Flash Fiction Friday 156: 6-word stories

Welcome to Flash Fiction Friday and the one hundred and fifty-sixth piece in this series. This week’s is the nineteenth bunch of 6-word stories by a variety of authors, together with their 6-word biographies!

6-word stories

by Chong Teck SIM – aspiring Singaporean writer

• Small lamps. Rangoli floor paintings. Deepavali.
• Re-igniting old pains. Past love.
• Sweet innocence. Ever-lasting marriage. Golden anniversary.
• Creaking doors. Pitter-patter footsteps. Mischievous poltergeist.
• Every morning. Unexpected roses. Secret admirer.
• To my beloved: no refund permitted.
• Tear-soaked face. Photograph. Departed lover.
• Two students. Holding hands. Puppy love.
• Anonymous donor. A blank cheque. Charity.
• Love misses a stop: my heart.

by Sal Buttaci finds humor in life

• Words of kindness transcend all tongues.
• In sleep no one is harmed.
• Life is measured with a thimble.
• The last great war was not.
• Counting to six, use both hands.
• Can “I do” be empty boasting?
• Find your purpose and live it.

by Mark K – a writer? Trying hard.

• Snail racing: Not an exciting sport.
• Twenty-twenty vision but he’s deaf.
• My Teddy bear died last night.
• Airline stewardess joins mile high club.
• When she went, my world stopped.
• Then diamond tears track furrowed cheeks.
• I’ll so miss her child-like smile.
• Her voice is like an angel’s.
• The door closed, my lips trembled.
• Sweet silence reigned, she’d left me.

by Samantha Wilcox, navigates life through writing

• Mix up, mothered the wrong child.
• Two men, three girls, one sigh.
• Her assistance declined, she left carefree.
• Ignored his call and walked away.
• Colorado snowfall brightened the dark firs.
• She failed and so I won.
• Excited, needed to share, chose you.
• Icy, moved fast, bad move, dead.
• Wrote this and more inspiration came.
• Degree’s done, job’s unfulfilling, still searching.

by Awen Thornber. Creative dreamer. Cancer survivor.

• Flash fiction. Short story. Became novella!
• Flees England, becomes Huguenot. Flees France.

by Geoffrey Iley: hedonist, romantic, aspiring wordsmith

• Will you… please? No! Goodbye.
• I demand your money! No! Bang!
• Where? Just here? ¾ enjoyable? Ooooh!
• Help! What? Can’t hear, sorry. Aaaaaargh…
• Candle snuffed… whose hand grips mine???
• (Enriched plutonium) + (psychopath) = extinction.

by James Holden works as a geek.

• But you were beautiful, back then.

by Mary Annie: writer at her best.

• The car screeched. And she screamed.
• Sang, danced, dined. To no avail.

by Suzanne, Pear-shaped, pushing 50, risking all

• Daughter bride chooses hyphen, maintains identity.
• Matriarch flees. Ocean restores. Family rejoices.
• Boy turned man. Loved her back.
• Grampa spoiled us flea market Sundays.

and then some from yours truly… Morgen Bailey, Morgen With an E

• Valentine’s Day. I’d expected something else.
• Generous lover, lonely wife, guilty feet.
• Concerto plays as he proposes. “No.”
• I love AC/DC. The band too.
• Watching movie, sinking into the sofa.
• Bought duct tape. Lover or killer?

*

Thank you, everyone.

If you’d like to submit your 6-worders (up to ten per blog post, although you can send as many as you like and I’ll either pick the best ones or if I like most / all of them, schedule ahead) and / or 500-word max. stories for consideration for Flash Fiction Friday take a look here.

 

Flash Fiction Friday 155: Josh’s Frog by Angela R Sargenti

Welcome to Flash Fiction Friday and the one hundred and fifty-fifth piece in this series. This week’s is a 193-worder by Angie Sargenti.

Josh’s Frog

“Don’t forget to save me a bullfrog.”

Josh grinned. “Will do.”

It all started when we were kids. They read us a story in class about a princess who kissed her way through hundreds of frogs, looking for a prince.

All through the years, every time Josh went gigging, he brought me back a nice fat frog, and every time I kissed it, nothing happened.

“That’s gross,” he’d say.

“You eat them,” I’d answer. “That’s even grosser.”

As the years went by, the bullfrogs grew fewer and fewer, and once Josh went off to college, they stopped entirely.

Finally, he showed up at my door one day while he was on spring break.

“You got my frog?”

“That’s kids’ stuff,” he said, grabbing me off my feet and spinning me around. “It’s time you tried the real thing.”

So I kissed him, and all those years of kissing frogs must’ve had some effect, because suddenly I was hugging air and kissing the sky.

At my feet sat a big fat bullfrog, who promptly hopped away.

“Well, damn it all,” I told him. “What’s a girl got to do to find love around here?”

*

I asked Angela what prompted this piece and she said…

 

Writing competitions – March 2015 deadlines

On my blog’s Competitions page is a list of some writing competitions by closing date (month by month) then by regularity, followed by competition websites.

If you would like your competition listed please email me the details as per the format below (one line per competition) ensuring that it starts with the type of competition it is and highlighting the month it closes. Thank you.

As we’re halfway through February already, below are the March deadlines. If you find any information out of date, please do let me know. Thank you.

MARCH

• Children’s: Academy of Children’s Writers, Crystal Magazine.
• Flash Fiction: Indies Unlimited hosts a weekly 250-word max. prompt competition – see Indies Unlimited. Also see ‘Short stories’ below.
• Flash Fiction: Weekly challenge on theironwriter.com.
• Flash Fiction: Each month the Scottish Book Trust provides a prompt to get you started, but where the <50-word story goes from there is entirely up to you. Their favourite story will be published on their page and the writer will receive a lovely Novel Poster from The Literary Gift Company. You can submit your story in the body of an email or as an attachment and remember to include your full name with your entry. They also welcome entries in Gaelic or Scots.
• Flash Fiction: Flashbang is now open to entries: flashbangcontest.wordpress.com. Sponsored by CrimeFest. £2 entry fee. 150 words maximum. Deadline 1st March. First prize is two passes to CrimeFest. Shortlisted and winning stories published online. Full details are here.
• Flash Fiction: Erewash has a free flash fiction competition. Deadline noon (UK time) 21st March. Full details here.
• Flash Fiction: The Berkhampstead Writing Competition has a 31st March deadline.
• Flash Fiction: The Flash 500 Fiction Competition, established 2009, is a quarterly open-themed competition for fiction up to 500 words has closing dates of 31st March, 30th June, 30th September and 31st December. Entry fee: £5 for one story, £8 for two stories. Prizes: £300 plus publication in Words with JAM, £100 and £50.
• Flash Fiction: The NLG Flash Fiction Competition (that I am Head Judge of) is now open – see ‘June’ for full details.
• Flash Fiction / Short Stories: The Writer’s Notebook is a monthly, free to enter short story competition. Each month has a set theme, and each writer can submit up to 2 stories per month. A new theme opens on the 1st of each month, and the deadline for entries is the 28th of each month. Future themes are available to view on our webpage. The prize is publication of the short story in our Anthology at the end of the year, and an equal share of sale profits of said Anthology. It is an experimental idea for a free to enter writing competition, relying on social media to drive sales of the Anthology and increase the prize. Stories should be 400-1500 words. A short list of three stories will be published on our blog for our readers to vote for a winner. For more information please see http://thewritersnotebookgroup.blogspot.com.
• Mixed: Winchester Writers’ Conference has opened their 17(!) mixed writing competitions (deadline 24th May). Details in their competitions brochure. £7 per entry if attending, £9 if not.
• Mixed: Words for the Wounded (W4W) is a new charity that raises money via writing prizes and donations for the rehabilitation of wounded servicemen and women. All proceeds will be passed to projects such as Battle Back, funded by Help for Heroes, which uses sports rehabilitation to help wounded service personnel gain independence and confidence. W4W launches its writing prizes on Armistice Day, November 11, and is calling for all non-writers, aspiring, and experienced writers to enter. Entries can be up to 400 words, written in poetry or prose, fiction or life story tale. Winners will receive a small cash prize and their entries will be published in the monthly writers’ magazine Writers’ Forum (writers-forum/com). Entry costs £4.50 and the deadline is March 11, winners will be announced on 6 June (D Day). They are also running an Independent Author Book Award for fiction or memoir over 45,000 words. For more information on these awards, see wordsforthewounded.co.uk or follow them on Twitter @Words_4_Wounded.
• Mixed: Christian magazine ‘Pockets‘ has a different theme per month.
• Mixed: helenwhittaker.net/phpBB2 (shorts & poetry).
• Mixed (novels & short story collections): iWriteReadRate and Cornerstones Literary Consultancy (voteformyebook.com) are offering a monthly social competition to members of the community – see ‘Monthly’ towards the end of this page.
• Novels: Novel Rocket runs an annual Launch Pad Contest: Boosting You Out of the Slush Pile. Entries will be accepted in all genres beginning mid-January. The deadline for submission is different for genre categories according to the following schedule. In each case, entries must be received by 11:59 PM EST on the 10th day of the month (April to September) listed on novelrocket.com/p/launch-pad-contest.html. They also post a new writing-related article seven days a week, from author interviews to marketing discussions to articles about the craft of writing. NB. The entry fee is $45 so give this very careful consideration.
• Novels: other March-deadline competitions include Dundee International Book Prize and The Next Big Author.
• Playwriting: Windsor Fringe Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama. and sohotheatre.com (Verity Bargate Award).
• Playwriting: Cambridge Theatre Challenge: Would you like to write a one act play for the stage and enter it in a competition where short listed plays are given full performance, judged by the audience, considered for publication and given a written assessment by a publishing company? The winning playwright will also receive a cash prize of £200. Every play will be read in its entirety by a minimum of two judges and entrants will receive two lots of feedback on request, at no extra charge! A shortlist of up to ten plays will be drawn up and posted on the Sky Blue website.  Local actors and a production team will be assembled by professional directors to rehearse the plays for performance at the Junction Theatre in Cambridge early July where the audience will vote for the winner. Closing date for submissions is 30th March. Plays must be submitted on line and full details can be found on our website skybluetheatre.com/newplaywriting.php.
• Poetry: The Writers’ Forum Poetry Competition is a monthly contest for poems of up to 40 lines. Closing: Monthly. Entries arriving too late (after the 15th) for one month go forward to the next. Prizes: 1st: £100. Runners-up: A Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Entry Fee: £5 each, £3 each thereafter. Includes a critique (sae required if entering by post). Comp Page: writers-forum.com/poetrycomp.html.
• Poetry: The Flash 500 Humour Verse Competition, established in 2010, welcomes any form of humour verse will be accepted, from a limerick to a poem of 32 lines. This is also a quarterly competition with closing dates of 31st March, 30th June, 30th September and 31st December. Entry fee: £3 for the first poem, £2.50 for each poem thereafter. Prizes: £150 plus publication in Words with JAM, £100 and £50.
• Poetry: The 13th Neil Gunn Writing Competition is now open for entries until 02 March 2015. There are two sections open to writers worldwide – short story and poetry. This year there is a choice of three themes, all of which are quotes from Neil Gunn’s writing: · “For love is the creator and cruelty is that which destroys” · “The secret loveliness and laughter in things” · “The extra magic of distance” Full details of the competition including the entry rules and forms can be found at www.highlifehighland.com/neilgunn.
• Poetry: other poetry competitions include Cardiff International, Fish Prize for Poetry, Literature Wales, MAG, Michael Marks (pamphlets), Northern Writers’ Awards, Writing Magazine (WM: open to all theme: creative acrostic mini), davidburlandpoetryprize.com, treehousepress.co.uk (Three-in-One), towerpoetry.org.uk, firebirdpoetry.com, scottishbooktrust.com/familylegends.
• Screenwriting: Canada-based Wildsound run monthly screenwriting competitions.
• Scripts: euroscript.co.uk.
• Short stories: The 13th Neil Gunn Writing Competition is now open for entries until 02 March 2015. There are two sections open to writers worldwide – short story and poetry. This year there is a choice of three themes, all of which are quotes from Neil Gunn’s writing: · “For love is the creator and cruelty is that which destroys” · “The secret loveliness and laughter in things” · “The extra magic of distance” Full details of the competition including the entry rules and forms can be found at www.highlifehighland.com/neilgunn.
• Short stories: The Writers’ Forum Short Story Competition is a monthly no-theme contest for stories between 1,000 and 3,000 words. Closing: Monthly. Entries arriving too late (after the 15th) for one month go forward to the next. Prizes: £350, £150, £100 and publication in Writers’ Forum magazine (and possible anthology). Entry Fee: £3 per story for subscribers, £6 each non-subscribers. £5 extra for a critique (sae required if entering by post). Comp Page: http://writers-forum.com/storycomp.html.
• Short stories: Mslexia Women’s Short Story Competition. 1st prize £2,000. Closing date 18th March. mslexia.co.uk/whatson/msbusiness/scomp_active.php.
• Short stories: Graffiti Magazine Short Story Competition Rules: *For crime stories* 1. Closing date March 16th; 2. Entries must be in English and be the writer’s own unpublished work. They must not be on offer for publication or entered in any other current competition; 3. Maximum length 1,500 words; 4. Each piece of work, with its title, must be in clear type on one side of A4 sheet(s). Details of the writer must not appear on this sheet; 5. The name and address of the writer and the titles of all entries should be typed on a separate sheet of A4 paper; 6. The prize-winner will be notified by post, if SAE provided, or by email if email address is provided; 7. Entries are only accepted by post. Please keep a copy of your work, as entries will not be returned; 8. The fee is £3 per story. Cheques / Postal Orders in sterling only, should be made payable to ‘Catchword Writing Group'; 9. All entries that arrive on time will be considered by the adjudicator, whose decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into concerning the result; 10. Competitors wishing to be informed of the results should enclose an SAE marked ‘Results’ or provide an email address. Send entries to: Graffiti Magazine Writing Competition, c/o 33 Sandford Leaze, Avening, Glos. GL8 8PB (UK). Prize: £25 The winning entry and up to five of the short listed stories will be published in Graffiti. For more information: graffiti.magazine@yahoo.co.uk.
• Short stories: Hayley Sherman runs a monthly short story competition for submissions on any subject up to 2,000 words. The winners are published on the website, promoted online and receive a £10 First Writer voucher. All entrants are also considered for publication in The New Short Story Annual at the end of the year. Deadline 25th of the month. Heather Marie Schuldt runs a similar contest, although 500-750 words max., but with the same deadline.
• Short stories: Thresholds International Short Story Forum Feature Writing Competition. Free to enter, international, max 1500 words, 1st prize £500, closing date 27 March.
• Short stories: The Bath Short Story Award opened for entries in October. This new international competition welcomes stories of up to 2,200 words on any theme or subject from published or unpublished writers. Prizes are as follows: 1st £500, 2nd £100, 3rd £50, and a local prize of £50. The competition closes March 30th. For further details see bathshortstoryaward.co.uk.
• Short stories: Writers’ Village runs a quarterly short story competition which attracts entrants worldwide. Click here for the rules… and every entrant receives invaluable critique! Their spring deadline is 31st March.
• Short stories: The Yellow Room Spring Short Story Competition has a max 1,000 words, any theme, first prize £100, closing date 31 March.
• Short stories: Stringybark Erotic Short Fiction Award. International, max 1800 words. Closing date 31 March. Find out more about the award here.
• Short stories: Lightship One-page Short Story Competition. Max 300 words. Closing date 31 March.
• Short stories: Exeter Writers Short Story Competition. The first prize is £500, 2nd and 3rd are £250 and £100. There is also an additional prize of £100 for a writer living in Devon. Stories can be in any genre except for children, they can be up to 3,000 words and the entry fee is £5 per story. The closing date is 31st March.  Rules/entry form: exeterwriters.org.uk or you can send a stamped self-addressed envelope (SAE) to Competition, 4 Albion Place, Exeter EX4 6LH.
• Short stories: Short Fiction, The Visual Literary Journal. Annual Short Story Competition 1st prize £500 plus publication, max 5,000 words. Closing date 31 March.
• Short stories: The Moth Magazine Short Story Prize. Judge Martina Evans, 1st prize €1,000 + publication, closing date 31 March.
• Short stories: One of the UK’s largest and oldest writing groups, West Sussex Writers, is running its second national short story competition. With an open theme, generous word count and final judge, Pam Weaver. West Sussex Writers hopes to attract the cream of the UK’s short story writers. Max 3000 words. Closing date 31 March. 1st prize £200; 2nd prize £75; 3rd prize £50.
• Short stories: Five Stop Story runs a quarterly short story competition (end March / June / September / December). Membership to the site is £25 but you get to enter up to five stories in each competition. Further details at fivestopstory.com/write.
• Short stories: Other March short story competitions include Calderdale, Chapter One Romantic, Dark Tales, Exeter Writers, Fish Prize for Flash Fiction, Glimmer Train (different category each month), Meridian Writing, Mslexia, Northern Writers’ Awards, Rider Haggard, Writing Magazine (WM: open to all open: 750-words max / subscriber-only theme: last line ‘Out she walked with a spring in her step.’), and Wyvern.
• NB. Don’t forget to check out the ongoing competition websites listed at the end of the Competitions page.

You can subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app via Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything.

You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my books (including my debut novel The Serial Dater’s Shopping List, various short story collections and writer’s block workbooks) and If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating. Thank you.

For anyone looking for an editor, do take a look at Editing and Critique.

If you would like to send me a book review of another author’s books or like your book reviewed (short stories, contemporary crime / women’s novels or writing guides), see book-reviews for the guidelines. Other options listed on opportunities-on-this-blog. And I post writing exercises every weekday on four online writing groups.

 

Flash Fiction Friday 154: Date Night by Morgen Bailey

Late last month, Canadian western romance author Alison Bruce asked me to provide her with a piece of flash fiction that would be suitable for Valentine’s Day. I sent her a choice of three and she picked ‘Date Night’. She kindly posted it yesterday and you can read it here. To entice you, it starts…

Date night has become a weekly tradition you look forward to. Thursdays. When others go out with the lads… the girls… it’s just you and Evelyn. Your French Fancy. You think it’s corny but she finds it funny – even after all these years.

She acts differently on a Thursday morning. More loving. Like a teenager, even. She becomes your Frisky French Fancy.

… to read more click here. You may have noticed that this is a second-person viewpoint story (‘you’) and you can read more about this point of view here.

*

 

Based in Northamptonshire, England, Morgen Bailey (“Morgen with an E”) is a freelance writer, editor, tutor, blogger, and speaker. Like her, her blog, https://morgenbailey.wordpress.com, is consumed by all things literary. Her debut novel, several short story collections, and writer’s block workbooks are available from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Smashwords.

 

Inkitt’s FREE “Darkest Place” Horror Contest, starting 2nd Feb 2015

A few days ago I received an email from the lovely Lauren Harsma of Inkitt who let me know about a new FREE competition they are running… for fans of horror, do read on. And if you don’t write horror, have a go. Writing dark is very therapeutic. I’m writing a series about a serial killer (yet I’ve not killed anyone in real life) so I should know. :)

Inkitt’s “Darkest Place” Horror Contest, starting 2nd Feb 2015 (ends 28th Feb)

What is Inkitt?

Inkitt is a free platform for writers to cultivate ideas and watch their stories grow. On our site, users collaborate with fellow writers and readers to give each other feedback and improve their work. Our vision is to help writers get the exposure they deserve and the publishing deals they covet without having to jump through the fiery hoops of traditional publishing, or wade in the shark-infested waters of self-publishing.

What is the theme of the horror contest?

“You are in the darkest place in the world.” (This theme can be interpreted literally or figuratively.) We want writers who will submit their blood-curdlers, spine-tinglers, skin-crawlers, and hair-raisers; writers who will make it their duty to scare and shock their readers; writers who can really take us to the darkest place in the world.

What are the guidelines?

It’s all about fiction: flashes and shorts up to 10,000 words, written from any point of view. Entries must be posted on the Inkitt contest page to be considered eligible. The contest opens on February 2nd and closes on February 28th. The contest is completely free to enter, and authors will retain all rights to any and all work submitted in the contest.

What are the prizes?

All entrants will have the chance to show their work to a growing community of authors and readers hungry for high-quality fiction and win the following prizes:

• 1st Prize: $25 Amazon gift card, Inkitt custom mug, Inkitt custom notebook, custom cover design for the Inkitt story of their choice (created by Inkitt’s designer).
• 2nd Prize: $20 Amazon gift card, Inkitt custom mug, Inkitt custom notebook.
• 3rd Prize: Inkitt custom mug, Inkitt custom notebook.

Contest URL: www.inkitt.com/darkestplace

Twitter Handle: @Inkitt

Hashtag: #DarkestPlace

*

You can subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app via Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything.

You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my books (including my debut novel The Serial Dater’s Shopping List, various short story collections and writer’s block workbooks) and If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating. Thank you.

For anyone looking for an editor, do take a look at Editing and Critique.

If you would like to send me a book review of another author’s books or like your book reviewed (short stories, contemporary crime / women’s novels or writing guides), see book-reviews for the guidelines. Other options listed on opportunities-on-this-blog. And I post writing exercises every weekday on four online writing groups.

 

Flash Fiction Friday 153: 6-word stories

Welcome to Flash Fiction Friday and the one hundred and fifty-third piece in this series. This week’s is the eighteenth bunch of 6-word stories by a variety of authors, together with their 6-word biographies!

6-word stories

by Chong Teck SIM – aspiring Singaporean writer

• Looking back, his past suffocates him.
• Nyonya food. Pantuns. Music. Peranakan childhood.
• Beautiful lanterns. Delicious mooncakes. Mid-Autumn Festival.
• Overcoming hardship, he became a doctor.
• Long-haired beauty. Tender smile. My ex-girlfriend.
• Tired arms, bodies. Diligent house movers.
• Laughing children. Cakes. Games. Birthday party.
• I once loved him. No more.
• Joyous tears. Music. Dancing. Wedding party.
• Panic attack. Jumbled up answers.
• A scream. Midnight. Silent moving shadows.

by Sal Buttaci finds humor in life

• Love thrives where fear won’t dwell.
• Bodies break down just like machines.
• Tall trees conceal their year rings.
• My New Year’s resolution? Make none!
• We have shadows. We’re never alone.
• Cryos or Joyos, bios tell lives.
• To appreciate progress, look behind you.
• Paupers dream of food, not gold.
• Lose weight by shedding unnecessary frowns.
• Shattered hearts never mend quite well.

by Mark K – a writer? Trying hard.

• Ex-girlfriend expired. Police want her exhumed.
• Hammering rain—boring. Hammering skulls—fun!
• Dark wood, lonely girl, piercing screams.
• Psychopaths give knives a bad name.
• Water-pistols : not as affective as M16s.
• Robbie Burns – good : Acid burns – bad.
• Bored? Try wrestling a pit-bull terrier.
• “Publisher!… Read these, then call me.”
• My pen’s run out. Me too!
• Ten 6 worders? Morgen’s gotta die!

Thank you for that, Mark. :)

by Jessica Caudill – Famous in my head

• Phone rings. Don’t answer. Goodbye, Mom.
• Hell For Certain. Welcome to Kentucky.

by Miriam Averna – Making it all up

• You get nothing, the will read.
• My reflection changed overnight.  No improvement.
• Work hard.  Earn peanuts.  Anaphylactic shock.
• New Year resolution: don’t make resolutions.
• Was lost for words. Two left.

by Rebecca Barbee – becoming my best me

• Home alone, the footsteps startled me.
• The locked door opened.  I ran.
• I did. She did. We kissed.
• Pregnancy test.  One line.  Dreams crushed.
• He overslept and missed the plane.
• Wedding dress for sale.  I didn’t.
• Sunset. Another day is gone.
• Sparkling cider, fireworks, a new year.

by Rosalind Minett – genre-less, quirky character-led fiction.

• Left home for independence. Breakfast first.
• Love you forever. He’s dishy, though.
• Quickstep, clinch, clasp, clutch, claustrophobic, collapse.
• Crossing that border, knife in hand.

and then some from yours truly… Morgen Bailey, Morgen With an E

• January’s a cold month but a great actress.
• X-Men’s dumped gay lovers are ex-men
• Cold shower? Prefer a warm bath.
• Sexy woman. Turned head. Clichéd lamppost.
• New beginnings. Exciting times. Realism dawns.

*

Thank you, everyone.

If you’d like to submit your 6-worders (up to ten per blog post, although you can send as many as you like and I’ll either pick the best ones or if I like most / all of them, schedule ahead) and / or 500-word max. stories for consideration for Flash Fiction Friday take a look here.

Related articles:

• http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/may/14/how-to-write-flash-fiction
• http://www.bridportprize.org.uk/blog/flash-fiction-all-you-ever-wanted-know-were-afraid-ask
• http://www.fictionfactor.com/guests/flashfiction.html
• http://www.awkwordpapercut.com/writing-flash-fiction.html
• http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/short-and-sweet-reading-and-writing-flash-fiction
• http://www.wikihow.com/Write-Flash-Fiction
• http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/flash.shtml
• http://www.thereviewreview.net/publishing-tips/flash-fiction-whats-it-all-about
• http://www.everydayfiction.com/flashfictionblog
• and guest blogs about short stories on this blog: Alberta Ross, Jane Hertenstein, Helen M Hunt, Morgen Bailey, Sarah Grace Logan, Warren Bull.

You can subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app via Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything.

You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my books (including my debut novel The Serial Dater’s Shopping List, various short story collections and writer’s block workbooks) and If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating. Thank you.

For anyone looking for an editor, do take a look at Editing and Critique.

If you would like to send me a book review of another author’s books or like your book reviewed (short stories, contemporary crime / women’s novels or writing guides), see book-reviews for the guidelines. Other options listed on opportunities-on-this-blog. And I post writing exercises every weekday on four online writing groups.

 

Flash Fiction Friday 152: The View by Matt Ingoldby

Welcome to Flash Fiction Friday and the one hundred and fifty-second piece in this series. This week’s is a 336-worder by Matt Ingoldby.

The View

Since a young boy, Phil had prided himself on a rare, unnamed medical condition that prevented him from forgetting. His whole life loomed behind him like the view halfway up a mountain, surging back at him at the least provocation, every impression of parallel importance.

Phil had two lives. In one, he was a gleeful success, skating through life, always half a mark above a failing grade. In his other life, the universe confounded his every stab at happiness and lifted each of his dreams just out of reach. Either version could be verified by a plethora of pertinent recollections, and were validated only by his present mood.

When Cassandra eventually left him (tired of listening to the minutiae of childhood memories and answering for the most insignificant offences), Phil took the train to his old hometown and climbed the hillside he had clambered up as a child. His unfailing memory led him to a scree-strewn precipice where he paused in thought.

Below, the valley flowed thickly off the slopes and settled swirling around the distant brick pixel of his childhood home. Remembering everything, he wasn’t given to nostalgia. The floors had been cold and the house was surrounded by the same faceless green frieze of indomitable mountainside. He remembered as a child scrabbling up the sheer rocks now below him, but he could never scramble more than a few feet before the pile gave way beneath him, transforming into a different shape that necessitated the discovery of new handholds.

He toed the cliff edge. The scree pile didn’t seem as jagged and unforgiving as he had once thought. There was every chance he would only be permanently crippled if he fell now; barely the painless end he had imagined. No – he would have to go higher. Phil drank in the valley, inflated his lungs with it; sucked it through his senses. Only from the summit could he be certain of a judicious demise. He turned round and continued to labour blindly up the slope.

*

Thank you, Matt. I loved it.

Matt Ingoldby is relatively new to writing, but he doesn’t let that stop him – he has wanted to be a writer since he could correctly spell his own name. He is twenty-one years old and inhabits a tiny London flat, wreathed in cigarette smoke and ideas.

If you’d like to submit your 6-word or 500-word max. stories for consideration for Flash Fiction Friday take a look here, or up to 1,000 words for critique on my Online Short Story Writing Group (links below).

Related articles:

• http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/may/14/how-to-write-flash-fiction
• http://www.bridportprize.org.uk/blog/flash-fiction-all-you-ever-wanted-know-were-afraid-ask
• http://www.fictionfactor.com/guests/flashfiction.html
• http://www.awkwordpapercut.com/writing-flash-fiction.html
• http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/short-and-sweet-reading-and-writing-flash-fiction
• http://www.wikihow.com/Write-Flash-Fiction
• http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/flash.shtml
• http://www.thereviewreview.net/publishing-tips/flash-fiction-whats-it-all-about
• http://www.everydayfiction.com/flashfictionblog
• and guest blogs about short stories on this blog: Alberta Ross, Jane Hertenstein, Helen M Hunt, Morgen Bailey, Sarah Grace Logan, Warren Bull.

** You can subscribe to this blog on your Kindle / Kindle app via Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com **

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything. You can contact me and find me on the internet, view my Books (including my debut novel The Serial Dater’s Shopping List, various short story collections and writer’s block workbooks) and If you like this blog, you can help me keep it running by donating. Thank you.

For anyone looking for an editor, do take a look at Editing and Critique.

If you would like to send me a book review of another author’s books or like your book reviewed (short stories, contemporary crime / women’s novels or writing guides), see book-reviews for the guidelines. Other options listed on opportunities-on-this-blog. And I post writing exercises every weekday on four online writing groups.