Flash Fiction Chronicles

By Matt Potter, editor of Pure Slush which is celebrating its one year anniversary this week!

Like many things in my life, Pure Slush was born as a response to something that pissed me off.*

Initially, it was Halloween 2010.  I did not want to write a Halloween-themed story for the weekly flash fiction challenge I was then taking part in. We don’t celebrate Halloween in Australia. Well, not if you’re Australian. (I have celebrated Halloween at parties here held by American friends, but that’s OK: that’s part of their culture. And I’m their friend, so I’ve celebrated with them, at their homes and at their parties. But hold a Halloween party of my own? No, I would never do that. It’s not part of my culture).

Anyway, coupled with the endless no-replies and bad replies and nonsense-replies and rude replies from editors of fiction websites I had received after my own well-meaning submissions to them, I wanted to see my own values reflected on the web, particularly in fiction (and flash fiction) circles. And I don’t think these values are much different from the values of many other people out there in e-land either.

Courtesy, proper and considered responses, no bullshit (please, no more “your story is just not right for us at the moment, but please consider us again” bullshit! When will it be the right moment? Tomorrow?!)—and so after thinking about this for two months, on a rainy Monday December afternoon, driving home in a summer downpour, gutters and drains overflowing with dirty water, the name Pure Slush came to me (with a nod to Tallulah Bankhead)—and I had the hook to start.

Only half an hour before, after accidentally dropping a packet of spelt pasta on the ground at the Adelaide Central Market (a produce market), I had come up with the name Broken Spelt, which I liked, but it didn’t grab we the way Pure Slush did, with its great sound and multiple references, its linking of class and trash, its fun and its seriousness.

And two days later, on Wednesday December 8^th, 2010, Susan Gibb’s Black Bears and Green Broccoli Trees made its debut in Pure Slush. (I knew enough writers online to ask a few to contribute, and Susan’s came in first.)

What I sought was to redress the rudeness so endemic in this field (if as editor you can’t send a decent reply to a submission because you are simply too busy, then get out of the game); and to see an Australian voice out there in e-land. This is interesting considering more writers on Pure Slush come from North America than anywhere else!  By the time this article is published, only four Australian writers will have been published on Pure Slush so far, and that includes me. More writers from the UK and Europe have appeared on the site than Australians.

But I do think Pure Slush reflects a very Australian attitude: an abhorrence of po-faced pomposity, a marked irreverence often masked as keen humour, and an eclectic taste. It’s a venue for many, many things. Hence the tagline, flash … without the wank.

And credit where credit is due: the original tagline was flash fiction … without the wank. But in Pure Slush’s first week of life, English writer Jo Gatford pointed out that the tagline was funnier without the word fiction, and she was right. So, thanks Jo.

Of course, more than anything, Pure Slush reflects my own taste.

The acceptance rate at Pure Slush is quite high because I actually work as an editor on the site. I am no mere collector or curator of stories. I don’t think you can actually call yourself an editor unless you actually edit: offering suggestions for changes or alternatives or restructures; highlighting (and sometimes very specifically) where a story needs more … or less … or just something different; cutting out the crap to reveal the pearl inside.

Or knowing exactly why a story or poem doesn’t need anything further. Stephen V. Ramey, in a recent Facebook discussion, likened working with me to cutting the story to the bone, then building in the muscle. I think that’s a great—and accurate—analogy. I love creating, and I especially love reworking. (Buying new clothes usually involves some renovation for me: taking off collars or changing buttons and rehemming or dyeing. Yes, I have done a lot of dyeing of clothes, changing dull colours to bright ones, giving clothes something new and extra. And I like to think the stories on Pure Slush are similarly bright and varied.)

This pisses some writers off, this editing. (Email me and I’ll tell you the demographic breakdown, as I see it!) Oh well, too bad, I say. There are many more writers who like working with me because I give them and their work the respect they want: I actually pay attention to them and their work. And I have lost count of those who have said, “Hey, this back and forth was a bit annoying at times but you know, my story really is much better for us working on it together. No one else has done this for me.” It’s their name on the story, but a better story reflects well on all concerned.

To be honest, given the many things I have done in my life, I think I have always been editing, changing things to suit myself, cutting out the middle man and going for the jugular!

I “commission” stories for the site too, which is fun: I get to ask for something quite specific and I am invariably given just what I want. This plays to writers’ strengths—and their egos! And who wouldn’t respond?!

I know Marcus Speh from a writing group I attended when I was living in Berlin, and I asked him to write about his life, actually what it is like being married to people from different cultures. (Marcus’s wife is American, whereas his first wife was Italian. He is German but has lived in a number of countries.) And so he wrote the truly wonderful In the nude about living in Trieste, that small city on the edge of many things. And the story gets hits every day! (A lot of people put the words nude and pure in their online searches, so that helps.)

As for story preferences, Gill Hoffs put it wonderfully well when recently musing what sort of cake Pure Slush would be, given the site is celebrating its first anniversary. A simple recipe, she wrote, with no fancy or frilly icing, but a very strong taste. I could have kissed her; it was so on the money.

If you want to know what Pure Slush seeks or doesn’t seek in stories, there is a page on the site called What Pure Slush wants.

As to favourites on the site, I cannot say I like or love all the stories on the site in equal measure. That is impossible. I do like them all, and see value in them all, but some stories I choose to publish because I think, ah, I like this enough to run it, but others will like it more. So I do think of tastes beyond my own.

But stories I love on the site? I am misty-eyed as I type this, but they are generally stories I have asked writers to write because I know the writers personally, as in in person, or writers I would love to meet in person because of their stories. So, here is a roll call of just some, fiction and non-fiction:

I have a background in Social Work (though am currently teaching English as a Second Language), but much of my social work career was spent working in publicity and promotions, so promoting Pure Slush, while a constant task, is second nature. I am always surprised other sites do not do more promotion, given there are thousands out there. And I promote all stories equally. Hence the spin about turning one. But I like to think that, while I recognize it as spin, there is meaning in it too.

You can keep up to date with all that is happening at Pure Slush by going to The Latest.Themes change monthly and the site has just released its first print edition, slut.

*Author’s Note: after reading this article, if you think the author is a bit of a shit, well … yeah, you are probably right. He is a bit of a shit.