting up. We have lots of new events online since the last bulletin, plus more in the pipeline that will go up in the next weeks. Yesterday saw the close of submissions for our anthology which will be going to press very soon, and we have started to appear in the press and on the radio. It's all very, very exciting and I need to thank all of you for your hard work so far.
But it doesn't stop there! Here are some of the things going on and ways you can continue to help:
  • Yesterday, flash-fictioneer Deborah Rickard was interviewed on Radio Bristol about the day and what's going on in the area. ( you can listen at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00qcf6l from about 1.53.30). If you are organising an event, taking part in an event, or just as excited as we are about the Day, why not drop your local station a line and go and tell the world?
  • The Guardian, on the 14th May, will be publishing an article by David Gaffney to promote the day. They will be listing our events. So, don't forget to let us know what's happening so we can add you to the list. (And if you don't have anything happening, there's still time to set something up!)
  • We have launched some new projects for the Day. There is the on-going project, Flashpoints ( http://nffdflashpoints.blogspot.co.uk/ ), which asks you to go to a place, write a story, and leave it there. And now we have unveiled plans for an International Write-In ( http://thewrite-in.blogspot.co.uk/ ) to happen on the Day itself. Please do get involved with these, and spread the word to all and sundry.
  • Along with this bulletin we have started to publish Guest Posts on our blog. We will be inviting a range of people to write for it, but if you have something you want to share, please drop us a line!
  • And finally, don't forget there are still competitions on-going with a range of deadlines. ( http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/competitions.html ) And we are pleased to announce that the top-three winners in all of the competitions will end up in a special e-book anthology published by NFFD.
And I think that's about it for now. We will be publishing this Bulletin weekly from now on, right up to the day (and beyond, maybe!) so stay tuned for more exciting happenings. And, if you have some news we need to share, drop us a line at nationalflashfictionday@gmail.com and we'll spread the word for you.
In the meantime, make sure you have liked our page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/nationalflashfictionday) and that you follow us on Twitter (@nationalflashfd) and please spread the word to your friends and followers to do the same.
Thank, as ever, for your support with the day.
Until next time, happy flashing!
Calum Kerr
Director, National Flash-Fiction Day 2012

This message was originally sent out to our mailing list. To sign up, send us an email to nationalflashfictionday@gmail.com

Published on Leave a comment on Publishing Flash – Guest Post from Flashquake

Everything is a collective effort at Flashquake. We’ve got a great team working together to deliver the best content because our readers deserve just that. With that being said, we want to offer a collective response to what it is like to publish flash.

From Cindy Bell, Publisher and Editor-In-Chief:

We have a long tradition of publishing flash fiction, flash nonfiction, and short poetry including prose poetry. We've got a solid decade behind us, but aren't taking anything for granted. We strive to improve, to grow, and to offer our readers a quality publication. We're adding 10-minute plays, translations, multi-media, and reviews to the mix this year!

From Kellie Doherty, Editor and Segment Leader of Critique-A-Flash:

My experience with Flashquake has broadened my mind to what flash fiction is and how many writers love the style. As the segment leader of Critique-A-Flash, I am exposed to a wide variety of flashes each week. The quality ranges, of course, but, as long as they meet our requirements, I critique them, stating what could be changed or what I particularly liked. Writers, I believe, like the test of penning a flash. It challenges the very core of what a good story is truly about and, with my job, I feel like I'm helping those writers become better at what they love to do and allowing them to get the publication they rightly deserve. It's hard to write good flashes and the ones who try should be rewarded.

From Nichelle Seely, Editor:

Working with flash fiction has been an eye-opening experience. It's been an education to be on the editing side instead of the submission side. When faced with choosing four out of a hundred submissions, I can now appreciate how meaningful each nuance of care and style becomes. Amazing pieces pop out of the field with their originality of subject or beauty of language. At first I felt, 'who am I to judge,' and yet, that was my responsibility--it's humbling! And because Flashquake responds to every submitter with a brief critique, it reminds me that there's a human being with hopes and dreams on the other side of the story, someone who might be hurt or encouraged by whatever I have to say. I try hard to include something that works as well as the reason a story was rejected, because almost everything I've read has some merit. It usually takes me longer to compose my two sentence critique than the time it takes me to read the story.

Being an editor for Flashquake has improved my own writing. Flash fiction by nature must be laser-beam tight, and extraneous verbiage sticks out like a corn stalk in a pumpkin patch. My spidey-sense for needless words gets stronger every issue, and I now have a much better idea of what an actual paid editor must go through, and what they're looking for (or at least what puts them off!)

From David Bowles, Editor:

For me, flash fiction at its best is about the relationship between the author and the reader, the power of resonant writing to interact with a reader's own brain and create a story that is just hinted at on the page. This sort of intimacy is what many writers crave: a one-to-one collaboration with the audience from which powerful shared narratives arise. Finding pieces that accomplish this amazing feat is a joy for me, and sharing them with other word junkies is almost a responsibility.

From Elia Seely, Guest Editor:

I write flash fiction for the challenge of distilling a story down to its purest elements. I read this genre for the same reasons; that pure shot of "ahh" that comes from a perfectly measured portion of character, tone, setting, dialogue. Editing for an online magazine offers and immediacy of experience for both myself and the submitters; it feels good to be able to respond with some feedback right away. I love seeing people's imaginations at work, at it inspires me to get my own work out there.

--

Our Spring issue is now up in a new format we are proud of and excited to deliver to our readers. We also just opened up our submission period and will be accepting literary works of flash as well as art through May 20th.

At Flashquake, we have a theory: Words are meant to make an impact, to leave a trace, to enlighten and to inspire. We hope you’ll read along with us.

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Published on 4 Comments on The Real Value of Writing Contests – Guest Post by Sarah Hilary

I’ve been entering flash fiction contests for a while now, and have just launched Flashbang, my first attempt at running a contest for others to enter. It’s made me think afresh about the value of contests, and how to describe flash fiction to those coming at the concept for the first time. I’m someone who took to flash like a fish to batter, and landed an impressive tome of rejections along the way, but I hope I’ve got useful things to say to those just setting out on the contest road.

I say I’ve been rejected many times and it’s true. I used to keep a spreadsheet of my entries and their fates, but it got too depressing looking at all the boxes coloured like Elastoplast (the colour I used for rejections). Still, my first big win – in anything – came with flash fiction. I wrote a 300 word story about Lizzie Borden which won the Fish Criminally Short Histories Prize. Hard to imagine a better thrill than that, and for a long time afterwards I was hooked on entering flash contests. It’s fun to be on the other side of the fence now, watching the entries to Flashbang roll in and thinking of the buzz the writers will get when we announce the shortlist, and the winners.

But what if you’re not one of the winners? Well, I have more experience in that neck of the woods than in the winners’ enclosure, and I still think entering contests is a terrific way to get ahead as a writer. Why? Firstly and most importantly, it makes you write. We should be writing all the time, of course, but sometimes a competition is the kick in the pants that reminds us to get on with it.

Secondly, it makes you write something for someone else, which means we start thinking about the readers, or a specific reader – the judge. We check out what the judge likes, and we write towards that, rather than simply pleasing ourselves. Thirdly, contests get us writing to a deadline and a set word count. Again, important skills if we take our writing careers seriously.

Fourthly – okay, that sounds weird. My fourth point: it means we have to let go. Put our words out there, to be judged. This is a really tough part of writing, and I don’t think any author ever gets over how hard it is. As long as we’re in control, we can tell ourselves our stories are great. Fantastic even. But we won’t know for sure, until we send them out into the world of Other Readers. It’s scary, but it’s a vital part of writing. Letting go frees us up to start something new.

Five? You might win! Or make the shortlist. Or the long list. Each of these is a milestone which should be celebrated. Even – and here’s a bruiser – being rejected. Knock-backs come with the territory and the sooner we can start accepting them, the better. Suck in the honey, spit out the bees, as someone said to me recently. Or, as Peter O’Toole says in Lawrence of Arabia: ‘Of course it hurts. The trick is not minding that it hurts.’ In many ways, failure is your friend. I blogged a bit on that theme, here.

I’d encourage everyone to enter Flashbang. It’s free (which is increasingly rare these days) and the judges have provided brilliant hints as to what they’re after in the winning entries, which include some great definitions of flash fiction. Don’t be put off if you’re not a crime writer; perhaps the very best thing about flash is how many hats you can try on. I’ve written horror flashes, comic flashes, and literary flashes. You don’t need to be an expert in the genre to write 150 words – and you may discover a talent you didn’t know you had. So give it your best shot (pun intended) and I look forward to reading your entries.

More info

Visit http://flashbangcontest.wordpress.com/ for full details, and follow @FlashbangGang on Twitter for latest news.

Published on Leave a comment on Drum and Flash – Guest post by Dan Carpenter

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine last weekend. He’s a DJ, a drum and bass one to be precise and we were discussing what we look for in stories, and in music. I should clarify, for the record, that I don’t much like drum and bass, or most dance music. He asked me what I first listened to when I listen to music, when that song first comes on, what is it that first grips you, that makes you want to listen more. I thought about it for a moment, and I told him it was the words. The lyrics of a song. That’s what I listen out for. And so I asked him, when you do the same, what is it you first listen out for? He said he didn’t much go for the lyrics, to him the words are just another instrument and he wants to hear all those instruments used intelligently. He wants creativity in everything to do with music.

I bring this up because I have been thinking a lot over the past week about myself as a writer. When I pick up a book and dismiss it after reading the first chapter because it’s badly written, because the plot doesn’t work – am I doing the same thing? Am I looking for works that use everything creatively, intelligently? Has writing, in fact, ruined my love of books to an extent? I can enjoy music because to me, the songs I like have great lyrics. I don’t care about the guitar or piano or whatever. But with stories, for me at least, they’ve got to get it all right.

I picked up Jon McGregor’s wonderful short story collection, ‘This isn’t the sort of thing that happens to someone like you’ the other week and the opening story, ‘That Colour’ happens to fall under the word count of a flash fiction. To me, that story is a work of genius. Go on, go out and buy it, give that tale a read and tell me it isn’t the best piece of work by a writer so far this year. It’s incredible and more so, it’s less than a thousand words long.

I suppose that’s what I like about Flash Fiction. Maybe like isn’t the right word, respect is probably better. When they’re done well, they manage to do everything well, plot, character, imagery; they can make you laugh, cry and all within a tiny word count.

We’ll be celebrating National Flash Fiction day in Manchester all day, with incredible performances from Flash Tag, and an evening event that might even feature your work. So go on, you’ve got two days left to send us a story. Impress us!


http://badlanguagemcr.wordpress.com/competition/

Published on Leave a comment on Competitions and Anthologies

National Flash-Fiction Day is rolling down the tracks, coming closer and closer. But before it gets here we have a host of deadlines for competitions and anthologies. So, I thought I would give you a list of the dates so you don't miss any of them.

Full details of all of these can be found on our website at http://host2021.temp.domains/~nationo0/competitions.html.

Saturday 31st March
Flash-Fiction South West - Anthology (West Country writers only)

Sunday 1st April
Bad Language - flash-fiction competition (All of UK)

Tuesday 10th April
National Flash-Fiction Day Anthology (All of UK)

Friday 13th April
Abergavenny Focus / The Word Counts - Flash-Fiction Competition (All of UK)

Sunday 15th April (11pm)
Derby Telegraph Flash Fiction Competition (Derbyshire writers only)

Sunday 15th April
Flashbang - Crime-flash Competition (International)

Friday 20th April
Lancashire Writing Hub's Flash-Fiction Competition (All of UK)

Monday 30th April (5pm)
Flash-Fiction at the end of the world! - Flash-Fiction Competition (All of UK)

Monday 30th April
1000 words (International)

Tuesday 1st May
'Flash a Famous Phrase' Competition - from Flash Fiction World (All of UK)

Date to be Confirmed
Once Upon a Time Writing Contest (International)

And, we have an open project with no particular deadline:

Flashpoints
http://nffdflashpoints.blogspot.co.uk/

So, sharpen your pens, brush off your keyboards, and get your work in while you still can.
Good luck to you all!

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Published on 10 Comments on Is flash fiction really real? – Guest Post by Alison Wells

Flash fiction it's all the rage now. It's short, it's snappy, it's intense, it's bitesized. It's a short piece of fiction that ranges from the single word to a roundabout 1000 words at a stretch. It's as direct as poetry but without the same abstraction. It makes words work extra hard through attention to juxtaposition, erudition, etymology, sound and tempo. Flash fiction requires skill and wit, it requires a writer with nerves of steel, and a sharp steely scalpel that cuts out everything that distracts or is not necessary. It's a shot, instead of a pint. It's a story without the subplots, it's character as plot. It's story boiled down to it's essence: Character, motivation, action, epiphany (or you could be really clever and try a characterless epiphany or make the reader the character – anything to save words).

Have I convinced you yet? Is flash fiction really something different? Something that should be recognised it's own right?

Here in Ireland the recognition of flash fiction is definitely on the rise. After an Irish Times article (in which some of my views were quoted) the Irish Times proceeded to publish a flash fiction piece every day in it's newspaper. In an era when fiction is being edged out of many publications this is a terrific boon. In addition the lauded Irish national radio's arts programme RTE's Arena is now holding a flash fiction competition and both the Fish and Bridport Prizes have added flash fiction to their competition categories.

My own experience of finding flash fiction was through the Twitter community and hashtag #fridayflash. Here I found a place where I could create and read small pieces of fiction that, at it's most effective told a complete story and set of cerebral sparks. Many of these stories are being collated in Flashes of Sadness and Light where many of the characters appear again and again in each others stories.

We live in an age when everything and everyone is a story. We invent ourselves through Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, we look the extremes of the human condition through reality TV. We have round the clock news delivering pathos, action, outrage, rhetoric, conflict all in a moment.

Flash fiction is quick, it hits hard like the headlines. Flash has to find the hook fast, it needs to speak to us to reflect or expand our experience or it loses the reader. The beauty of flash and the crux of why it is important is that while it is short, quick, intense, accessible, bite-sized for the Smartphone it is made of words and can give us the best of what fiction can give.

And what can fiction give us? - Reflection, resonance, depth, pause, perspective. Through the eyes of authors, through their choices we can experience news ways of looking at the world, new understanding or just be plain old entertained.

When you look back at a book you enjoyed, or a film or piece of music, there is often a key scene or in music a lyric or a theme that sticks in your head and sums everything up and that is the power of flash fiction, it can be that killer moment, that set of notes that twists the knife in your gut, it is the shady bit in the middle of a Venn diagram that says everything that needs to be said: confluence, convergence, coincidence, consequence.

Do you remember a look years on? Where you were standing when you heard the news? That's flash.

As a writer, writing flash has given me: the opportunity to experiment, the discipline of chiselling a piece down to its fundamental elements, the joy (as a psychology graduate) of making character itself tell the story. It also has provided the parameter for me to ask myself over and over again, what really matters in the story? What creates an effect and what makes a difference?

Reading, most recently David Gaffney's very short pieces (or micro fiction) as he likes to call them in his collection Sawn Off Tales what has struck me is that these flash fictions have the impact of stand up comedy gags. We have the anticipation, the initial idea planted in our heads as to where the story or the gag might be going, then the exposition, the story, the thing that happened and finally, the resolution – or maybe not – both in comedy and in flash fiction the power is sometimes in the not saying, in the juxtaposition of ideas or occurrences that sets off a trigger in the mind of the reader. So flash fiction will be, (and perhaps even more so than other fictions) a collaboration between reader and writer, a conspiracy or collusion of understanding, shared conventions understood and then exploded.

While some commentators are still not sure that flash fiction is more than a writing exercise, I am firmly convinced that it taps into our human desire for anecdote and wit, it requires quick thinking, many connections firing at once. In this modern age of multitasking and parallel processing of all kinds of media, flash fiction, in my opinion, is something that is smart, quick and effective but also something that will endure as a way of making sense of the world and a fantastic way to enjoy and experience that sense making.

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Published on 1 Comment on NFFD – Bulletin 4
(This bulletin was sent out on 16th March 2012. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please get in touch via the email address on our website at http://host2021.temp.domains/~nationo0/contact.html)



Dear All,

I thought today would be appropriate for an update as it is exactly 2 months until National Flash-Fiction Day itself. Since the last bulletin a lot has been happening so I thought I would bring you up to date, tell you what's happening, and all the rest.
As you probably already know we have secured some Arts Council funding. This is not a huge amount but it has allowed us do some things that otherwise wouldn't have happened:
  • We have put an anthology into production with 10 stories commissioned from all parts of the country. This will be edited by myself and Valerie O'Riordan and will include, and we are chuffed to bits about this: Jenn Ashworth, Tania Hershman, Vanessa Gebbie, David Gaffney, Emma J. Lannie, Jonathan Pinnock, Simon Thirsk, Nigel McLoughlin, Sarah Hilary, Eunice Yeates, Kirsty Logan and - in case you haven't heard me shouting it from the rooftops - Ali Smith! This anthology is also seeking submissions, and details are on the website (http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/anthology.html).
  • Following on from the success of the Micro-Fiction competition (nearly 300 entries of an incredible standard and 10 very worthy winners) we are going to print promotional cards featuring the stories (http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/cards.html). If you are running an event or simply wish to promote the day in a very attractive physical form, please let me know (with a postal address) and I will forward a batch of cards to you once they're printed.
  • On the same theme, we are also hoping to print some posters in a similar style. So, let me know if you want those as well.
  • And we have been able to afford some professional PR help. This means that we can start spreading the word even further and will be able to help promote your events in the national and local media.
In the meantime the number of writers listed on the website has grown hugely. We still have space for more, so do get in touch if you are a published (in however small a way) flash-fictioneer and would like to be listed. In the near future, when I have time, I will be changing the layout of the 'Writers' page to provide a more usable A-Z listing, but also a listing by region. This has been requested by a couple of literature professionals (council and library people) as it will allow them to pinpoint their local authors and more easily book them for events. So that should be helpful!
We have also added a number of new events and competitions. However, we want more! Word is finally coming in from Scotland and Northern Ireland of things happening there, but the North East of England and - surprisingly - London are still empty. So, if you live in those areas, or know people who do, please think about setting something up or chivvying them along. We want to cover as much of the country as possible. And, if you live in areas with things already happening, please don't think you can't set up more events or, if you'd rather not, consider getting involved with what's already going on.
Just a word here about 'Closed' events. Some people - myself included - are running events which are limited to geographical areas or, even, to a particular institution or group. I would still like to know about these and to list them on the site. They will be listed as 'Closed' (as in, not open to the general public) but it would be good to show people they don't need to run large-scale public events. So, if you are planning something at your school, college, university, reading group, writing group, etc. which will only be open to the pupils/members, please do let me know. And, if you're not, why not think about doing so?
The 'International' section now has a few entries, but I'm sure we could have a lot more. So encourage your non-UK friends to get in touch for a listing.
We also now have a couple of new sections. One is for projects and magazines etc. So if you are doing something noteworthy and flashy online, let me know and we'll list you. Likewise, we have a section for videos. So if you have been caught on camera reading a flash, or something related, let me know and we'll add it to our site and our YouTube Channel.
As I mentioned above, we will be hitting the press soon, and hope to get some coverage. But it would help us immensely if you could use any contacts you have in the media - local, national, international - to spread the word. You can direct them back to me if you would rather not deal directly, but please let's start getting the word out there.

On that same theme, while we have a good band of followers on our social media outlets, we could always have more. So, if you are on Twitter, please follow us at @nationalflashfd and, as it's Friday, how about giving us a single tweet with a #ff or #followfriday tag in it, or otherwise encourage your friends to follow us and get involved. Likewise, if you haven't 'Liked' our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/nationalflashfictionday, please can you do so and also share the link on your pages encouraging your friends to sign up too?

Additionally, if you run a blog or website, and would like an interview from me - or a piece of flash-fiction - then please get in touch. I think the time is right to start those kinds of promotions as the day is still far away enough to organise something but close enough to be tangible. Likewise, if you would rather interview one of our listed writers, please get in touch with me and I will pass on your request. I would ask you to go through me, even if you know the writer in question, partly to stop them receiving too many requests at once, but also so I can keep track and help promote the interview/post/thing on our various outlets.
And finally, a more personal call-out. I shall be hosting the 'official'(?) NFFD event on the day at central library in Southampton. This will consist of readings, talking about flash-fiction and the day, and the official launch of the anthology. If you are close enough to come, it would be great to see you. And if you are a writer of flash and would like to read at the event, please get in touch and I shall try to add you to the programme. Thanks.
And that's it for now. A big thank you to all of you for all you have done so far. National Flash-Fiction Day was just a silly idea I had, but now it's shaping up to be something amazing! With your help it can be big and beautiful, and build a platform to launch future years of National (and maybe even International) flashing!
Thanks, really.
Calum

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Published on 3 Comments on 1000 Words of Wonder – Guest Blog from Marc Nash
A guest blog post from Marc Nash on just how lyrical a flash-fiction can be. with accompanying video:
Somehow I started writing weekly flash fiction for my blog as part of my marketing "strategy" for my debut novel, tweeting the link as part of Twitter's #fridayflash community. I'd barely written a short story at that point, let alone one restricted to 1000 words. But the discipline of producing a new story a week and a limited word count were wonderfully conducive to learning rapidly! After a little over a year I had 52 flash pieces and having said I wouldn't write anything new while marketing the novel, suddenly I found I had an anthology for my second book.
I'm always wrestling with words, trying to nail down the elusive precision of their meaning. Flash fiction allowed me to pursue my grappling with language in closer focus than even in my novel writing. With no more than 500-1000 words, there is simply no room for wastage or indulgence. Every word has to count. Has to have an impact.
1000 words play off each other in a way that the 75,000 words of a novel just can't. A reader can hold 1000 words in their mind, where they can't possibly hold all 75,000 of a novel. Therefore the reader is far more able to catch the resonances and layers, picking up the significance of a word or phrase in the first paragraph through something that you've supplied them in the final paragraph. A novel stretching out over 75,000 words cannot assume the reader is going to recall touchstone words and phrases in quite the same way.
Then there's the sound and rhythm of the piece. You can sustain a lyricism over 1000 words in a way that is far harder over the course of a novel. For the 2-3 minute duration of a flash piece, you can make the language "sing" inside the reader's head. You can afford to choose a word for its sound as much as its meaning. For those 1000 words, the flash writer is in complete control of the reader's breath. This simply isn't possible in the same way over the course of a novel. The reader doesn't maintain their concentration and focus at an even intensity over every word. For 2-3 minutes of flash, when it's written excitingly and lusciously, we can absolutely make them!
Yet flash fiction is far from abbreviation. It demands the correct word choice to convey exactly what the writer needs it to say. Words have to bear even more weight in flash, because they are being asked to do so much in a very short span. Language becomes a tool wielded with laser precision, something I was able to take back into my novel writing. I'm still writing flash fiction, though not one a week. Just when the idea takes hold and demands to be expressed in the shortest form of narrative possible. Usually some image or idea I've come across during the week, which I can explore in all its many facets within the scope of 1000 words. Flash fiction rather than shrinking everything, actually allows you to open out one idea or image into the full complement of its subtle shades of meaning. It is both microscopic slide and telescopic lens lanced out into the cosmos! For only 1000 words, it is surprisingly unlimited.

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Published on 2 Comments on # Story Sunday

It's #StorySunday over on Twitter. In case you don't know what that means, people but the 'hashtag' #StorySunday into their tweets and post a link to a story they like. I've been watching it this morning and a number of people are posting their links to stories which won the first National Flash-Fiction Day micro-fiction competition. I wanted to add a National Flash-Fiction Day voice to the throng, but what an invidious choice, asking me to pick between my children. So, I thought I would post all of the stories here, giving you the chance to read them if you haven't yet, and then I can post a single link and no-one gets left out!

So, in alphabetcial order, here are the ten wonderful stories which won this year's competition. I hope you enjoy them and please feel free to tweet this post, share this post on Facebook, tell your friends on the phone or just sit back on a lazy Sunday and enjoy.

'New Shoes'
by Jenny Adamthwaite

Dad wanted trainers.
"I'd like to know I could run away," he said.
When the hospital bed lay empty, it gave us a moment's hope.

'Sad Lover'
by Jason Bagshaw

Beth and Alana had reservations at the restaurant in town. On the phone Beth said, 'I'll meet you at seven,' and Alana faked excitement and said, 'Can't wait.' Half past seven and the two of them were seated, ordering their drinks, listening to the piano of a popular composer coming through the speakers. 'It's Bach,' said Beth. 'I know,' Alana replied, but she knew it was Mozart and she wanted to break things off with her. 'I'm going to tell George everything,' said Beth and Alana cried inside. 'Good,' Alana said and hummed along to Mozart. To Bach.

'Black Hole'
by Daniel Carpenter

There is a black hole above her house.

This swirling cosmic nothingness, ever expanding, tendrils reaching out across the sky. She does not know how it got there. She knows it's taking her things. She does not remember last Saturday. When she tries to explain it she can't. She wants to say, "There's a black hole above my house and it's stealing every memory I have ever treasured," but it is not the kind of sentence people understand.

The black hole expands, time collapses in on itself.

She discovers her twelve year old self in her attic.

'She'll Leave You For A Man'
by Kirsty Logan

You've always known it: that gleam, that glint, that licking of lips that means she is thinking about them. Men.

She thinks about them while smelling night jasmine, while rolling out pastry, while signing the bill for the waiter.

And so she will go. She will forget the shape of your hands.

But she will tire of her stubble-rashed chin, of long silences and calloused thumbs, of nothing to pillow her head.

So wait. Just wait.

'Meredith'
by Amy Mackelden

On Grey's Anatomy, everyone's slept with everybody, and although real life is complicated, I'm sure it's not that complicated, or if it is then everyone's fucking without me, doing it secretly, when I'm at Pilates, or sleeping between ten and eight.

'New Build'
by Clare O'Brien

There is no door to close. Just space, scaffolded, bathed in mud and builder's grit. The air rolls in, clouds of steam boiling from impervious stone, steel rods singing down into the sea.

I can already smell the tang of a fire burning at our bare hearth as the rain sweeps through the rafters. Our boys climb ladders lashed to girders, laugh at the water which sticks their shirts to their backs.

Around our house's heart the rooms are growing shells. Inside these plotted squares we'll live our story. The windows wait outside, roped against the wind.

'The Worst Head in the World'
by Angela Readman

Liam gave me his mother's head. I guess he was sick of carrying it around.

'It's just for a while,' he said, placing the jar on the drawers. In the dark, lips made budgie-like kissing sounds. We had a reason to screw loud.

Come morning, the head tutted, 'I WANT a doily.'

It frowned if I wasted chicken bones, or didn't ask Liam if he'd washed his hands.

When he went, Liam left the head behind. It wavers in the water, tells me I'm not good enough, nods when I iron seams in jeans.

'Alterations'
by Tim Stevenson

After the accident she came home rebuilt.

At breakfast, the platinum beneath her skin glows, pulsing with electricity, curiously alive.

I take some toast, spread butter. I see that there are no eggs in the pan.

She smiles, a mechanical lighthouse across the blue ocean of tablecloth. Her head turns smoothly towards the window, her warmth coming only from the sun.

I open my newspaper setting the pages full sail, seeking guidance in the new star of her unreadable face, in the night of her eyes.

Tonight I know I will not dream of her, only of the sea.

'Relieving Mafeking'
by Alun Williams

The 06:17 from Nuneaton stops for three minutes outside Wembley on its approach to Euston. For one hundred and eighty seconds, Mafeking Jones sits open mouthed in his usual seat, staring at a naked woman, framed like a fallen Madonna at her open bedroom window.

No one else notices, no one else sees, perhaps because they are insularly wrapped up in newsprint tales of economic gloom and sporting deeds that have now passed to memory.

Mafeking is an accountant, a man of spreadsheets and numbers but for those three Wembley solitary minutes he's Michaelangelo in a Florentine dream.

'First Person'
by Martha Williams

You lie within me, cupped and curled. You're in me, I'm in you; we're each other's inside out.

They count your fingers, toes, chromosomes... twice. My head spins.

Are you upside down?

They turn off the monitor. They speak in needles, numbers, and odds. I strum my fingers to your kicks.

They say, "If you... we have pills... the products of conception would..." They don't smile. My belly tightens.

Can you feel me? I'm your first person.

I say, "The products of conception, call them 'Emma'".

You lie still...

When you wake, you can call me 'Mum'.

9

Published on 9 Comments on NFFD – Bulletin 3

Hello Flash-Fictioneers,

Well, as you have a probably noticed, now that Christmas is well and truly over the engines have started turning over again here in Flash-Fiction Day central. Things are starting to move and we're ready to get on the road.
We have added a whole new batch of writers to the website and had our first entry on our 'International' Section. A batch of new events has been added and there are more to come. Our micro-fiction competition has come and gone, and results will be announced around the end of the month. And we are waiting to hear back about an Arts Council Bid which will allow us to do some more shiny things.
All of this is fantastic, but it is still really just a start. We need to keep going and keep growing and ensure that 16th May is the spring board for annual Flash-Fiction Days in the years to come.
  • So, if you are a writer of flash-fiction (with at least a couple of publications, or a flash-fiction blog or something similar) then get in touch as we'd like to list you on the site. This applies to International writers too - please get in touch.
  • If you run a flash-project such as a magazine, a blog or a website, we'd like to start a new section to feature those separately from the 'Writers' pages, so please drop me a line about those too. (Again, international projects also welcome.)
  • If you are planning an event, even if you aren't sure of all the details yet, let me know so I can at least put something up to make people aware of what's going to be happening in their area. And, if you aren't yet planning an event... why not? If you need inspiration, some of the things happening so far include: flash-readings, flash-slams, competitions to be announced on or near the day, workshops and anthologies. If you're a student or teacher, why not organise something within your Uni or school? If you work at, borrow from, or live near a library, why not get in touch with them and see if they want to do something? If you have a local paper, radio or TV station, why not drop them a line and see what they think. At least one local newspaper will be running a competition, so why not suggest that to yours? (Also, if you are doing something, but it's not open to the public, such as a class being run in a school or uni, please let us know anyway so we can share it as a source of inspiration to others).
  • If you have a blog or website, then please think about promoting the day. I'm available for online (or in person) interviews about it all, if that's any use to you.
  • Conversely, if you would like to write a guest blog entry for us about flash-fiction, why you like it, how you came to it, how you do it, or anything else flash-related, we'd love to hear from you.
  • If you have a webcam, why not film yourself reading a story and put it up to YouTube or similar. In the recent update we have added Nik Perring reading one of his and it looks great. We'd like to build up a YouTube channel if we can.
  • Please share the FB page and website on your social media channels and get the word out there. Also, this bulletin will be on our blog soon, so please share that too. (http://nationalflashfictionday.blogspot.com/)
  • And finally, if you would like to be the co-ordinator for your region, please do get in touch and we'll make it happen.

And, of course, if you think of anything that we haven't listed, please let us know, new ideas are happening all the time and it's great to be able to share. This is shaping up to be one heck of a day, but we do need your help to make it happen.

Thank you all for your hard work so far, and roll on May 16th!
All the best
Calum