Confessions of a Flasher

Recently, I've posted a couple of "Flash Fiction" stories on various web-sites, "Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time" and "White Moth." (The latter being a slightly edited version of a story I first posted right cheer.) If you're unfamiliar with flash fiction, definitions vary. Most of the web-sites specializing in this unique genre place the word count limit at 750-1000 words. Some especially sadistic editors place the limit in the 250-500 word range. I've even seen one site with the psychotic limit of 50 words max. (A Flash Horror site has the brilliant conceit of a 666 word max count.)

However you slice it, that's dang short. Especially for someone like me, with a very real problem of diarrhea of the keyboard. That's one of the reasons I wanted to write Flash Fiction, for the challenge. The other reason is that people actually seem to read these things. (Oddly enough, that was one of the same reasons I started writing erotica.) There's not much time investment required to look at something just a few paragraphs long.

There's also something to be said for the brevity and compression, the stripping of the narrative down to the barest essentials. It's almost like poetry, except I ain't no poet.

Some of you might remember my first attempt at Flash Fiction, "Indoor Recess," written for a contest I entered a few months ago. I wasn't quite happy with how that one turned out. I tried to accomplish too much in the limited space I had to work with. Hopefully, these two selections work better. Please check them out (click on the links) and feel free to post flattering comments.

In other news, I've also written a rather tongue-in-cheek (I've always wondered about that expression. How can you talk with your tongue in your cheek?) post for the Day of the Dead Dinner Show blog. So, if you've wondered why I haven't posted anything here for a few days, it's because I've been posting stuff everywhere else.