Welcome to the first Flash Fiction Sunday Edition!
The goal for this weekly serial is to highlight great Flash Fiction from around the web and expose readers to new authors and publishers. Each week a rotating cast of curators will highlight their favorite stories from around the Flash Fiction scene.
Without further ado, here is your Sunday reading.
Flash Fiction chosen by Les Weil of 101 Words
Both of these stories are from Doorknobs and Bodypaint. The name of this magazine might seem a little odd, but for 77 issues, Doorknobs has offered some of the best flash fiction on the web. Check out the wonderful archive of stories by over 400 authors, spanning over twenty years.
“Master Builder” by Beverly Vines-Haines via Doorknobs and Bodypaint.
How often do we overlook excellence when it shows up in ordinary things.
“The Nice Guy” by Dan Jackson via Doorknobs and Bodypaint.
Do you believe in Karma?
Flash Fiction chosen by Mallory Smart of Maudlin House
“Quantum Entanglement” by Alexandra Pasian via theEEEL by tNY.Press.
tNY.Press is known for defying conventional standards on all things literature, so it’s not so surprising to find a great piece like this on their site. Good flash should always be a snapshot. It can be a feeling, a time, a place, an awkward glance some dude gave you on the subway — anything. This piece is an instagrammed death wrapped in sepia: gut wrenching yet somehow warm.
“Death Too Will Die” by Robin Wyatt Dunn via Literary Orphans.
Any piece that uses the word ‘penumbra’ in a semi-accurate way deserves to be acknowledged. So I liked this piece for that and its poetic feel. It’s featured in Literary Orphans new issue: Strummer (fists up for the Punk Rock Warlord). It’s another piece about death but this one manages to be more patient with less words. I liked it for the imagery and the flow.
P.S. I’m not obsessed with death, everyone else is.
“Burn Me, Love” by Alexis A. Hunter via Freeze Frame Fiction.
This piece is a bit longer than what I usually go for, but it’s still cool because none of the words are filler or fluff. This was put out by Freeze Frame Fiction and I was pleasantly surprised. This is my first time reading anything by this publication, so it was definitely new territory for me. I liked the pace and how the story is told in stages. It’s a good jilted read.