In my writing life I keep coming across people, both face-to-face and through the Internet, who do interesting things and/or have achieved noteworthy writing success. As part of my column I thought it would be great to meet these people and get them to share their thoughts on this fiction form – Flash – that we all love. I have set ten questions for my interviewees. My first interview is with Tim Dicks, and with good reason! While many of us, definitely me, are happy if we are able to write flash pieces a few times a month at most, Tim writes one every day. Here is the interview.

I first met Tim (virtually!) in Twenty20 Journal, a magazine for fiction that is twenty words or less.  (Btw, there’ll be an interview up soon on Twenty20′s editor Benjamin C Krause, meanwhile do look around his magazine and site).   Coming back to Tim, his fiction has been published in PANK, Prick of the Spindle and Thieves Journal and blogs at Moonshot. What struck me most about his bio was: Tim Dicks writes a flash piece every day. I had to find out more!

As it turns out he does more than write flash fiction every day. In Tim’s own words, “In addition to my blog, I contribute to Uncanny Valley’s blog, and my fiction most recently appeared in Wigleaf. I started this project (Story Every Day) while engaged in the brutal, numbing process of editing a much longer manuscript as a way to get some new ideas down on paper quickly. I started knocking out short pieces, and wrote so many that I decided to start putting them up on my blog. I’m taking a break right now to finish edits on the novel, but am looking forward to getting back into the flash project, probably next week.”

RB: You write flash fiction every single day! How do you manage that? Can you tell us a bit about your flash fiction writing process?

Tim: I spend 30 minutes getting to work every day, and during the commute I try to think of a punchy central idea, some want or disappointment or discovery to build a miniature story around. With flash I want to eliminate as much narration as possible, so I try to think of actions, etc. that will convey the most relevant information about a character’s internal life. Then during a break I’ll write up a draft, and on another break I’ll return to it, and later I’ll return again, until it’s finished. I know I’m done when I go through and don’t find any words that make me cringe.

RB: What are the difficulties and advantages you face as a writer when working on flash fiction? Is flash fiction your favourite form?

Tim: The economy of flash fiction is addicting; everything the reader needs to know is there in a handful of words, and emotions are packed in tight enough to burst, and a story is opened and closed and over quickly, as a lot of stories in our real lives are. I enjoy reading a good flash piece and feeling like I just crawled into someone else’s brain and found a wild mess inside, but my favorite form is the novel. A novel is harder to successfully assemble, and to read, but I like the incredible possibility in all that space.

RB: When do you normally write flash fiction? Do you write during a break from your longer works?

Tim: I usually use short pieces as a break from a longer project I’m focusing on. At the moment I’ve stopped producing new work altogether, to focus on editing a novel, and I’ve found it’s difficult to fit time for flash in there. But when I’m rolling along on a long, focused project, it’s easy and relaxing to slip off for fifteen minutes and work on a draft of a short piece.

RB: Do you carry a scribbling pad with you for flash (and also poetry)?

Tim: I have no notebook, but I carry a phone I use to email story ideas to myself. Usually I note down half the idea and then forget the other half and end up with an unworkable mess. Sometimes in the dead of night I wake up and email myself some particular rush of image from a half-dream and try to make sense of it the next morning. Recently I woke and emailed this to myself “arm hole dice.” I think it was a note for a story about a man with a prosthetic arm he uses for storage of everyday objects, like a jacket pocket, and from which he draws dice to roll around a table when he needs to make a decision or is just bored. Anyway, obviously, it sounds crazy. I wrote a blog post for Uncanny Valley about these undeveloped snippets, here.

RB: What is your favourite time and place for writing? Give us a peek into your writerly routine.

Tim: My favorite time to write is at night, maybe between 10 and 2. I hate sleeping so I keep typing as a way to stay out of bed. I also enjoy working in afternoons, but during the work week there’s not much chance to.

RB: Which writers inspire you? If you have any short story/flash fiction writers in mind, even better.

Tim: There are a lot of great flash writers working right now—it’s easy to see them, I think, because so many online journals embrace flash—but some whose work I’ve enjoyed recently are Tia Prouhet, Ani Smith, and Laura Ellen Scott. I am probably most influenced by longer works that employ flash-type concision, though. I read Teresa Svoboda’s Pirate Talk recently, for example, and would love to write some pieces that have some of its fire. It’s a novel told entirely in dialogue, but we’re never confused as to who’s talking or what the action is. The entire thing shows incredible control and attention to sentence-level creation, and reads like a moody fantasy typed onto paper.

RB: Do you have any favourite flash fiction piece or writer in mind?

Tim: I admire writers who can produce a lot of good material regularly. J. Bradley comes to mind as a cross-genre writer who is always producing new content, on his blogs and for journals. Probably the writer of short fiction I’ve been most interested in lately is Laura Ellen Scott; her collection Curio is out from Uncanny Valley Press, and shows great variety in its weird, brief stories.

RB: What do you consider a great piece of flash fiction?

Tim: A great piece of flash tells me as much as possible while telling me as little as possible.

RB: Do you have any advice for aspiring writers (of flash fiction)?

Tim: My best advice to writers, particularly of flash, is to read as much as possible, find journals that match their aesthetic, and send out their best pieces. I also try to remind myself to not just think of small or quick ideas before I write a short piece, but to think of sprawling ideas and then figure out how to compact those into a tight space.

RB: What are you working on now?

Tim: I am at work on a few projects. I’m most excited about a novel, which will probably be called Moonshot, like my blog, and which will be a kind of literary/science fiction/adventure mess inspired by Candide. I’m almost done editing it and will be excited to move on, get back into the Story Every Day project, start a new long project, etc. I’ve also been assembling a flash collection, of new stuff and some old pieces.

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Rumjhum Biswas is a writer based in Chennai, India. She blogs at www.rumjhumkbiswas.wordpress.com.

by Virgie Townsend

According to everything I’ve read, the bookpocalypse is upon us and television is eating our brains. People don’t read. A 2007 Associated Press-Ipsos poll revealed that 27 percent of Americans said they hadn’t read a single book in the past year. Not even the first Harry Potter book or something like The Sheikh’s Virgin Bride.

The Association of American Publishers reported in 2010 that net sales from books dropped 1.8 percent between 2008 and 2009. Even audio books suffered.

Thus, as I sit down to write in the evenings, I sometimes wonder why I’m doing it. Perhaps books, and fiction generally, are the literary equivalent of an abacus, and I’m that old codger wandering around the supermarket trying to tally up my costs by flicking beads back and forth.

Of course, I continue to write because I enjoy it and I don’t believe that literature and literary markets are dead. I suspect that most Americans want to read and enjoy fiction, but that there’s always some other task that seems more important. Indeed, a recent TalkTalk survey in Britain found that 48 percent of the 2,000 surveyed parents reported that they were “too busy” to read bedtimes stories to their children, even though 80 percent of them agreed that doing so could be beneficial to their children’s development.

I, for one, scarcely read for enjoyment at all while in law school. Every time I picked up a non-academic text, I felt guilty.

Flash fiction is one possible answer to the reading-time commitment dilemma. Opening a flash fiction e-zine for five minutes is less daunting than picking up a huge book, yet stories of 1,000 words or fewer can be just as entertaining and challenging.

When it’s done well, flash fiction can produce profound, richly told stories. I thought about Dale Phillips’s Heartsounds for weeks after I read it, remembering my favorite images and admiring how skillfully the author detailed the protagonist’s thought process.

Over the past few months, I’ve introduced some of my friends to the genre. Several of them have told me that after reading a piece of flash fiction, they felt like they had just finished a novel. I consider that a testament to how much can be accomplished in such short stories.

Three lines of a Bill Knott poem changed the way I felt about death. The last paragraph of Lolita—181 words—had such an impact on me when I was 17 that I memorized it. Knowing the power that so few words can have, I await the day when busy people realize that they can read quality fiction at no cost to their schedules.

This post was originally published at Virgie Townsend’s website.

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Virgie Townsend is an attorney, public relations specialist, and fiction devotee living in Colorado. Her short story “Seventeen” was rated as one of the top ten stories of the year for Every Day Fiction

I am proud to announce a new addition to our staff here at Flash Fiction Chronicles. Michelle Reale, who was our most guest judge for String-of-10 THREE, has agreed to share the editorial tasks with me here.  We will be co-editors of Flash Fiction Chronicles and hope to bring you even more about the ins- and -outs of writing flash fiction.  Michelle joins Gay Degani, Hillary Degani, and Dennis Vanvick on staff.

Michelle is an academic librarian on faculty at a university in the suburbs of Philadelphia.  Her work has been published in a variety of venues including Eyeshot, Pank, Moon Milk ReviewSmokelong Quarterly, The Los Angeles Review, Word Riot,Wrong Tree Review and others.  She was included in Dzanc’s Best of the Web 2010anthology.  Her fiction chapbook, Natural Habitat, was published by Burning River in 2010.   See below for links to some of Michelle’s on-line work and a link to her chapbook.

Here are some links to stories by Michelle Reale.

What Passes for Normal at SmokeLong Quarterly

Mercy at LITnIMAGE

Arbitration at Kill Author

Walk in Fire at Vagabonage Press

Maternus at Word Riot

By Sheila Newton

No matter how good a writer you may be – no matter how knowledgeable in the art, or science, of writing – it’s always good to exercise your grey cells.

So let’s waltz with the word, foxtrot with the phrase and shimmy with the sentence – get our creative muscles working.

Here’s an outline of the exercise:

***

Choose ten words and write them down, varying them in terms of look, sound etc.  Does the word intrigue you?  Does the word evoke memories?

Think, perhaps, of places, animals, birds, flowers, colours, action, beauty etc.

My 10 random words:

robin, Blackpool, bubble, apple, rueful, dread, sparkle, roar, rotate, rich

Use your chosen ten words in a piece of not more than 22 words. It doesn’t have to make perfect sense.  See the example below:

“Robins roared in Blackpool, while bubbles sparkled, rotating like rueful apples in a rich feeling of dread.”                                                                                  (17 words)

Then choose 10 more random words.

Here are mine:

Gorgeous, grimy, excellent, sweater, bluebird, longing, starlight, Somerset, happiness, jump

…and compose another piece of not more than 22 words.

“Gorgeous bluebirds in Somerset jumped longingly into sweaters of happiness.  In grimy starlight they made excellent nests.”                                                              (17 words)

Then, using all 20 words, compose a different piece of no more than 45 words.

“Gorgeous, in her excellent sweater, she bubbled and sparkled like a Blackpool bluebird.  Robin was rich, rotating coins like starlit apples in a grimy barrel.  She thought ruefully of Somerset, jumping with dread, though longing to roar with happiness.”   (39 words)

Now ask a friend, member of your family or writing buddy to write down twenty of their favourite words – then compose a piece of writing using your 20 given words:

Cerise, spacious, town, jittery, twinkling, iconic, dream-catcher, sturdy, crease, weather, heart-beat, place, pragmatic, whisper, dishevelled, moon, diffident, aching, squared, kite.

“Jittery, in a cerise, dishevelled dress, she whispered diffidently, aching for better weather.  The iconic dream-catcher, creased and twinkling in its place in thespacious town, squared up to the sturdy kite in a pragmatic heart-beat - and laughed at the moon.           (41 words)

The creased dream-catcher was twinkling, jittery in the moonlight.  Pragmatic as ever, in her cerise, dishevelled dress, she whispered diffidently, “See that sturdykite above the spacious town market-place? It’s iconic. This weather, it’d square up to you in an aching heart-beat.”                                                                 (42 words)

***

Not only do these exercises make your brain’s juices flow, they set your imagination alight.  You may not be able to use the pieces you wrote directly into your writing, because much of it may be complete nonsense.  But ideas can flow from random words put together.

Take ‘sweaters of happiness’ for example.  What wonderful images does that conjure up for a writer.

What about ‘starlit apples in a grimy barrel’? How might that prompt a piece of writing?

‘Jittery in the moonlight’.  How does that affect you?  What creations are born in your mind from this phrase?

And what about the concept of a dream-catcher squaring up to a kite!  What wonderful poem or piece of prose could be composed from that notion.

***

So, did you rumba with your random words?  Samba with your syntax?

Memory muscle and synapses need to stay properly exercised to keep us in the creative writing game.

And flash fiction is a discipline that relies on making every word count.  In flash fiction, it’s all about the word count.

Every word has to matter.  It’s all about keeping our grey cells and white matter exercised.

So keep dancing!

Copyright© Sheila Newton

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Sheila Newton lives in the North East of England with her husband and two cats. She acquired an RGN and a degree in Education throughout her nursing and teaching careers, then in 2010, she caught the ‘creative writing bug’.  She has been accepted for publication with the small press magazine, Debut, won first prize in an ‘about writing’ competition and around 20 of her articles and short stories have been published online.  An avid reader, walker and blogger, Sheila has recently been invited to blog for North East Life online: she also blogs for a local blues/rock band.  Catch up with her on her personal blog, http://sheilanewton.blogspot.com – and her website, www.writeangleswithsheila.wordpress.com.

By Len Hazell

As we saw in my March 17 article on plotline, every plot has three parts.

• You set up a thesis
• You counter this with an antithesis
• All is resolved in a variable synthesis.

The difference between a plotline and a storyline is simple:  story is more complicated than plot.

I know that sounds glib and simplistic, but basically, it is true.

Plot answers only one question.  WHAT HAPPENED?

Story answers two more.  WHY DID THIS HAPPEN? and HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

The other remaining questions “Who did this happen to?” and “When and where did this happen?” are answered in my articles on character and setting respectively.  So back to story.

Like the plot, which follows a basic cause and effect model, your story need not do so. In your story, you can play with the order of the plot, you can use time and memory to twist the order of the narrative, to confuse, mislead, and dramatize.

However, you storytelling technique MUST still follow the basic rule of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. (At least when you begin.  Once you become fully confident  and competent in your abilities, you’ll be able to  forget the rules and tell stories. Remember this is a only beginners guide.

Here is the cheat; I call it a Narrative Grid.

In the top row write in the 3 major points of the plot line you have chosen, in what ever order you want to tell that plot. Decide if you want to use flash back or other narrative devices to do this.

Do the same along the side column from top to bottom.

For the time being ignore the smaller grids in each section.

Don’t worry about characters or setting at this point simply keep in mind WHAT is happening, WHY it is happening and HOW this is coming about

In box number one write in the point where you want your story to start, the first moment of your narrative; The set up. Also here you can include a plot twist indicator, something that will be referred back to later as important to the story.

In box number nine, write the conclusion you initially wish to reach.

In Box 2 write your next story point an event that is not the direct opposite of that in box 1 but something that reverses it or interferes with it  and is influenced by the plot point in the adjacent side column.

In box three write a starting point for the bulk of the story, that combines elements of the first two boxes.

Example one*

Now in box four write a powerful reversal of box one, that also relates directly to the first plot point.

Box five is the most important pivotal pat of the grid

This story point must re-establish the story so far, provide a reversal of box 2 and box 4 and introduce either an obvious or hidden obstacle to the competition of the plot. There can also here be a reiteration of the plot twist indicator, or something maybe added to it, or even a partial resolution.

Box six involve a major change or loss by reversing part of box three and combining four and five.

Example two*

This now brings us in to the closing sections of the story.

In box 7 indicate the beginning of the climax by a point in the story were all seems to be going well by an act of revelation or arrival, combine elements from boxes one and four to do this.

In Box eight reverse this and have everything seemingly go wrong, bring together all that has gone before and reveal anything which has still been hidden to this point, before resolving the problem.

In Box 9 decide now if the initial resolution you wrote still fits, then either expand on it or alter it and give the pay of to your plot twist.

Example three*

In these Examples you can see I have used a classic story line variously told as Jason and the Argonauts, Horus and Seth, Robin Hood etc.

Keep your basic Story Grid and once you have decided on characters and setting  go back and in each section use the small grid to do the same again, making each box a fully constructed story in it’s own right.

Example four*

This done and placed along side your character and settings, you now have a comprehensive set of notes and a structure on which to build your story.

*Editor’s note:  I’m sorry.  The formatting of these forms will take me longer than I’m willing to spend to put these up at a website so that they can be downloaded.  Hopefully, Len’s explanation will be enough that you can set up a table on your own computer and customize the templates for your own use.

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Len Hazell is 46 years old from the north east of England, holds a degree in Media, and is majoring in writing for the print and broadcast media.  He has published in various magazines in the UK, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, and has had several plays produced throughout England.  He is currently working on his own musical adaptation of Arsenic and old Lace which he hope to stage in 2011. Len can be contacted at Bonniefans@hotmail.com. His music is available at http://www.nuzic.net/members/2565

By John Arthur Miller

For many years I’ve been in “writing mode,” never bothering to properly edit my stories before submitting them. Of course this hurt my chances of getting published, but half the time I already had ANOTHER idea to write about, even before the original story was finished, let alone edited.

Lately, I’ve noticed my need to write is still there, but it’s much different. From a totally honest and introspective aspect, I’ve gone through a lot of changes. I honestly don’t feel a lot of darkness within in which to expunge—by darkness I mean feelings of anger, depression and melancholy. Originally I wrote at an online diary called a BLOG. Everything I did was for self-expression, and when I began writing poems and then stories, they were all for self-expression. I found that if I was in a particularly foul mood for a few days, writing dark fiction helped improve my mood. I began to use dark fantasy and horror stories as a way to expunge the darkness from within, almost like visiting a confessional.

Lately, I’ve had little darkness within, certainly not enough to want to confess or expunge. This has crippled my writing entirely. The very foundation and reason for writing was to rid myself of darkness, to rid myself of rage and angst and wrath and depression. Without those feelings I have nothing to interweave within my fiction. Because of this, my fiction (lately) has been off-kilter and more than a little strange. But I’m not complaining, believe me! It’s wonderful to not have to hide feelings of anger or depression, to not have to fake a smile when I feel like weeping or screaming instead—it’s wonderful to FEEL normal.

But I’m still in writing mode, yet without the means to instill darkness within a horror story. Instead, it seems that I am in full EDITING MODE. And this may well be a wonderful blessing. Remember all those hundreds of stories on my computer that aren’t fully edited? Well, now I have an opportunity to edit them, to correct them and change them.

I’m a little worried, however, because I’ve seen editors enter into editor mode and never return. They never write, they quit writing, and only edit. There’s a saying: The reason editors edit is because they can’t write. The truth of the matter, however, that I am learning from experience is that editing involves different “brain muscles” than writing, and the momentum of a writer can shift from one end of the spectrum to the other. With no darkness within, my momentum has shifted from writing to editing. I’m seriously considering editing my very best stories to create an anthology. I know that I could easily make it appear professional, editing just two-four pages per day.

So, if you’ve read down to this point—having read my very personal thoughts and where I am at this point in my life as writer/editor—let me ask you a deeply personal question. Because writing is a very personal process, because we insert our heart into everything we write, because the font we use for our fiction might as well consist of the very blood that flows through our veins—because of all these things, are you in writing mode or editing mode? Have you ever been in editing mode?

I know some writers can easily go back-and-forth between the two with just a click of some inner-switch. I am definitely not that way; I am either one or the other.

Which are you? Editor or writer? In editing mode or writing mode?

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John “JAM” Arthur Miller owns Liquid Imagination Publishing, an ezine combining artwork and music with speculative fiction and poetry to create a new art form. JAM has over 65 publishing credits/acceptances with various publications ranging from anthologies, print publications and ezines. He is on the Board of Trustees at Silver Pen, a non-profit organization created to promote literacy.  JAM has full physical custody of three small children who have tamed his writing and slowed him down somewhat, and that’s just fine with JAM. The importance of optimism combined with the occasional YIPPIE (regardless of rejection) for writers is a frame of mind that, JAM believes, must be attained for optimum performance. “YIPPIE!!!”

by Thomas Kearnes

I posted a brief message about this on Facebook, but decided it was worth expanding upon. Last night, I was at a friend’s house. I had brought over five or six of my newest flashes. Every now and then, I like to hear what other gay men, particularly those not well-versed in literary fiction (or, sometimes, any fiction at all), have to say about my stories.

The first one he read was “Put Your Hands Together,” my very brief flash about how we handle grief. He looked a little stunned after finishing. I asked him what he was feeling, what did the story bring up? He started sharing with me about his longest relationship and its ugly end. (The ex-lover merely left, didn’t die like mine.) He continued on to the other stories. (They included “Magic Numbers,” about a group of HIV-positive men at an orgy, and “Your Big Dick Can’t Save You Now,” my cautionary tale about the dangers of using sex to hide from life.)

Like a lot of the men I show stories to, he wasn’t the most articulate with his response. (Not like my peers at Zoetrope…) But I got the impression the stories had dredged up powerful emotions within him, things he hadn’t felt in quite some time, or at least acknowledged feeling.

I was tremendously pleased. It wasn’t because he “liked” them–no, it was because I was reminded that I have the gift of helping strangers (or friends) wrestle with their more unpleasant emotions by depicting them in my fiction.

So, if you’ll pardon the long lead-up, here’s my point: THIS is what keeps me writing. It’s not landing that elusive “name” publication. (I’ve appeared in enough top-drawer publications that the novelty has worn off. These days, I simply add it to the list and get back to work.) It’s not the praise of my peers. (I adore all of them, but praise from a fellow writer is quite different from that of a “layperson.” Chances are, that writer knows all the tricks you employed to write a given story.) It’s certainly not the money. (What money?) It’s not the mystique you command when you tell someone you’re a “storyteller.” (In my neck of the woods, announcing that gets you weird looks more than compliments.)

No, what truly keeps me writing is knowing my stories touch people, gives them the courage to face their own hurt and anger and grief. After all, that’s what my favorite authors did for me. I feel it’s my duty as an artist to share myself with my readers fully and without hesitation. I believe most people who read fiction (at least, “literary” fiction) seek a sort of solace from us. They hope to encounter a character, a line, an image that will make them exclaim, “Yes! This guy knows exactly how I feel!”

I feel very blessed that I’m regularly given the opportunity to share the fruits of my admittedly damaged psyche with readers, whether it be some man sitting in the chair across from me, a handful of people at Zoetrope, or several thousand readers in cyberspace.

I know it sounds mawkish to articulate such a desire, but all I’ve wanted to do with my life is forge connections between people. I believe telling stories accomplishes this more quickly than perhaps anything else.

So, what keeps YOU writing? Despite the rejection, poverty, frustration, jealousy, etc.? Feel free to let it spew out. I think all of us have quite complex motives for pursuing this emotionally grueling pastime.

Have at it!

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Thomas Kearnes is a 34-year-old author and part-time bad boy from East Texas. He is an atheist and an Eagle Scout. His fiction has appeared in Night Train, SmokeLong Quarterly, Word Riot, The Pedestal, wigleaf, Pindeldyboz, Bound Off, 3 AM Magazine, Temenos and other publications. He is a 2011 Pushcart Prize nominee.

The other day, I had a nice long chat with a friend and fellow writer. He was feeling a little down about this business of ours and I gave him a completely unsolicited pep talk. Halfway through my speech about sending work to editors, I realized it sounded like I was giving him dating advice. So I went looking for a little more.

Here it is, my dating advice for writers (with translations):

• Put yourself out there. Translation: Don’t be afraid of rejection. Maybe your piece isn’t the best fit for a particular editor, but let them tell you that. Don’t reject them before they can reject you.

• Always look great, even if you don’t expect to meet anyone. Translation: Proofread your work. Revise it until it’s perfect. Send your best copy regardless of what you think your chances are of getting published in that particular market.

• Don’t play hard to get. Translation: Send your work out as soon as it’s ready and keep sending (revising as necessary) until somebody takes it. If you think editors are going to knock on your door looking for new work, you’ve got another thing coming.

• Keep dates brief, but your men interested. Less is always more. Translation: Always think about efficiency in your writing. Cut ruthlessly in service of the story. And keep your cover letters brief and to the point.

• Never ever talk about previous boyfriends. Translation: Don’t mention other rejections when sending out your work. No one wants to feel like they’re your fallback plan.

• Start listening and stop talking. Translation: Read the magazines you want to submit to. Learn what they like. Extrapolate what they don’t like.

• Don’t be afraid of internet dating. Translation: Don’t be afraid of online journals. Many of them have excellent editors and high quality content. Most of them have exponentially more readers than their print counterparts.

• Be patient. Translation: Be patient. Even if you’ve got talent and know-how, it takes time.

Now get out there and get going! The perfect market is out there, just waiting to take your story in its arms and never let it go. So go find it! You don’t want your story to be single forever, do you?

Reprinted from Aubrey Hirsch’s blog at http://www.aubreyhirsch.com/.

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Aubrey Hirsch is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. Her stories, essays and poems have appeared in literary journals both in print and online including Third Coast, Hobart, SmokeLong Quarterly, Vestal Review, The Los Angeles Review, PANK, Annalemma, and The Minnetonka Review. A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, she has also been honored with a nomination for the Micro Award and as a top-25 finalist in Glimmer Train’s Fiction Open.  Her posts appear regularly in this spot the first Monday of every month.

Flash Fiction Chronicles chats with Guest Judge Michelle Reale

Michelle Reale recently served as Guest Judge in Flash Fiction Chronicles’ String-of-10 THREE Flash Fiction Contest.  Michelle is an academic librarian on faculty at a university in the suburbs of Philadelphia.  Her work has been published in a variety of venues including Eyeshot,  Pank, Moon Milk ReviewSmokelong Quarterly, The Los Angeles Review, Word Riot,Wrong Tree Review and others.

She was included in Dzanc’s Best of the Web 2010 anthology.  Her fiction chapbook, Natural Habitat, was published by Burning River in 2010.

FFC: As a contest judge, what criteria did you use to choose the winner?

MR: I like a story that turns the “normal” on its head.  The winning story had an ineffable quality to it that I can’t quite describe.  I had both an emotional and physical reaction to it.

FFC: Do you have any tips for writers who enter contests? What do they need to do to stand out?

MR: My advice for contests would be the same as for submissions:  submit work you believe in and make it your best.

FFC: Let’s focus on Michelle.  What kinds of things do you write?  What direction do you see your work taking now that you have a published collection, Natural Habitat?

MR: Ah, I am diversifying a bit!  I am writing more poetry, prose poetry specifically, and after one editor told me that a flash piece  of mine that I submitted to him for consideration “got interesting just when the piece ended” I decided that sometimes short short work can feel truncated.   I am now  attempting much longer pieces but I am very resistant—I like the short form and think there will be a lot of poetry writing in my future.  I’d like my work to be leaner.

FFC: Can you tell us more about your collection?  What process did you go through to get it pulled together?

MR: I have said this before in other places, but perhaps it bears repeating here:  I feel very far from that collection. Those pieces were written years ago, so looking at them in the chapbook sort of makes me feel like they were written by someone else.  I had a theme of “homelessness” in the figurative sense.  Displacement, loss, “outsider” status ( I always feel like an outsider!) fascinate me , so this was the loose theme. My son David , a writer and visual artist pulled the collection together for me then  I began submitting this little manuscript to a few places.  Chris Bowen at Burning River is a fine human being in just about every way. He liked it and agreed to publish it. I am forever grateful to him.

FFC: You have a full-time job, how do you fit in your writing?  Do you have a set routine or do you write on the fly?

MR: I am not sure I would be at all cut out for writing full time.  I  am, by nature and temperament , quiet  and more than just a bit of a loner, so if I didn’t have a career, I am not sure what I would write about , since my world would be pretty small!   Writing is so much a part of the fabric of my life, I do it every day, whether I feel like it or not, no matter what.  All day Saturday is totally devoted to writing.  I have a small study of my own at home and I listen to music and just go at it.

FFC: Speaking of writing on the fly, what motivates you to write, what gets you going, what kinds of triggers put you at the keyboard?

MR: Everything triggers me, actually!  I keep an idea book with me at all times.  Sounds, colors, conversation, dreams, memories are kept in the book. Life, in general, people in particular inspire me.  I never run out of material.

FFC: What kinds of themes do you find you end up writing about?  I have a dare: Make up three story titles that illustrate what’s important in your world.

MR: Well, I like a challenge!  And since I like to keep a competitive edge with myself, I’ll take you up on it!

Lost in the Vicinity

The Wolves Are Wearing Different Disguises Today

Before They Were Considered Precious

My themes are usually the same:  families, loss, and usually what hurts us more than what makes our hearts soar.

FFC: You really know how to take a dare and run with it.  Here’s another one: Name three books that every writer should read.  Name more if your brain doesn’t stop.

MR: This is a tough one, but here goes:

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

A Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers

Winesburg, Ohio by Sherman Anderson

The first is just a top notch classic, the second is the book I wish that I wrote, and the quirkiness of the third is just amazing.

Pffft.  My brain needs to get back to my day job now!  But really, reading is so personal and my list is endless.

FFC: Thanks, Michelle.  We at Flash Fiction Chronicles are honored to have you participate in the String-of-10 event.  Anything else you’d like to say we forgot to ask?

MR: You covered things pretty well, although, you didn’t ask me who inspires me ! So I am going to tell you anyway.  The writer who keeps at it.  Not the one who publishes the most or is the most prolific, or the ones that get to sit across from Oprah.  Just the ones that show up and who realize that the work itself, published or not, is all that matters.

FFC: AMEN!

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To find out who won this year’s String-of-10 Flash Fiction Contest, click here: WINNERS