Flash 9/2009, #1: Ray Vukcevich

Suddenly Speaking

It suddenly hits me that I speak Japanese. I turn off the subtitles, and I do perfectly well without them.

Nonsense, my gangster friends tell me. No one can just suddenly be speaking Japanese. How are we supposed to believe you learned to speak Japanese? Watching cartoons? Ordering sushi? Reading novels on your cell phone? Ridiculous. Read more: HTML

In This Issue

Read about the stories and columns in our current issue here.

Our next issue goes live on October 1. Meanwhile, please subscribe if you haven’t already, and tip your favorite authors. Thanks! Read more

Review: Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction

Editor Jake Freivald reviews The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction, a collection of 25 essays dedicated to... well, you know. Read more

Your ad could be here, right now.

Flash 9/2009, #2: Mark Patrick Morehead

Doofus

Billy didn’t want to be a Doofus. Maybe a scientist, or a zookeeper, or a musician. But definitely not a Doofus.

Unfortunately second grade was nearly over, and he had not found a white coat or a microscope, or a guitar, and he had missed the fieldtrip to the zoo.

And now this... a knot. Read more: HTML

Flash 9/2009, #3: Patrick Lundrigan

How High The Moon

“You’re a robot, you know. I made you.”

“I’ve heard that before,” Nomie said. She put the tea tray down and settled into the lawn chair. “But I don’t think I’m a robot.”

“Programming,” Manny said, “I programmed you not to know.” He blew on his tea and sipped. Just the right amount of sugar and cinnamon. Read more: HTML

Classic Flash #22: Punch, January 28, 1914

Miranda’s Will

I am not legal adviser to Miranda’s family; nevertheless she came to see me on business the other day. I saw at once by her serious air that it was something of first-rate importance.

“I want a will,” she said; “one of those things that people leave when they die.”

“Some people leave them and some don’t,” I said. Read more: HTML

Short-Short Sighted #15

Bruce Holland Rogers continues his series on writing the short-short story.

In the last four columns we have looked at Orson Scott Card’s MICE quotient and examined how it is possible to write flash fiction that depends on its success on Milieu, Idea, Character, or Event. As I wrote these columns, I was reminded of the nervous anxiety that I used to feel when I would read about theories and techniques of writing. On one hand, I would feel excited about the clarity that can arrive with a good theory: Aha! That’s why certain novels begin with the arrival of strangers and end when the strangers leave! They are novels of milieu! Read more