Flash 3/2009, #1: Ariella Adler

Addiction

I reached into my jacket pocket, cursing under my breath, and ordered another cup of coffee. We weren’t supposed to smoke in Café Blue Moon and I wasn’t going to risk being asked to leave. My interest in the sidhe took priority over comfort. My impatience was an obstacle that I would stalwartly ignore. Annoyed, I tore up a paper napkin, meticulously ripping it into confetti-like shreds.... Read more: HTML

In This Issue: Jake Freivald

The Music Issue

March in, sit down, and enjoy a few good stories. Everything we offer involves music in some way: “Addiction” is about the music of the sidhe, “Gustav’s Mars” is about Holst’s famous composition (sort of), and “Trumpet Volunteer” is about divine music. Even Bruce Holland Rogers delivers a music-related story to exemplify his column about breaking the rules in short-short fiction. Finally, we have a Classic Flash from Lord Dunsany about the Blackbird’s song. Join us! Read more: HTML

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Flash 3/2009, #2: Emily Lavin Leverett

Gustav’s Mars

I’ve never heard the end of Gustav Holst’s Mars. I came close, once, but then the world ended with the Martian invasion.

Did you know that 70 years before they attacked — to the day — Orson Welles broadcasted War of the Worlds?...

The night the real invasion came, I went to a Halloween concert... Read more: HTML

Flash 3/2009, #3: Oscar Windsor-Smith

Trumpet Volunteer

In a dark universe strewn with worlds, in a dark world sprinkled with lands, in a land peppered with bright cities, in a shabby street, in one small room in a concrete tower layered with rooms, a stub of candle flickers and goes out.

Beyond the dark universe, watchers respond.

“Who reported this one?”

“The father.” Read more: HTML

Short-Short Sighted #10: Bruce Holland Rogers

Less Than The Rules Demand: Getting By On Attitude

In this issue, Bruce Holland Rogers breaks all the rules — and shows how you can, too. His intriguing story “Baby, It Didn’t Have to Happen That Way”, illustrates his point. Read more: HTML

Flash 3/2009, #4: Bruce Holland Rogers

Baby, It Didn’t Have to Happen This Way

Money. That’s the thing Paola’s lover, Evan, is afraid of. He is always worried — it makes him physically ill — that there will be too much money. Her anxiety, on the other hand, is that in another year people will still fail to recognize her on the street, that she will still have to produce an ID to cash her checks. This is a very real possibility. Read more: HTML

Classic Flash #16: Lord Dunsany

The Song of the Blackbird

As the poet passed the thorn-tree the blackbird sang.

“How ever do you do it?” the poet said, for he knew bird language.

“It was like this,” said the blackbird. “It really was the most extraordinary thing. I made that song last Spring, it came to me all of a sudden. There was the most beautiful she-blackbird that the world has ever seen....” Read more: HTML