In Conversation: Flash Fiction ✍️

I recently had the joy of meeting fellow fictionist and flash writer Jason Brick for a delightful conversation we shared via messages about this art form we love.

Read on for a few excerpts of our lively conversation about flash fiction—including the coolest place Jason’s newsletter has gone and Jason’s bio. Then, check out his newsletter and submit your flash fiction.

Also, my In a Flash craft book from Vine Leaves Press is the perfect holiday gift for yourself and your writer friends for the upcoming holidays!  Buy In a Flash! Writing & Publishing Dynamic Flash Prose  by Melanie at: Vine Leaves Press website

or at: Amazon

Or, for signed copies, Melanie’s Etsy page

Without further ado, the discussion about flash fiction:

Q: What drew you to flash fiction?

Jason: It’s the variety. For the reader and the writer, you’re not committing to a long narrative, so you get to play with genres, styles, crossovers, characters, languages, tropes you otherwise wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pencil.

Melanie: Flash is super flexible—it combines the narrative and action elements of fiction with attention to poetic language. It’s also compact and helps writers learn compression (which I always need!), integrating language like dynamic verbs and precise imagery, which I find exciting.

Q: What makes flash special or stand out from other literary genres?

Jason: Sort of what I mentioned above. It’s super-short, so there’s more room for variety and creativity than with other lengths of fiction.

Melanie: It combines the best elements of fiction and poetry and yet brings its own special qualities to the table, including a variety of formats and styles.

Q: Tell us about your book in a sentence or two, as if it were a birthday present you were describing.

Jason: Flash in a Flash is just the coolest gift, because I get to open it twice a week! It’s a literary newsletter that puts a super short story - under 1,000 words - in my mailbox every Monday and Thursday! All kinds of genres. All kinds of styles.

And it gets better! I’m a writer, and they’re seeking submissions. So with a little luck I can have my own micro-stories get out into the world. They’re a paying market, too!

Melanie: Very cool. Always great to learn about writing markets, especially those which pay.  My book, In a Flash, sizzles the pen and sparks a thunderstorm of dazzly new ideas that have never crossed your mind before and will continue to deliver awesome exercises and fabulous flash examples that you can return to again and again, at any season of your writing life ahead. You’ll want to keep it handy and gift a friend interested in the genre. 😊

Q: What’s the coolest or wackiest place(s) your book has been read OR where would you like your book to be read? 

Jason: The easy answer is that many people tell me, because of the short time commitment, they keep and read their copy in the bathroom. Besides that, I compiled the first volume in the series while living in Malaysia, so I read several of the submissions while on a boat in a river in Borneo.

Melanie: Wow! Malaysia and a boat in Borneo—so awesome! My favorite place readers have told me my book has traveled is in a gift bag to encourage a friend who has hit writer’s block or who isn’t familiar yet with the joys of flash. Writers are incredibly supportive and kind friends, and I love hearing that my book resonated with a reader so much that they want to gift it to a friend.

Q: Does your book contain exercises for writers? If so, what’s your favorite one that you’d like to share now?

Jason: Not exactly, but anybody can submit…and there is no better writing exercise that finishing a story and submitting it.

Melanie: I love what you say about finishing a story and submitting it. Very encouraging! My book contains a bunch of exercises that writers can use on days when they’re not sure what to write and how to even begin. I love hearing that someone used my exercises to draft a story, submit it for publication, and subsequently received an acceptance letter.

Q: What’s your favorite flash story? Or a flash story that you remember reading and being excited about exploring more in your own writing?

Jason: As of this writing, my favorite remains “The Apocalypse According to Dogs” from my first anthology. It just tickles me.

Melanie: I look forward to checking out that story you mention. The first flash I remember reading and thinking about how amazing it was and wanting to explore more in my own writing was the one often attributed to Hemingway: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”  That just hits me in the gut. As a poet as well, the imagery just says it all. That so very much emotions could be contained in six short words is super inspiring and challenging. Every time I read it, I both get the chills AND want to write something that eloquent and that compact.

Bio:
Jason Brick is the skipper at Flash in a Flash, a biweekly newsletter delivering fiction to mailboxes all over the world. When not writing and editing, he travels, cooks, practices martial arts, and spoils his wife and two sons. He lives in Oregon. 

Connect with Jason:

https://www.facebook.com/brickcommajason 

Contact Jason: brickcommajason@gmail.com

Jason’s books and projects

My Flash Fiction Published at Bright Flash Literary Review! 🎉

I’m excited to announce that my flash fiction, “It was just supposed to be,” was published this week at Bright Flash Literary Review! 📚

Check out my story below as well as the awesome stories by fellow authors at their current issue. If you write flash, consider submitting, too.

“It was just supposed to be”

a quick zip through aisle seven and back.

Somebody said she’d moved outside Rawston somewhere after, so it never occurred to him that Tuesday before New Year that he’d turn the corner with the laundry detergent in his right hand and there was Maisy.

“Hey,” was all he thought to say.

“My sister needed a few things,” she half-smiled.

Photo courtesy of Eduardo Soares on Unsplash.com, free stock

There was a baby strapped onto her in one of those carrier things he didn’t know the name of. She was someone’s mom now. That was weird, and new. Fifteen years together. They never. He never thought she’d wanted one. He didn’t. Doesn’t.

The baby bopped legs and arms in herky-jerky movements. The baby had Maisy’s curls. 

“Just getting this,” and he held up the neon plastic jug like he was proving something, as if until he’d pointed it out it’d been invisible.

Should he have said something, asked about the baby—Maisy’s baby—a name maybe? An age? He hadn’t seen any teeth when the baby had grinned at Maisy, but how old are kids when they get front teeth? Do back ones come in first?

Maisy had bounced a bit on the balls of her feet near the stacked boxes of soda crackers; the baby laughed in reply. They made a tableau together like he’s seen mothers and kids do on TV.

“Yep, everyone needs clean clothes,” she said.

She looked tired in her eyes, but happier than she ever was their last few years. Calmer somehow.

“Good…good point. Hey, great seeing you,” he said, because he could think of nothing else to say but random inanities. The baby’s hair the exact raven black of Maisy’s the night they’d met as freshmen. He’s got some grays now.

The baby had some other guy’s eyes. Weird. He’d turned away.

“You, too, Darvin,” she said, using her sympathy voice.

The baby kicked into cracker boxes, and the front one wobbled but didn’t fall.

“Look what you’ve done, little cutie. Yes, you, my little cutie,” Maisy cooed and laughed.

He ducked into aisle four; he dropped the detergent onto a random shelf. No longer any energy left for waiting in line, for another possible sighting. He couldn’t. He was outta there.

He lightninged through electronic double doors, out of breath but not running.

He’ll grab another detergent at the QuickShop after work tomorrow and stew about Maisy tonight.  He leans back in the tan recliner; they’d picked it for their first apartment after college. He’d liked the red one, but Maisy said tan would go with more things. She’d been right about that. About more than that, he guessed. 

He should take his mother up on her offer to reupholster it.

“Give it a new look,” Mom had said. “Or else donate it to charity, get something new.”

Yeah, but the chair’s the last thing left from their years together.

He keeps the living room lights off tonight; his laptop casts a pale green light that wobbles against the opposite white wall, the same color it was when he moved in.

Is Maisy still at her sister’s on Root Lane? Seven miles is nothing; how easily he could jump in his truck, drive out that way. Just to see.

He presses back into the tan upholstery, but there’s nowhere further to go. It was far easier when he could think of Maisy as alone, like him, near Rawston at night.

He feels it in his gut: Maisy’s gone home to the man whose eyes the baby shares. Their baby.

Biography:  Melanie Faith is a night-owl writer and editor who likes to wear many hats, including as a poet, photographer, professor, and tutor. Three of her craft books about writing were published by Vine Leaves Press in 2022, including her latest, From Promising to Published. She enjoys ASMR videos, reading, teaching online writing classes, and tiny houses. Learn more at https://melaniedfaith.com/ .

"Four Tips for Mixing Music into Your Fiction" 🎶🎹

Super excited that my craft article was published in Women on Writing’s newsletter today. Read on to learn some tips for integrating music into your prose as well as a prompt to give a whirl. 😊🎼

“Four Tips for Mixing Music into Your Fiction”

By: Melanie Faith

Music plays in so many milestone moments in our lives: from proms and graduations to weddings, anniversaries or divorces, first dates or last dates, funerals, reunions, and many other ceremonies. Music (or variations of it) may even be playing in an elevator near you on the way to the job interview you’re hoping to ace or to a doctor’s appointment you don’t want.

We don’t need to wait until milestone moments to savor sound, however, as songs suffuse everyday life as well. I listen to music numerous times a day, from a streaming speaker, from my laptop, on the radio in the car or in the kitchen, on TV or episodes of shows online, even on records, tapes, or CDs in my players now and again.  The importance of music doesn’t end with youth, but keeps giving back throughout our lives.

Music is often an important facet in fiction, too. Let’s delve into some wonderful ways that we writers can weave music into our plots, characters, and more!

Layer references to the same or similar song(s) or artist(s) within the same work. The context can be different for each listener/character. Your protagonist might listen to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” as a high-school student in 1991 when it was released and have one experience while your protagonist’s twenty-something daughter might listen to the same song in 2024 and have entirely different reflections as she remembers that her dad always played the song while making breakfast during her preschool years.  Music is reminiscent of the era it was made, but it’s also timeless. Music can connect one generation to another, or divide one generation or listener from another.

Braid musical and nonmusical events within the same story to shed light on both elements of the story. If your protagonist is a second-chair violinist in the community orchestra, you might include not only the conflicts involved with her determination to move up to first chair this year, but also another element of her private life (from her day job and coworkers to her relationship with her love or her friends or her frenemies) to develop her character both on the stage as she practices and performs as well as offstage in her personal life.  Another idea: even characters who aren’t musicians or singers frequently jam when at a party or alone in a room or a car when a favorite song comes on. What song will get your protagonist’s toes tapping (or busting out the lyrics into a pencil or hairbrush or karaoke microphone, as the case may be)?  

Consider a melodic medley. Shake it up with intention. Many listeners enjoy several genres of music. Musical allusions can denote mood and tone as well as conflict within the plot or within your protagonist or antagonist. References to particular album titles or songs may even be used to foreshadow events later in the tale or become titles for chapters. 

Use poetic and precise language. Just as songs have rhythm and lyricism, you can pay particular attention to diction choices to develop music descriptions.  Onomatopoeia/sound effects might mimic the high-pitched tweet-tweet of a piccolo or flute, the mournful twang of a mandolin or guitar string, or the zingy ping of a hi-hat cymbal.  Consider using words with softer sounds, such as sibilant /s/ and quiet /m/ and /n/, for descriptions of acoustic performances and words with stronger, louder sounds, like the staccato and punchy /t/, /d/, /b/, /k/, and /z/ for summer rock concerts or heavy metal.

Whether your protagonist is a musician, a fan of a particular singer or band, or not, you can use these tips to integrate music—whether center stage, backstage, or as background—into scenes and character development to deepen your writing. You can even weave more than one of the tips within the same scene or chapter. Rock on!

Try this exercise:

Take a scene you’ve written recently with your protagonist during a time of strong emotion, such as doubt or great joy. Jot a list of three or four songs that mirror the emotional intensity the character is experiencing. Pick one to drop into the scene in a sentence or two to make it the soundtrack of the scene. What resonance does this reference add to the character, setting, or plot? Add extra dialogue or narration around this reference if the muse so moves you.   

 Want to learn more? I’d love to have you in my February class. Clickety-click to learn more and sign up! 🎸

50 Give or Take, #2 Published and Ready for Readers! 📚🥳

It’s here! Check out this fabulous collection of micro stories to inspire your pen: clicky.

Such a treat to have work in this volume along with talented authors from across the globe. It’s the perfect addition to your bookshelf, classroom, syllabus, holiday gift list, and more!

Shout-out and many thanks to Jessica Bell and Elaina Battista-Parsons for this amazing, page-turning volume of stories.

The 50-Word Stories of 2022 Anthology! 📚

Super amped to have work in the The 50-Word Stories of 2022: : Microfiction for Lovers of Quick Reads alongside talented, innovative writers from across the world. Many thanks to Jessica Bell and Elaina Battista-Parsons for compiling such a marvelous collection of stories!

Perfect inspiration for writers, readers, and teachers alike!

Preorder now at Amazon. Clicky!

My Food-Themed Microfiction, "Sunday Dinner," Published Today! 🍋

Super excited that my flash story, “Sunday Dinner,” was featured today at 50 Give or Take. Story No. 582! Woot! Subscribe (it’s free and fun) to give it a read and to get wonderful microfiction delivered to your inbox each day for reading and writing inspiration.

I also enjoyed writing a new one-sentence bio to keep it fresh and accompany my story: “Melanie Faith is a night-owl writer and editor who often moves through the daytime world with her camera and heart-shaped, leopard-print sunglasses.” 😎

Have some 50-word stories or wanna write one? Submissions currently open (details below):

Fifty Give or Take

To microfiction in its storytelling power! #smallbutmighty

Photo courtesy of Marina Grynykha on Unsplash.

📝My Article Published Today: "Fabulous Flash: Diving Headfirst into the Pool of Uncertainty"

Super excited to announce that my article, “Fabulous Flash: Diving Headfirst into the Pool of Uncertainty,” was published today at Women on Writing. I end the article with a fun prompt to take for a spin. 🌹

Clickety-click on the article title above to read more, and check out the many inspiring writing workshops in an array of genres available from talented published writers via the WOW classroom page .

My online class flash fiction workshop is accepting students between now and the July 1st start date. To learn more, check out: In a Flash Workshop. Flash is one of my favorite genres, and I’d love to work with you and your writing friends.

Copies of the text we’ll use, also written by yours truly, are available at Amazon and (for signed copies) at my Etsy page. Write on!

Exciting Update: Interview😀🎊

Recently, I had the great joy to share my thoughts with multitalented author and editor Roz Morris about writing, publishing, books, persistence, a fulfilling artistic life, and so much more: clicky here to dive into the fun.

Be sure to check out Roz’s excellent books, from her riveting, prize-winning novel, Ever Rest, and the many stellar reviews it has gleaned to her wonderful craft books sure to encourage novelists on this writing path.

Also, Roz has a meaningful newsletter, insightful interviews with fellow creatives, and more at her site to motivate and to bring out the very best in your writing.

It's Book Birthday Time! 🤩

Welcome to the world, From Promising to Published! Super excited for this book birthday, so I’m burning the midnight oil to ring in publication day. 🎇📔

Get your copy at Vine Leaves Press, Amazon, or my Etsy shop for signed copies.

Fabulous cover by Jessica Bell at Jessica Bell Design.

Upcoming Writing Class: Flash Writing! 📝

Super excited to offer my Flash Writing class this summer! Mark your calendars now, and I’d love to have you and a friend join me for this online workshop, starting Friday, July 1, 2022.

Sign-ups are now open.

More info: Featured Online Flash Writing Workshop: In a Flash!

I’ll be using the book I wrote on this topic, which is also available and handy-dandy for all writers, whether you’re in the market for a class or for a prompt-filled read to get those words flowing.

In a Flash book

In a Flash e-book

Signed Copies