Flash Fiction Sunday Edition

Welcome to our ongoing Flash Fiction Sunday Edition.

If you are new here, we do this every Sunday. If you have a favorite author or publisher you would like to select stories, send them our way.

We also publish 101 word Flash Fiction every day. We even deliver:

Subscribe to Flash Fiction Daily

— Shannon

Flash Fiction chosen by Ashley Gardana

“Away Sweet Child, Ride Away” by R Matt Lashley via Micro Bookends

An exhilarating tale of a young girl starting anew to the soundtrack of Guns and Roses.

“Communication, and the Lack Thereof” by Holly Geely via Holly Geely

Inter-species romance—they come with more than your average problems. Very entertaining!

“Be Careful What You Wish For” by Josh Bertetta via Flash! Friday

‘If you build it they would come.’ But who—or what—are ‘They?’ A creative, cautionary origin tale.

“The Mask” by Steph Ellis via Musings of Alissa Leonard

A horrific story that may leave you terrified of leather masks.

Welcome to our ongoing Flash Fiction Sunday Edition.

If you are new here, we do this every Sunday. If you have a favorite author or publisher you would like to select stories, send them our way.

We also publish 101 word Flash Fiction every day. We even deliver:

Subscribe to Flash Fiction Daily

— Shannon

Flash Fiction chosen by Tom Leins of Things To Do In Devon When You’re Dead

“Visiting” by Abi Hynes via Spelk

Despite only launching in September 2014, UK flash site Spelk Fiction has carved itself an impressive niche as a home for warped little stories. The content to date includes dirty realism, whimsical surrealism and hardboiled crime—and all things in between—with contributions from writers on both sides of the Atlantic. “Visiting”—one of the most recent additions to the site—is a uniquely British, enjoyably unsettling tale. It reminded me of early Ian McEwan, and lingers long in the memory.

“NSFW” by Grant Jerkins via Shotgun Honey

US crime site Shotgun Honey has had its finger on the pulse—and on the trigger—since April 2011. With well over 500 stories published since its launch, Shotgun Honey has been on one long hot streak since its inception, which makes it genuinely difficult to pick one story out of the archives. As a result, I will draw your attention to the most recent addition: “NSFW”. This stalker-themed story is seriously twisted, and seriously well-worked, and proves that bad guys don’t need to be heavily armed to be truly scary!

“No Pain, No Gain” by Vela Damon via Fuck Fiction

Based in China, Fuck Fiction feels like a real under-the-radar flash fiction site. “No Pain, No Gain” is one of my favourite stories to date. Like my other choices, it is dark, vivid and gripping—well worth checking out.

“Nostalgia Purvis” by Frank Bill via A Twist of Noir

After closing its digital doors a couple of years ago, A Twist of Noir remains sorely missed. On the plus side, the site built up a seriously impressive body of work between 2008 and 2013. As a reader (and a writer) I have particularly fond memories of the 600–700 challenge, when regular contributors were invited to deliver consecutive stories consisting of a set number of words (I got #616 and #642). I’d like to draw your attention to the visceral “Nostalgia Purvis” by Frank Bill. I belatedly read his awesome short story collection Crimes In Southern Indiana, recently, and this grim little offering is cut from the same cloth.

Welcome to our ongoing Flash Fiction Sunday Edition.

If you are new here, we do this every Sunday. If you have a favorite author or publisher you would like to select stories, send them our way.

We also publish 101 word Flash Fiction every day. We even deliver:

Subscribe to Flash Fiction Daily

— Shannon

Flash Fiction chosen by Emily Clayton

“Disappearing Act” by Chelsea Hanna Cohen via freeze frame fiction

Lovely from start to finish. A sense of sadness woven around love in all its forms.

“Bitter Oranges” by Ursula Dewey via Visual Verse

The twisting course of life drenched in rich, vivid description.

“The Mistress of the House on the Machair” by Helen McClory via Wyvern Lit

Evocative details and a lovely narrative blurring reality.

“Replay” by E.N. Loizis via freeze frame fiction

Life at the press of a button. Beautiful details. The perfection of imperfection.

Welcome to our ongoing Flash Fiction Sunday Edition.

If you are new here, we do this every Sunday. We also publish 101 word Flash Fiction every day. We even deliver:

Subscribe to Flash Fiction Daily

— Shannon

Flash Fiction chosen by Firdaus Parvez of Positivethoughts1

“Motherland” by Gareth Hewitt via Mash Stories

I loved reading this story. What I liked most was how the writer incorporated the three random words given, into the story. Blow-dryer, cockpit, honesty; random words so beautifully used.

“Helping Hand” by Miles Rausch via Mash Stories

I really had fun reading this piece. So vivid I could almost see it happening. And to use random words like ‘monkey’, ‘cathedral’ and ‘relativity’—amazing!

“Thud” by Jessica Franken via Micro Bookends

Just a hundred words and so much in it. The rhythmic use of onomatopoeia is simply amazing.

“We Rest on Thee” by Foy S. Iver via Flash! Friday

This is an amazing piece. The reader is sucked in—spiraling down with the character to his death. Brilliant!

Welcome to our ongoing Flash Fiction Sunday Edition.

If you are new here, we do this every Sunday. We also publish 101 word Flash Fiction every day. We even deliver:

Subscribe to Flash Fiction Daily

— Shannon

Flash Fiction chosen by Decater Collins of Entropy Squared

“Bulletproof–A Love Story” by Gray Blix via 365 tomorrows

A futuristic love story featuring a woman and a machine. Think Her meets Bladerunner.

“The Man From 6B” by Ben Sixsmith via 81words

A very short story about laundry.

“Mirror Skinned” by Kelly Sandoval via Flash Fiction Online

A lovely treatise on aliens, romance, and space travel.

“Unwrapped” by Georgene Smith Goodin via Every Day Fiction

Not every birthday is celebratory.

Welcome to our ongoing Flash Fiction Sunday Edition.

If you are new here, we do this every Sunday. We also publish 101 word Flash Fiction every day. We even deliver:

Subscribe to Flash Fiction Daily

— Shannon

Flash Fiction chosen by Kevlin Henney

“Undone” by Rin Simpson via FlashFlood

Death and funerals are such a common theme in short fiction that they almost fade into the background, but the vividness and care of the language, the beautiful and spare word choice around the turning point of the tale, and the strength of the point of view in this story pull it so firmly into the foreground that you cannot help but read it again (and again).

“Plaits” by Tania Hershman via Tania Hershman

Love and relationships are the stuff of most stories, and it is normally the heart we blame or credit. The lyrical flow of this flash instead weaves a tale of love found, faltered and recovered around hair, hands and knees.

“The Way” by Frank Dutkiewicz via Daily Science Fiction

Age, dementia and the passing of life into forgotten years are difficult to write about well. This story does this and more. There is a beauty and feeling in the detail and form of this story that will last you the rest of the day.

“Search History” by Iain Rowan via Flashbang

No more than 150 words, not even written in complete sentences, and yet all it needs to be a whole story and a perfect flash. One of the more ingenious and effective examples of list fiction I’ve ever read.

Welcome to our ongoing Flash Fiction Sunday Edition.

Don’t forget to join the list and you will get next weeks issue via e-mail.

— Shannon

Flash Fiction chosen by Tony Press

“The Transition” by Fiona Helmsley via Digging Through The Fat

Digging Through The Fat publishes one excellent story each week, on Wednesday. It’s gotten so I’ve been very aware of the day as I first open my email on Wednesdays. Here’s a great example: we really know these two characters, and their worlds, in a very short space. It’s a perfect flash—satisfying in itself, but with the hint of wanting more. I especially love the narrator’s description here:

‘She held a coffee cup in one hand, and a lighter in the other, and used the movement of both to accentuate her thoughts—coffee cup down for simple statement, lighter up for something more excitable.’

“America Land” by Eric D. Goodman via The Loch Raven Review

This one made me laugh or, rather, I forced myself to laugh because I didn’t want to cry. Some stories have one great idea, but can’t do anything with it—this story does justice to the original idea.

“Papa’s Handkerchief” by Pam Parker via Digging Through The Fat

This is another from Digging Through The Fat. It is just this one little scene, fewer than 300 words, but it is a whole story. It highlights the classic tension of the world left behind and the new one soon to be experienced, plus the poignant image of that handkerchief floating away.

“Boys In The Bank” by Jeanne Althouse via Pif Magazine

This one is in Pif Magazine and all I can say is give it a try. It is a story you will marvel at and remember for a long time. Trust me.

About Tony Press

Tony Press lives near San Francisco and tries to pay attention.

Fiction: BorderSenses; Boston Literary; Chiron Review; Digging Through the Fat; Doorknobs & Bodypaint; Fiction on the Web; 5×5; Foundling Review; Grey Sparrow Journal; Halfway Down the Stairs; 100 Word Story; 101 Words; JMWW; Lichen; Literary Orphans; MacGuffin; Menda City Review; Qarrtsiluni; Rio Grande Review; Riverbabble; SFWP Journal; Switchback; Toasted Cheese; Workers Write; and elsewhere. He was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize.