rumjhumA woman who recently started to tread water in fiction writing asked me the other day what she should write to an editor regarding a piece that had been shortlisted in a contest but hadn’t won anything. The shortlisted pieces were available in a public domain and anyone could read them.  I told her that in that case her piece was as good as published and she should look at the reprint markets. However, if the editor was open to reprints, she could send it on. And also that she should always state the submitted piece’s status upfront in her cover letter. Integrity is something that is appreciated by all, and editors are no exception.

Writers often make the mistake of running headlong into a submission process without knowing what the publisher/editor needs. You would do better selling candy to a bunch of diabetics!

 The best and easiest way to know what your editor wants is to do something so obvious that many writers bypass this crucial step in their submission process. READ THE MAGAZINE’S/PUBLISHER’S SUBMISSION GUIDELINES! And read a few issues of the magazine as well. In the case of book publishers, take a long hard look at what books they are currently publishing.

No matter how many guidelines you have read already, and no matter how many times you have submitted to that particular editor before, glance at the submissions page just that one more time before you even begin to write your cover letter. Editorial policies change as do editors. Publishing houses may change their policies too.

You may have heard of the old adage “first impression is the last impression.” Well, your cover letter’s job is to create that all important first impression.  So please read and re-read, and go through the process all over again in your cover letter and of course your submission as well.

The cover letter is the part that introduces you to the editor and you wouldn’t want to spoil your chances at this stage. With more and more editors preferring the paperless  (read email) submission process over traditional methods (as editors like to put it in their guidelines page “paperless submissions kill less trees and are therefore more environment friendly), markets for writers never seemed closer. But herein lie the all the near invisible pitfalls.

In their impatience to be published many writers shoot off letters without hitting the spell check button. It’s the simplest of spellings that have all the devilry up their sleeve. So spell check, spell check and spell check.

I was careless once and just at the nick of time caught the gaffe which I put up in in the headline of this piece. Yes that’s right, I spelt editor wrong! Luckily for me I had to go down to answer the door or something and clicked “save” and five minutes later when I returned, my mind being refreshed somewhat, I spotted the error straightaway! Imagine calling your editor an “edioter!” That nonsense word has such terrible connotations that had I hit the send button I would have closed that particular editorial door forever!

 

Rumjhum Biswas’s fiction and poetry have been published in all the five continents, in print as well as online journals and anthologies. She has won prizes for poetrry in India and was long listed in the Bridport Poetry Prize in 2006. She blogs at htt://rumjhumkbiswas.wordpress.com

For the week of February 7 through February 14, Flash Fiction Chronicles is  having its second String-of-10 Contest—String of 10 TWO—for the best 250-word story written from a specific prompt: a series of ten words given to you on February 7, 2010. For the seven days between February 7 and February 14  instead of a new prompt each day from Daily Prompts, we are having a contest for the best 250-word story written from the  String-of-10 ( words and phrase) posted below.

JOEL WILLANS, nominated for the Pushcart Prize and winner of the Yeovil Prize and Global Short Story Award  is our guest judge for this contest.  Scroll down to the end to find out more about Joel.

PROMPT

STRING OF TEN

SURVIVAL-SKIMMILK*-LOLLYGAG-CRYPTIC-ONLOOKER-LEAK-RAW-FORBIDDEN-RADIO-VERDIGRIS

QUOTATION

 A person usually has two reasns for doing something: a good reason and the real reason. –Thomas Carlyle.

*Note of clarification: “skim-milk” is a hypenated word in the editor’s dictionary.  The hyphen was left out in the first string to clarify that skim and milk belong together.  Here is an alternate way to see the string:

*SURVIVAL/SKIM-MILK/ LOLLYGAG/CRYPTIC/ONLOOKER/
LEAK/RAW/FORBIDDEN/RADIO/VERDIGRIS

 

GUIDELINES

  1. Read the contest’s String of 10 Writing Prompt which will be available at 12:01 on February 7, 2010 here as well as on the FFC Daily Prompt Page and at Gay Degani’s Author Thread at Every Day Fiction. 
  2. The contest is open to stories of  up to 250 words. Entries over the word limitation will be disregarded.
  3. Submit via email addressed to flashfictionblog@everydayfiction.com.   All entries must be copy and pasted into the body of the email. No attachments will be opened.
  4. There is no entry fee.
  5. You may enter as many 3 separate and different stories up to 250-words each. 
  6. All stories must contain at least four words from the String of 10.  Any stories without at least four words from the string of 10 will be disregarded.  The prompt words may be slightly modified such as tense, number, etc.  (Example: walk can be amended to walks, walked, even walker or walkers)
  7. The aphorism that is given doesn’t not need to be found in the story, but rather to be used as an additional source of inspiration.  No story will be judged on its use.  Note may be taken if a story uses the aphorism in an inspired way.
  8. What matters most is your story, not the prompt words or quotation.  Seamless integration of any four of the prompt words is the goal. 
  9. All entries must be in English, original, unpublished, and not submitted or accepted elsewhere at the time of submission. Flash Fiction Chronicles/Every Day Fiction/Every Day Publishing reserves one-time publication rights to the 1st- through-3rd winning entries to be published at Every Day Fiction and Flash Fiction Chronicles.
  10. Entries must be received via email by 11:59 PDT Sunday, February 14.
  11. Winners will be notified by March 20.  Publication will follow in April. 
  12. The preliminary decision the judges of the top 10 and the final decision by guest judge, Joel Willans, of the top three stories are final.

 Stories from the first String-of-10 Contest can be read at these links.

 1st Place: The Haircut by Sharon E. Trotter

2nd Place: The Forever Summer by Mary J. Daley

3rd Place: Choices Made by Jim O’Loughlin

 

PRIZES

BOEDFtwo1st Place: Winner will have his or her story published at Every Day Fiction in April 1010 and be paid the standard payment of $3.00 per story.   A copy of The Best of Every Day Fiction TWO along with a copy of Pomegranate Stories by Gay Degani, the editor of Flash Fiction Chronicles  will also be awarded as well as an “I Write Every Day” t-shirt.

2nd and 3rd Place: Winners will have their stories published at Flash Fiction Chronicles in April.  (NOTE:There is no payment for publication at Flash Fiction Chronicles.)  A copy of The Best of Every Day Fiction TWO along with a copy of Pomegranate Stories by Gay Degani, the editor of Flash Fiction Chronicles  will also be awarded to both 2nd and 3rd place winners.

However at least four words from the prompt must  be used. 

 

TIPS

1. Do not dash off the first thing that comes to mind and email five minutes later.  READ IT, REWRITE IT, and PROOFREAD IT.

2. Start with a strong first sentence.  This doesn’t necessarily mean the first sentence you write, but rather the best sentence you write after you have a feeling for what the story is about.  Engage the reader with detail and conflict.

3. Words need to be carefully chosen in short fiction.  Your rough draft may use vague imprecise language, but your final draft should shine with specific detail, active verbs, and vivid language.

4. An exact definition of what constitutes a story is not possible because “story” means different things to different readers.  In this case, a story might be best served if it can draw some kind of emotion from the reader with characters who are caught in a moment of internal or external conflict,  the outcome of which can be good or bad or obscure.  If in doubt, send it on.

 That’s it.  Good Luck!

 

About Joel Willans

Originally from Suffolk in the UK, Joel Willans has lived in Canada, Finland and Peru. A copywriter and travel blogger, he now gallivants between East Anglia, Helsinki and Spain. Joel’s stories have been broadcast on BBC radio and published in more than a dozen anthologies and many magazines. In 2008, he was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and won the Yeovil Prize and Global Short Story Award. “By ma biscuit or kiss ma fish”, his short story collection, is currently shortlisted for the Scott Prize, while his flash fiction can be found at places like Prick-of-the Spindle, Pank, Word Riot and Boston Literary Magazine. His story One Bright Moment is Every Day Fiction’s most popular story of all time.

scott-sandridgeAnd no, I’m not talking about gossip.

Well, maybe I am if it’s a character in a story spreading gossip and thus dialogue is required.

One of the things I like about flash fiction is that dialogue has to be short and sweet. No room for pointless chatter. None. But even when you stick to only the vital dialogue that moves the story along while also giving the reader some idea of the character’s personality, you can still end up over that 1000 word limit.

So how can you keep the important dialogue in when you’re forced to cut words?

Simple.

Remove as many speaker attributions as you can. Those annoying “he said, she said” things get way overwitten. And besides, unless your character talks like a computer drone, most readers can figure out who is saying what by the dialogue alone–especially when you mix a little action in with the dialogue.

I’ll use an excerpt from my current novel-in-progress as a brief example. These three paragraphs occur immediately after Yavar and Shanak have a philosophical “debate” over the nature of revenge. Naturally, Yavar ends the debate in the manner she’s well known for:

“Enough!” Yavar reached for Shanak’s throat only to grasp air.

The god appeared behind her. Both his hands held her head. A burning energy poured out of Yavar and into him as she gasped. Her legs weakened then buckled under her. As she collapsed to the snowy ground, Shanak said, “If you insist on this road, then so be it. But you will not travel it as a god, but as a mortal. The divinity within you is now no more.” He called his staff back to his hand. “But as long as you wield Onarus, you remain a threat to us all. Unfortunately, you and the sword are bonded together.” He raised his staff for a strike. “Do not be troubled, mortal. You will soon meet your brother again.”

Yavar sneered. “That’s what you think.” She drew Onarus, spun, and ran Shanak through. The god’s eyes widened as a grunt escaped his throat. Energy poured back into Yavar, stronger and more potent than what she had stolen from Calahan. “Didn’t see that road, now did you?” 

Note that quite a bit of action and dialogue both occur in just three paragraphs with a speaker attribution appearing only once. You can tell which dialogue is Shanak’s both by it all being in the same paragraph and simply by the preachy way he talks. Yavar’s dialogue is in the first and third paragraph, but even if it wasn’t, readers would be able to tell it was her simply by it being short and sweet and having the sharp vicious wit Yavar fans know and love. The main reason I have it broken into three paragraphs is for clarity’s sake. I could have broken it into further paragraphs, but doing so would cost the sense of immediacy I was looking for.

It is also possible that with a minor tweak, even the one “Shanak said” can get removed, but I’ll worry about that when I get to the novel’s editing phase.

So play with dialogue a little, with the focus on ways to use it without speaker attributions. And while you’re at it, have a little fun experimenting in ways to mix it around with action, too. Once you get it handled, it can be a lot of fun to play with.

 

Scott M. Sandridge learned how to write through hard work, trial-and-error, and the occasional writers’ workshops. His fiction has appeared in Mindflights, Ray Gun Revival, Silver Blade,  Distant Passages, Volume I, The Best of Every Day Fiction 2008, and Chimeraworld #6: New World Disorder.  His story, “Sleep Paralysis,” was a top ten finisher in the 2008 Preditors & Editors Readers Poll for the category of Short Story – Horror. He also writes reviews for Withersin, and is the Managing Editor of Fear and Trembling. More information can be found at http://smsand.wordpress.com.

aaronpicture[1]Remember when Lars Ulrich of Metallica went “crazy train” over Napster? Now most musicians purposefully give away mp3s of their music. Funny how times change.

I don’t mind giving away some of my stories. (Flash Fiction Fridays, duh.)

But I won’t self-publish a novel. Not yet. And I’m glad I didn’t start handing out short stories on my blog when I started writing.

When you self publish (be it POD or traditional or what-ever), you eliminate competition. Yes, competition sucks sometimes. Yes, the system has inherent “unfairness”. Yes, there is a bit of nepotism out there. And name? Man, once you have one, you can write your ticket. Have you ever read an anthology and felt the strongest stories came from “unknowns” while the best-sellers punted? It happens. Too much, in my opinion.

But competition breeds a better story. It makes writing better. It’s made me work harder; I know that much. And yes, competition brings rejection (or losses, however you want to frame it). Yesterday, it brought three to me: one from a long-time short list, another from a pro market, and a third from a market that just decided to close, bang. I hated “writing” for a couple of hours yesterday, but I’ll keep writing. It’s what I do. And “unfairness” is just another excuse.

I’ve learned to cherish the challenge that writing brings. I don’t love competition, but I love what it’s done to me. I love chiseling away at a story because I know it isn’t good enough, not yet. I want them all to be that story, the one readers want to share. Wouldn’t have happened without competition. It wouldn’t have happened if I gave up. There would be no thrill, no joy if I self-published from “go”.

So I won’t self-publish a novel. Not yet. But I don’t mind sharing bits and pieces; I know I need to in today’s writing world (remember the Metallica lesson?) Flash fiction = free mp3s, right?

 

 Reprinted from The Other Aaron which appeared on January 19, 2010.

 

Aaron Polson currently resides in Lawrence, Kansas with his wife, two sons and a tattooed rabbit, enjoying every mood swing in the Midwest weather. His flash fiction has appeared in Every Day Fiction, 10Flash, Northern Haunts, Everyday Weirdness, and on various bathroom walls.  Stop by his blog and read the free Friday flash.

RandallbrownThe question I’m most asked is, “What is flash fiction?” It is often, according to Google Insights for Search, one of the top searches associated with flash.

Imagine a reader picking you up, pressing you against a wall, demanding the truth of what you know. Never lose the feel of wall against your spine, the urgency of the demand for something real, the grip of the reader around your neck. Imagine there are only so many words. Imagine there’s but one way to tell it,  a single word fit for each slot.

Imagine the moment you begin, the flash desires its ending; imagine the flash holds you responsible so that the tiniest things matter, so nothing burns without purpose. Imagine that reader slapping you time and time again, saying, “No, that ain’t it.” Imagine trying to tell this reader, the one lifting you up, grasping your breath, pressed against your chest, about something trite. (Notice how wrong trite is for this slot, how it ruins things in the worst of ways, how a different word might make it all rite/right.). Imagine you can’t get away without confrontation, without finding something to satisfy the need for meaning in a world gone ephemeral, out of time, where all its words have lost power to convey the real.

Imagine even the title matters. Imagine it captures the back story, implies the aftermath, hints at subtext, works its way into the flash itself. Imagine, out of nothingness, there’s flash. Imagine a world without its history, without its dreams, its flashbacks. Imagine you tell a story like that,  in that moment, nothing beyond it, except maybe that title, like the truth of Rosebud, something denied the piece itself, given only to its readers.

Imagine that you were born to write flash, to work in the crampest of spaces, to compress narrative the way the universe was once compressed into the tiniest of spots, so much so that time did not exist. Imagine you write not about the explosion itself, but the moment before, the world after. Imagine you write flash because there’s no time left to write anything else but.

What is flash? It is a machine of compression, a mindset—that desire to make the most minute of movements matter. It is fiction that cannot tolerate uncertainty for but a moment, so it rushes to its ending before it loses nerve. It’s fearlessness in the face of insignificance. Your own “Attention must be paid” in a world that no longer holds any. It’s the urge to get it all down and then to move on quickly to something else. That madness of a room covered in scribbled notes, the kind stuck in bottles and floated on oceans.

What is flash? It’s a very tiny thing that doesn’t want to be anything else. It has jammed you into a hall, shoved you against it, demanded you fill the nothing of space with something uncontainable. Micro. Sudden. Flash. Fiction.  Imagine this is what you were made for. And then get to it, before nothing’s left to say.

 

Randall Brown teaches at and directs Rosemont College’s MFA in Creative Writing and Graduate English programs. He is the author of the award-winning (very) short fiction collection Mad To Live and his essay appears in The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction. He recently served as the Lead Editor of SmokeLong Quarterly. His work has been published widely, both on line and in print. He can be reached at http://randalldouglasbrown.blogspot.com/.

Joel WillansFor the week of February 7 through February 14, Flash Fiction Chronicles is  having its second String-of-10 Contest—String of 10 TWO—for the best 250-word story written from a specific prompt: a series of ten words given to you on February 7, 2010.

JOEL WILLANS, nominated for the Pushcart Prize and winner of the Yeovil Prize and Global Short Story Award  is our guest judge for this contest.  Find out more about Joel BELOW.

 GUIDELINES

  1. Read the contest’s String of 10 Writing Prompt which will be available at 12:01 on February 7, 2010 here as well as on the FFC Daily Prompt Page and at Gay Degani’s Author Thread at Every Day Fiction. 
  2. The contest is open to stories of  up to 250 words. Entries over the word limitation will be disregarded.
  3. Submit via email addressed to flashfictionblog@everydayfiction.com.   All entries must be copy and pasted into the body of the email. No attachments will be opened.
  4. There is no entry fee.
  5. You may enter as many 3 separate and different stories up to 250-words each. 
  6. All stories must contain at least four words from the String of 10.  Any stories without at least four words from the string of 10 will be disregarded.  The prompt words may be slightly modified such as tense, number, etc.  (Example: walk can be amended to walks, walked, even walker or walkers)
  7. The aphorism that is given doesn’t not need to be found in the story, but rather to be used as an additional source of inspiration.  No story will be judged on its use.  Note may be taken if a story uses the aphorism in an inspired way.
  8. What matters most is your story, not the prompt words or quotation.  Seamless integration of any four of the prompt words is the goal. 
  9. All entries must be in English, original, unpublished, and not submitted or accepted elsewhere at the time of submission. Flash Fiction Chronicles/Every Day Fiction/Every Day Publishing reserves one-time publication rights to the 1st- through-3rd winning entries to be published at Every Day Fiction and Flash Fiction Chronicles.
  10. Entries must be received via email by 11:59 PDT Sunday, February 14.
  11. Winners will be notified by March 20.  Publication will follow in April. 
  12. The preliminary decision the judges of the top 10 and the final decision by guest judge, Joel Willans, of the top three stories are final.

 Stories from the first String-of-10 Contest can be read at these links.

 1st Place: The Haircut by Sharon E. Trotter

2nd Place: The Forever Summer by Mary J. Daley

3rd Place: Choices Made by Jim O’Loughlin

 

PRIZES

BOEDFtwo1st Place: Winner will have his or her story published at Every Day Fiction in April 1010 and be paid the standard payment of $3.00 per story.   A copy of The Best of Every Day Fiction TWO along with a copy of Pomegranate Stories by Gay Degani, the editor of Flash Fiction Chronicles  will also be awarded as well as an “I Write Every Day” t-shirt.

2nd and 3rd Place: Winners will have their stories published at Flash Fiction Chronicles in April.  (NOTE:There is no payment for publication at Flash Fiction Chronicles.)  A copy of The Best of Every Day Fiction TWO along with a copy of Pomegranate Stories by Gay Degani, the editor of Flash Fiction Chronicles  will also be awarded to both 2nd and 3rd place winners.

 

 ABOUT JOEL WILLANS

Originally from Suffolk in the UK, Joel Willans has lived in Canada, Finland and Peru. A copywriter and travel blogger, he now gallivants between East Anglia, Helsinki and Spain. Joel’s stories have been broadcast on BBC radio and published in more than a dozen anthologies and many magazines. In 2008, he was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and won the Yeovil Prize and Global Short Story Award. “By ma biscuit or kiss ma fish”, his short story collection, is currently shortlisted for the Scott Prize, while his flash fiction can be found at places like Prick-of-the Spindle, Pank, Word Riot and Boston Literary Magazine. His story One Bright Moment is Every Day Fiction’s most popular story of all time.

walter1I found myself snared by a detective story last week when a stranger e-mailed me from California. He’d found an article I’d written on children’s book author and illustrator Holling Clancy Holling (Paddle-to-the-Sea) and wanted to know if the man had ever served in the Army. I replied that nothing in my research popped up, but I was cc’ing the director of a historical society in Michigan devoted to enshrining Holling in children’s literature.

A daily exchange of e-mails among the Californian, the archivist and me in New Jersey continued for a week as, together, we uncovered the probability that the jacket with the buck sergeant’s chevron was indeed one Holling wore in 1918.

I love these out-of-the-blue queries. There was the National Parks Service employee putting together an exhibit who wanted to know more about my write-up on the actual first shots kicking off the Civil War—not those at Fort Sumter, but a battle at Fort Barrancas, Fla., four months earlier. And another query from an amateur historian—like me—asking about King Philip, who nearly drove the colonists out of New England, “I understand [Philip’s] head was displayed in Plymouth for 25 years. Is there any documentation as to what happened to the head after the display?” (No, and neither do we know what happened to Einstein’s brain after it was dissected and distributed around the world.)

Often, there’s no positive response. One person wrote from Holland, “I think I’m descended from Willem Kieft, the notorious governor of New Amsterdam [who massacred hundreds of Raritan, Wecquaesgeek and Wappinger tribes people].” It’s doubtful, I replied; Kieft was drowned at sea while being recalled to England. Or the high schooler stating, “I’m writing a paper on Bacon’s Rebellion [Virginia, 1675]. Can you tell me everything you know?” No, dammit! Do your homework.

It’s likely that writers welcome the figurative knock on the door that rescues them from the horror of filling a blank screen with captivating words. The unsolicited e-mail certifies the writer as expert, at least in the petitioner’s eyes. Receiving an accolade, like the elusive Pushcart Prize, or being included in an anthology also is validation that we’re doing something right.

But I have a deeper sense of appreciation for readers who respond. A writer’s fiction or non-fiction is broadcast to the world, receiving hundreds of hits on Big Pulp, Bewildering Stories, Military History Online, and other sites. This is information sharing—not communication. It’s akin to winking at a woman in a dark room: You know what you’re doing but not sure if she’s getting the message. Communication only takes place when a reader comments or writes back. And isn’t communication what we’re all searching for? Someone who responds like Holden Caulfield, who says, “What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it”?

Yes! This is what the Internet has given us. A medium that encourages comments and questions to complete the circle of communication. That’s why I write. And respond to readers’ questions and comments. You can e-mail (w.giersbach@att.net) anytime and I’ll get back to you. Unless you ask me to do your homework.

 

Walter Giersbach’s fiction has appeared Bewildering Stories, Big Pulp, Every Day Fiction, Everyday Weirdness, Lunch Hour Stories, Mouth Full of Bullets, Mystery Authors, OG Short Fiction, Northwoods Journal, Paradigm Journal, Short Fiction World, Southern Fried Weirdness, The Short Humour Site and Written Word.  Two volumes of short stories, Cruising the Green of Second Avenue, have been published by Wild Child (www.wildchildpublishing.com).  He also served for three decades as director of communications for Fortune 500 companies.  Walter’s website can be found at http://allotropiclucubrations.blogspot.com.

rumjhumThere used to be a girl who bled her emotions, ideas, thoughts and dreams into books.

She bled them and resurrected them. Again and again, until reality blurred and she no longer recognised humans of flesh and blood but saw and sought out characters from, often brittle and silver fish infested pages; slices of paper that reeked deliciously of other peoples visions.

She was a frivolous fool. At her best she was fey. The number of times she tumbled into an undignified heap for having mistaken a callow character for something from her beloved books were countless! The number of times she woke up to find herself impaled by an irate teacher who demanded to know why she was grinning or looking weepy for no reason occurred too often to be entertaining to her schoolmates.

Behind her back they called her names. She didn’t  care. She had found Hemingway,  a man who had died just before her birth and fallen in love. She didn’t understand that. Death could not be a barrier. To her, he was alive, pulsating-ly alive, like a sea god come to her room in the moonlight.

It was a strange love. And it began with The Old Man and the Sea.  Becoming progressively obsessive with each book that she read.  After her fourth reading of that novella, and the devouring of volumes of Hemingway out of which some struck her more forcefully – Snows of Kilimanjaro, Torrents of SpringFor Whom the Bell Tolls, Islands in the Stream, A Farewell to Arms, To Have and Have Not…she even went ahead and read two of his nonfiction books – Death in the Afternoon and A Moveable Feast.

After that she was no longer able to differentiate between the books. In her heart they had become one churning sea of people and situations with the narratives often intertwining and getting tangled up like spools of embroidery thread stuffed into a very small container. The spools would stay stuffed and become like one motley homogeneous mass. In later years, she felt the lump in her brain every time her muse flicked his tongue over it. It was not an unpleasant sensation; quite the contrary.

During those young years, the confusion in her head didn’t stop her from reading. Nor did it diminish her love. Hemingway often visited her in the middle of a basketball game or a maths class. Suddenly everything would become liquid celadon; her aura turning somewhat witless. She would doodle in her maths exercises book instead of writing the sums. She would snatch the ball out of her own team mates hands and toss it to the other side without thinking. She vaguely comprehended the inappropriateness of her behaviour and tried to hide them with lame smart alecky remarks that convinced no one and did nothing for her reputation.

It was not that she only read Hemingway. There were many authors who gripped her, heart, mind and soul, intensely, madly. In that sense she was not a faithful lover. But she remained loyal to Earnest Miller Hemingway in the way the Devadasis remained loyal to their Temple Gods. There were strong and lasting relationships born of her readings of other authors. But Hemingway’s bearded face always hovered over the rim of her horizon. She could never visualize any writer the way she could conjure up an image of Hemingway instantly.

Years passed and for a time the struggle of existence forbade any deep reading. She read in snatches and bits. A phase came after she married and had children when she was reading only nursery rhymes and fables and Dr. Spock. The spectre of a smiling eyed white bearded Sea God rarely rose to haunt her. By this time she had married a smooth cheeked man with a dimple on his chin, whose only exposure to hunting had been a sparrow that he had killed as a twelve year old with his air gun and had been sick for days with the horror of that knowledge. He was a good man who was never jealous of her books.

One day this good man who was her husband decided to bring home the latest book by Hemingway, even though he had been dead for more than three decades. That was another magic about Hemingway. His books continued to spring up long after he died. No wonder she never truly believed him dead in the first place. Her husband wanted to give her a birthday present that would make her eyes light up the way diamonds are supposed to light up a woman’s eyes. He went out and bought True at First Light. She was delighted and started to read straightaway.

Halfway down the book she put it down. The liquid celadon feeling receded leaving a chalky taste in her palate. An emptiness washed over her in the afternoon light. Her husband saw the shadows and felt a little annoyed that he couldn’t please her after all.

It took her some weeks. During which time she went back again and again to the book, only to put it down again. For several years she did not open another Hemingway book; she did not reread any. When at at last she went back to reading Hemingway, she began again with The Old Man and the Sea.  And this time, she did not lose herself. She went out to sea with Santiago and returned, carrying his wounds in her heart but without being possessed of either Santiago or Hemingway.

(Taken from an earlier post in Writers & Writerisms)

Rumjhum Biswas is still living in Chennai, India, but in another part where there were no mosquitoes until the rains came and all the incy wincy spiders were washed away. No she isn’t implying that spiders eat mosquitoes, but if they did she’d become a millionaire by breeding spiders and selling them all over the world, instead of being another poor writer who gets to answer the door and the phone because she is at home and that means she has a cushy life! She has a blog to prove that it’s not: http://rumjhumkbiswas.wordpress.com. You can also find her at times at Flash Fiction Chronicles.

bobthurberI’m a huge fan and supporter of very short fiction, have been for decades, so I was delighted to find Flash Fiction Chronicles, a blog dedicated to the short-short form.

Over the years I’ve won a few contests with my “small fictions” and at one time or another I’ve been called a “master” and a “maestro” of the form, as well as “one of the undiscovered great fiction writers of our time,” though that’s hardly the case. (Nice people frequently say nice things.) Nonetheless, I’ve begun work on a Flash Fiction & Micro Fiction Handbook (though I have a novel I must complete first) and eventually hope to share some of the tricks and techniques I’ve discovered useful when working with ultra-short narrative.

For now, here are a couple of articles on writing that some people might find helpful:

1) Anatomy of a Micro-fiction
http://home.comcast.net/~bob-thurber/anatomy.html

2) How to Write a Good Short Story
http://www.ehow.com/how_4448365_write-good-short-story.html

Overall, I believe there is a general misconception about very short fictions (whether they be labeled Micro-fiction, Flash Fiction, Postcard fiction, Quick fiction, Sudden fiction, etc.,) that they are somehow not on the same playing field, not serious or literary enough for the marketplace.

The fallacy, I believe, is that a “small fiction” is often considered just a training exercise for a beginner, no more than a preliminary step to writing a longer “real” short story. The general grumble being: Not bad, but where’s the rest of it?

In my view, both the art of compression and the skill of reduced narrative are being overlooked, and the publishing industry as a whole has so far displayed an arrogant disinterest in the “very short” story, while that same form is undergoing a dynamic development on the Internet, attracting attention and promoting intense discussion. (A simple Google search for “flash fiction” returns well over a half-million sources.)

But I believe the future is bright for small fictions. More and more magazines are open to considering short shorts for publication and sites like this one are certainly helping to legitimatize the form. It won’t be long before major publishers embrace this trend.

best wishes to you all,

Bt

Bob Thurber is an old, unschooled writer living in Massachusetts.   Though he rarely submits for publication, somehow his work has appeared in more than a hundred venues and received numerous awards and citations, including The Barry Hannah Fiction Prize and the Donald Barthelme Prize for Short Prose. Visit his website at BobThurber.net .

Joel WillansFor the week of February 7 through February 14, Flash Fiction Chronicles is  having its second String-of-10 Contest—String of 10 TWO—for the best 250-word story written from a specific prompt: a series of ten words given to you on February 7, 2010.

JOEL WILLANS, nominated for the Pushcart Prize and winner of the Yeovil Prize and Global Short Story Award  is our guest judge for this contest.  Find out more about Joel BELOW.

 GUIDELINES

  1. Read the contest’s String of 10 Writing Prompt which will be available at 12:01 on February 7, 2010 here as well as on the FFC Daily Prompt Page and at Gay Degani’s Author Thread at Every Day Fiction. 
  2. The contest is open to stories of  up to 250 words. Entries over the word limitation will be disregarded.
  3. Submit via email addressed to flashfictionblog@everydayfiction.com.   All entries must be copy and pasted into the body of the email. No attachments will be opened.
  4. There is no entry fee.
  5. You may enter as many 3 separate and different stories up to 250-words each. 
  6. All stories must contain at least four words from the String of 10.  Any stories without at least four words from the string of 10 will be disregarded.  The prompt words may be slightly modified such as tense, number, etc.  (Example: walk can be amended to walks, walked, even walker or walkers)
  7. The aphorism that is given doesn’t not need to be found in the story, but rather to be used as an additional source of inspiration.  No story will be judged on its use.  Note may be taken if a story uses the aphorism in an inspired way.
  8. What matters most is your story, not the prompt words or quotation.  Seamless integration of any four of the prompt words is the goal. 
  9. All entries must be in English, original, unpublished, and not submitted or accepted elsewhere at the time of submission. Flash Fiction Chronicles/Every Day Fiction/Every Day Publishing reserves one-time publication rights to the 1st- through-3rd winning entries to be published at Every Day Fiction and Flash Fiction Chronicles.
  10. Entries must be received via email by 11:59 PDT Sunday, February 14.
  11. Winners will be notified by March 20.  Publication will follow in April. 
  12. The preliminary decision the judges of the top 10 and the final decision by guest judge, Joel Willans, of the top three stories are final.

 Stories from the first String-of-10 Contest can be read at these links.

 1st Place: The Haircut by Sharon E. Trotter

2nd Place: The Forever Summer by Mary J. Daley

3rd Place: Choices Made by Jim O’Loughlin

 

PRIZES

BOEDFtwo1st Place: Winner will have his or her story published at Every Day Fiction in April 1010 and be paid the standard payment of $3.00 per story.   A copy of The Best of Every Day Fiction TWO along with a copy of Pomegranate Stories by Gay Degani, the editor of Flash Fiction Chronicles  will also be awarded as well as an “I Write Every Day” t-shirt.

2nd and 3rd Place: Winners will have their stories published at Flash Fiction Chronicles in April.  (NOTE:There is no payment for publication at Flash Fiction Chronicles.)  A copy of The Best of Every Day Fiction TWO along with a copy of Pomegranate Stories by Gay Degani, the editor of Flash Fiction Chronicles  will also be awarded to both 2nd and 3rd place winners.

 

 ABOUT JOEL WILLANS

Originally from Suffolk in the UK, Joel Willans has lived in Canada, Finland and Peru. A copywriter and travel blogger, he now gallivants between East Anglia, Helsinki and Spain. Joel’s stories have been broadcast on BBC radio and published in more than a dozen anthologies and many magazines. In 2008, he was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and won the Yeovil Prize and Global Short Story Award. “By ma biscuit or kiss ma fish”, his short story collection, is currently shortlisted for the Scott Prize, while his flash fiction can be found at places like Prick-of-the Spindle, Pank, Word Riot and Boston Literary Magazine. His story One Bright Moment is Every Day Fiction’s most popular story of all time.

Next Page »