A few years ago as a New Year’s resolution, I began writing new story drafts every day for the month of January. This piece was the result of one of those thirty-one-day drafting challenges. I remember being surprised by the appearance of the skates, the track jacket, and Tonya Harding in the initial draft of this story. But I’ve learned that the more regularly I sit down to write, the more often these surprises arrive, and rather than having the creative well run dry from overuse, ideas proliferate from routine. (If only I could be that disciplined with daily drafting for the other 11 months of the year!)

Alyson was a 2022 runner-up for the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. She writes, edits, and teaches in New Jersey.

Alyson Mosquera Dutemple, Mistakes Happen All the Time..., flash fiction

A flash fiction piece originally published Oct 2012 content warning for eroticized violence.

Female Of the Species Flash fiction reading

Only Rexon Thunderson a Neuro-divergent aristocrat can save or destroy the dystopian USA.

Rexon Thunderson

No Rainbows audio

Robin Littell received her MFA in Creative Writing from Miami University and writes flash fiction and poetry in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

I wrote "Birdsong" in its first iteration almost five years ago. It came to me after an emotional conversation with a friend. It ended up, as many stories do, in a folder on my desktop. When I read it again recently, it seemed to resonate in new ways. At its core, it’s about that connection between the body and our intuition. It’s about hearing that little voice inside us that knows what we need and learning to listen to it.

Robin Littell, Birdsong, flash fiction

Shadow

In this week's episode, PhD researcher and writer Kathy Hoyle talks about flash fiction, the need to tell stories in our own words and why readers and publishers in the US love a bit of Northern UK dialect.

Find out more:
https://kathyhoyle.com/
https://shorturl.at/BIAke
X:
https://x.com/kathyhoyle1
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/kathyhoylewriter

Music credit: 'Water of Tyne' performed by Edinburgh University Brass Band (2009) arranged by Jack Stobbs, edited and scored for Brass Band by David Dye. Used with kind permission of the publisher, arranger and performers.

Episode 48: Kathy Hoyle

In Episode 50, TV and drama writer Abi Hynes comes on to discuss her debut collection of short stories, Monstrous Longing. We all talk about writing female desire, the power of flash fiction and why writers should wait for the right offer to come along from agents and publishers.

Find out more:
https://abihynes.co.uk/
https://www.dahliapublishing.co.uk/product/monstrous-longing
https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/news/2024/09/edge-hill-short-story-prize-2024-announces-longlist-of-exceptional-literary-talent/
X:
https://x.com/AbiFAHynes
https://x.com/DahliaBooks
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/abifahynes

Music credit: 'Water of Tyne' performed by Edinburgh University Brass Band (2009) arranged by Jack Stobbs, edited and scored for Brass Band by David Dye. Used with kind permission of the publisher, arranger and performers.

Episode 50: Abi Hynes

The Gate

Love and Lox

Flash Fiction piece for Professor Anderson's Intro to Audio Storytelling class.

Note: Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" is used, as well as a bardcore version by Caitybeldy Music on Youtube, which you can listen to here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJhyY0sRbUo

Love is Like a Shadow

🔍 Editor Laura Mae Isaacman shares her top tips for writing cracking short stories
📝 Find a full transcript for this podcast episode here:
https://blog.reedsy.com/live/write-short-story-live-training/

Reedsy Live: How to Write a Stellar Short Story with Laura Mae Isaacman

THAT FRIEND

So it's going to be this kind of day, is it?  Just as well to know.



You stand:

eyes screwed shut

legs apart

bending over, as instructed

and, of course, naked

– save for a pair of gloves that, despite having been supplied with the product, are proving, by even the most generous of metrics, less than fully fit for purpose;

head hanging over the bath, hair slicked thick and dripping with a substance that – and there's no escaping this – is a markedly less promising shade than the putative one being sported by the pouty 20-something on the packet

...but which you remain hopeful (in defiance of previous experience and your own gut instinct) will end up suiting you better than the last one did. And the two before.

You are at the rinsing-off stage, shower head in hand, gradually resigning yourself to the quiet realisation that no matter how long you wait, the water is never going to get any warmer now: the hot tank has run out.

And from somewhere in another room, your mobile summons you – a text alert.

Hang on... what day is it?  Oh fuck. Your friend!

Said they would ring. Had something big to talk about, they said – to ask – too complicated to explain up front: the kind of thing that's better spoken, heard in realtime; shared, not thrown down on a screen. Said they'd text you first to check, make sure you were around and had the time: THAT friend – the one who's always opened up to you, has opened you up too, who values your advice, whose emails make you smile, someone you've really grown to like ...perhaps a little more so than you're willing to admit.  That friend.

Stumbling from the bathroom, semi-blind and likely dripping dye in every room en route, you hunt your phone.  Phone... Phone... PHONE..!!  Where the fuck did you last put the bastard thing?  Why can you never leave it in the same place twi...oh there it is.

Clear the blur out of your eyes...  it's them.


Ah.  Right.  Fair enough.

They won't be calling, after all. Problem's sorted itself out. No need to trouble you with it. Too much to go into right now: they'll drop the juicy details in an email, in the week. In town today, they are, looking for shoes, something fancy for tonight: out clubbing – that new place. Gotta put yourself out there, intcha?  You never know...!  Emoji.  Emoji.  String of kisses.  Heart.

Before you’re halfway into your reply, the handset chimes again, lights up – another message? Not your friend: just that guy with the Gumtree ad, to tell you that the thing you had been waiting-kinda-maybe-hoping for's already gone.

So yeah: it's going to be this kind of day. Hit delete on him, get on with what you need to say. Keep it light and positive; include a jokey quip about your latest hair dye fail-in-waiting:  "Watch this space – pics to follow.  Yikes!"


Emoji.  Emoji.  String of kisses.  Heart.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

© Ken Cumberlidge  12-09-2020

That Friend

THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER


It's always the same. The moment you tell people you live in a decommissioned lighthouse, they make assumptions: that you're some kind of eccentric loner; that you're rolling in money; that you have an inordinate fondness for stairs.

None of it's true – at least, not in my case.  I mean, for starters, as lighthouses go mine's a very small affair: nothing like the image in your head right now.  Just an ordinary two-storey home with a lantern housing on top.  Detached, yes, and older than the rest of the estate, but otherwise unremarkable.

Yes, I did say "estate".  Not all lighthouses are offshore, you know.  Quite a few are inland, set back from the water's edge by a fair old distance.  Southwold is a good example.  Actually in the town centre, that one.  It's all about being on a convenient piece of high ground.  So long as the light is visible to shipping, that's all that matters.

Mine was on its own originally – I've seen old photographs of it surrounded by grazing cows – but when it got taken out of service, became a dwelling, then the land got sold on, the developers moved in and ...well, now we're just another address on a suburban back-road.  Beacon Avenue, they called it.  It's a nod to history, I suppose.

Quiet sort of a place, all told. Until the fog rolls in. Well, if your home came equipped with a 10kW generator and a 150 decibel compressed-air horn... wouldn't you be tempted?  Shame not to, I say.  So I do: fire it up, pop on my ear-defenders and let rip.  The locals kicked up quite a fuss the first few times but, as I pointed out to them, you wouldn't want 100,000 tons of oil tanker accidentally rocking up outside Budgens, would you?  It's only common sense.  Nobody bothers complaining these days.  They just sweep up their shattered window glass and carry on.

Not that it's all plain sailing (pardon the maritime bent there).  I have a long-standing dispute with the council. It's the bin lorry. Whoever they've got driving the thing is a menace. Six times it's happened now. Always on a Monday (that's how I know it's them, see – it's bin day):  I come home from work, and what do I find?  My wing mirror all askew – broken off completely, once.  Cost a fortune to fix.  Well, you can't get the spares for these old models.  I wouldn't mind, but I always take care to park half on the pavement, to leave room.  Couldn't do otherwise, really.  I mean, where else are you going to put a WWII U-Boat?

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

© Ken Cumberlidge  20-02-2022
First published 14-07-2023 in the Pure Slush anthology “Achievement” (Lifespan Vol 8)

The Lighthouse Keeper

This is the series where we learn about three companies vying for the pandemic market, but is that really what's happening? Find me here: https://commercialherschel.substack.com and here: https://discord.gg/eQ9HKzgvus 

Pandemic Rivarly Sunday Stories, Ep. 2

This story began in a workshop two years ago where we were asked to write a sentence, then highlight words in the sentence that we were drawn to. After that, we were asked to free write a list of 25 words using the words we had highlighted as inspiration. My list (and original sentence) revolved around the seasons, food, and eating. I decided to structure the story around the seasons, and soon after, the idea of how we feed or starve ourselves emerged, but it took me several revisions to understand Lara’s hunger and desire.

Kelly Pedro is a Portuguese Canadian writer whose fiction has been published in CRAFT, PRISM international, The New Quarterly, Cleaver, Flash Frog, New Flash Fiction Review, Fictive Dream, Ghost Parachute, Moon City Review, and elsewhere.

Preserves by Kelly Pedro, flash fiction

Northern Voices explores Northern writers (published and unpublished), storytelling and publishing. The podcast is hosted by Jen Bowden, a writer, editor and journalist with a PhD in Creative Writing from Curtin University exploring biases against the North in the UK book industry.

I am a realist, an optimist, and a lifetime creative. Neuro-Divergent, INFJ, I see the world and process the moment to be awake and lucid. I seek, truth, peace, and love, reason and logic are the best frame, filter, and state to strive for.

Writer, Artist, Composer, Student

Profile photo: cyanolov3.art on Instagram, commission of original character
Backdrop image: sara_kipin on Instagram, Tolkien Book Cover Set, Fellowship of the Ring

KEN CUMBERLIDGE: POETRY
To see the full text and publication details of any poem, click on its track title.

"Honest, unflinching, emotionally intelligent and stunningly crafted." - Cathy Carson

Multiple slam-winner, finalist at Hammer & Tongue Cambridge 2018 and 2019, Ken Cumberlidge cut his performance teeth on the pub poetry scene of the 1970s.

Since 2011 Ken has been based in Norwich, but can be lured out of cover by good company and an open mic - a proclivity that has led him to become an habitué of the slam poetry/spoken word scene.

Ken writes about love, sex, nature, loss, identity and queerness, with an occasional foray into the eerie and macabre.  Poke him with a sharp enough stick and he may even wake up long enough to get shouty about politics.

His work has appeared widely in print and online (Algebra of Owls / Allegro / As Above So Below / Bi All Accounts / Bogg / The Fiction Pool / Fire&Dust Anthology / Fragmented Voices / Impspired / Ink, Sweat & Tears / Ludd's Mill / Message in a Bottle / The Open Mouse / Picaroon / Pulsar / Pure Slush / Rat's Ass Review / Runcible Spoon / SMOKE / Snakeskin / Songs of Eretz / Spilling Cocoa… / Strange Poetry / Talking Soup / Timber Ghost Press ...etc).

Headline/featured poet at numerous events/venues, including:

Allographic Open Mic
Beth Hartley "A Holding" book launch
Cambridge PRIDE
FenSpeak
Fire&Dust, Coventry
Hammer & Tongue, Cambridge
High St Poetry, Ely
Incite! LGBTQIA+ Spoken Word Cabaret
Last Poet Standing, Norwich
Oooh Beehive
Poetry at Jurnet's
Poetry Non-Stop podcast
St Andrews Festival, Cambridge
Sunday Night Lives at the Flying Pig
Vron McIntyre "Random Trail" book launch

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New tracks tagged #flash fiction