In 1988 Chuck Taylor split his time between living in a tent in the woods and in the back of his station wagon. His flash fiction, Re-Creation, draws from his experiences from that year.
Chuck says his is “a tale of marital conflict” and “a flight story.” He considers the decision to leave a marriage as something “positive and negative” but leaves the conclusion up in the air, because “in flight you are up in the air.” (And yes, his double meaning is intended.) Fast forward thirty years and he’s a retired Texas A & M University professor who taught creative writing. He filled his days in between the past and the present performing as a magician and balloon clown “at magic shows and children’s birthday parties, churches, and schools.” He also worked as a bookstore clerk, survey taker, janitor, soft water salesman, maintenance man, and animal lab assistant. He served as a poet-in-residence for the City of Salt Lake, was a part-owner of Paperback Plus in Austin, and operated Slough Press for forty-one years. His photography takes up a good chunk of time, although “good cameras and lenses are expensive” and the cost remains a challenge. He loves to travel and owned a recreational vehicle which also fueled his story. As a writer, Chuck struggles with “finishing things. It’s hard to let go.” Despite his reluctance, he has let go of several books, even won the Austin Book Award for his work, What Do You Want, Blood? Given all his published books, he contends he has no favorites, says he “loves them all,” although his readers appear to prefer his poetry book, Like Li-Po Laughing at the Lonely Moon. He’s currently working on two writing projects. One is a prose book called The Book of Indefinite Conclusions. The other is a prose book called Tales of Beat Glory, about “being poor and about beatitudes or spirituality.” He’s closely allied to the beat movement in American and world literature. If you’d like to read more of Chuck’s story, it’s available on Amazon. If you’d like to keep up with Chuck’s writing, check out his Amazon writer’s page. If you’d like to wander his photos, take a look here.
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A subreddit focused on the topic of crazy Mothers-In-Law inspired Alyssa Vaughn’s flash fiction, Reactions, although she contends her own is not crazy. She leans toward shorter fiction like flash to temper her predilection for too much detail in her stories. “The low word count really makes me cut to the chase and focus on the action.”
Reactions is her first attempt “at anything like a mystery, and dishes out a nice, hearty helping of family drama.” She delivers a strong message to her readers to never assume that the “people around you have the same moral boundaries you do.” Alyssa attributes her love of mysteries to her grandfather who hooked her on Agatha Christie from a very young age. Her ghost story, The Tape Recorder, is out in the new anthology from So Say We All, Black Candies: The Eighties! The story is loosely based on “an annoying habit my sister had of unearthing embarrassing artifacts from our childhood whenever I came home from college.” More than one reader will identify with such sibling antics. Life’s distractions interfere with finishing her stories and submitting them for publication. She works hard to not let things get in the way of her commitment to “making writing a life goal and not a hobby.” Still, as a young mother, she also pays attention to “when to say playing dinosaurs with my one-year-old is more important." Oh, and one final note — Alyssa’s heart holds a secret desire that “someday, someone would look at my Twitter and appreciate how hilarious I am.” Make her dreams come true. twitter.com/msalyssaenvy (She really is quite funny!) In the meantime, if you’d like to read more of her story, check it out here: bit.ly/READFLASH Stay close to Alyssa’s writing and publications, on her author’s Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/alyssaenvywrites. photo credit © Gerardo Cuenca (thank you!) In Charles Leipart’s flash fiction, “The Sleep of the Righteous,” his character, Meg, awakens from a recurring dream with an epiphany of purpose. She needs to share this vision with husband Sam, so that they both might achieve a blessed sleep. Charles contends he frequently wakes from similar “strange dreams” which visit “powerful visions that can provide a revelation of a much needed resolution to an internal conflict.”
Charles is a native of Chicago, a graduate of Northwestern University, and a member of the National New Play Network’s New Play Exchange. He lives and writes in New York City and is a member of The Dramatist's Guild and The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. When reading his piece, Charles’ extensive playwright background becomes apparent. He sets the scene quickly and precisely by engaging the reader with simple (and yet not so simple) dialogue. Charles hopes “to continue discovering new things--hopeful things—in spite of a world increasing confusing and angry.” His greatest challenge lies in keeping his writing “truthful and surprising. Revealing the truths we know in our hearts but don’t take the time to examine.” Perhaps he’ll uncover these hidden truths during the night. To read more of his story, check out: bit.ly/READFLASH To keep up with his writing and stage productions of his plays, visit his website here: http://www.charlesleipart.com/ Christine Rodriguez’s mother inspired her flash fiction, Up in Smoke, about two sisters “discussing the lifelong tendencies of their mother and how these habits contributed to her success.” It’s a familiar conversation two grown women (or men) might have about a parent which grounds the reader quickly into her story. Her mother, a “hard worker,” used her creative skills and talents to build a successful business. No slouch herself, Christine’s writing, what she calls her ‘hobby scribblings,’ have been published in numerous publications. She feels fortunate about her own success since “many people don’t heed the call or have the opportunity.”
Christine faces several challenges as a writer. Her energy level ebbs and flows which sometimes limits her writing output. Her curiosity and interest in too many things also gets in her way – she gets bored easily and enjoys a range of eclectic subjects. She’s “dabbled in poetry, children's literature and a variety of genres.” Her writing also leans toward dark fiction which “many people are reluctant to delve into, already having enough darkness in their lives these days.” Her latest completed story is a 50’s-style sci-fi called Doom Buggies. Her advice to would-be writers/artists would be “to join groups of like-minded people. The stimulation from other people's work and conversation creates more ideas and inspiration than you can use in a lifetime. Share your talents with anyone and everyone that will look or listen. It's satisfying to you and uplifting for them.” To read more of her flash fiction, bit.ly/READFLASH To stay in touch with her writing, go to her author's website at On the Brink which lists all her published and accepted work coming soon to a book or publication. Music beats through Dori Ann Dupre's flash fiction, See You in September, vividly setting the scene in a small-town diner where the heart of a shy teenage girl skips a beat or two while watching the new boy in town sweep the floor. Dori chose music as the thread for her story knowing that adults who struggle with short-term memory more easily recall the songs of days gone by. Music connects them to memories, and the familiar song, See You in September, both timely and timeless, blankets the scene and her characters in the comfort of simpler days. She submitted her story for inclusion in the anthology knowing “how a simple story could ignite good feelings and memories in a dementia or memory-impaired person...” and hoping to be part of helping “someone re-experience happiness through feelings and memories.
Her desire to better the world through her art is standard practice. She’s been involved with other projects where her writing supports change. In one article, she writes about The Help A Brother Out Foundation profiling a local non-profit organization which each day offers “a hand up, not a hand out.” Her published short stories and her novel support a range of initiatives. Proceeds from the Pen Name Publishing charity anthology From Words to Water, for example, went directly to the Wine to Water organization to deliver clean water to vulnerable communities worldwide. Others like On Life and Living, and her debut novel, Scout’s Honor, donated to the Linerberger Center for Cancer Research at the University of North Carolina in the memory of her husband, Eric DeJong. Her novel was the 2016 Bronze Medal winner for Southern Fiction with the Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards and it was named a Finalist in the 2017 Eric Hoffer Book Awards. Dori takes pride in these achievements, but when she hears back from readers of Scout’s Honor that her compelling story changed and saved lives, well, that means far more. Dori recently completed her second novel, Good Buddy, which is currently represented and seeking a publisher. She describes her novel as “the book of my heart,” and shares a peek at its plot: “Jonathan 'Buddy' Cordova is a small time criminal defense lawyer living paycheck to paycheck and practicing law out of his house in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He likes to think of himself as a modern day Atticus Finch, the kind of attorney who represents the poor, the indigent, the ‘probably guilty,’ the kinds of clients who usually end up in jail. Shy, painfully awkward around pretty women, and carrying his own dark secret, Buddy falls for the daily jogger—Julie Saint, a part-time Kindergarten teacher and Army widow with a little girl named Molly.” If you’d like to read more her flash fiction, check out the anthology: bit.ly/READFLASH. If you’d like to follow Dori’s writing, visit her website: www.DoriAnnDupre.com. She’s always available to visit with book clubs and speak about writing. Follow her on her social media channels: Facebook @DoriAnnDupre, Twitter @DoriAnnDupre, and Instagram @dori_dejong Charlotte Byrne drew inspiration for her flash fiction, Monday Morning, from a childhood memory. Begun when she was a girl, her mum and she “uphold a somewhat bizarre family tradition of singing ‘dustbin man, dustbin man’ to the dog when the bin men drive past.” She has no memory of the origin of her “somewhat bizarre family tradition,” but reflecting on this unconventional practice got her wondering about the dustbin man (N.B. garbage men to anyone outside the United Kingdom) and “if they did sometimes find treasures amongst other people’s rubbish.”
Her story is about human relationships, and the excitement and hope people feel in an otherwise mundane day – those moments are “all around us, but sometimes we need to look for them.” When Charlotte’s not thinking about dustbin men and the treasures they recover, she’s figuring out how to overcome her greatest challenge — “turning up at the page, even when not in the mood, or when work or life gets in the way— there’s nothing like overtime or a family crisis to rip the motivation out of you.” She shares her strategy to move her writing projects forward: 1) set reasonable deadlines, 2) break the project down into manageable parts — for example, a goal to complete a daily word count and 3) chocolate rewards -- “a good way of overcoming writing obstacles!” Her advice comes honestly, she works hard and has several writing credits to her name. Her publications include a short story, Soldiers All, in Tales of the World, and several flash pieces— Sardines and Not Tonight in Purple Lights published by Fincham Press which she credits with providing her “publishing, editing, and life experience, they really helped me realise what a powerful form flash fiction can be.” One short story, Conjuring the Man, will be included in the upcoming horror anthology, First Came Fear, by New Lit Salon Press. Charlotte recently completed a YA comic folk fantasy novel entitled, Folked Up. She describes the ideal reader of this works as someone who likes “dimension-hopping musicians, witches, cross-dressing swordswomen, spirits of nature, or power-crazed sorcerers…” She enjoys working on a variety of projects simultaneously. She has two short stories in the works one about an Egyptian mummy and another about a quilt of human skin. She’s also working on a novel about a Catalan woman searching for her fiancé in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Looking further into the future, she plans to write a novel about a travelling fair in 1950s England, and a children’s book with the working title, Rocket Nan! Her love of writing goes beyond the finished story and keeps her motivated to write more. In her own words (and likely in the hearts of many writers) she says, “Every time my work is published I get a wonderful feeling – that somebody enjoys my work enough to share it with other readers is the greatest accomplishment I could ever hope to achieve!” If you’d like to read more of Charlotte’s flash fiction, Monday Morning, check out the anthology here: bit.ly/READFLASH. Follow Charlotte on Twitter at @charladybyrne to stay in touch. As part of promoting the Anthology’s Call for Submission, co-editor, Anne Anthony posted black and white photos as photo prompts. One photo she posted of a tree in the snow felt disorienting to contributor, Angela Kubinec, as if the snow were falling up. The photo inspired her flash fiction, Snow Swept, which she wrote as “a magical thinking kind of thing that describes everything in the world coming undone and drifting upward.” Her intention in writing this story is to deliver a message: “…avoid assuming one knows how a thing works, and how little control we have over outcomes. Involuntary detachment.” The photograph faces the first page of her story in the anthology.
On most days, Angela prefers a very low profile, for her it’s more “important for me to know that serious critical readers are moved by something I have written.” She’s her own worst critic, acting as “a very harsh self-editor” which slows her down. But that’s okay, she’s not driven by a desire to reach large audiences. She writes because she doesn’t know how to stop writing. There’s certainly downsides to having this compulsion to keep writing. Angela says that sometimes she “ignores important people and things when engaged in any writing. They all disappear to me.” Angela’s been busy in recent months. She’s assisting in judging the 2017 Lascaux Prize Poetry Competition, a much-desired contest which received well over 500 entries for the 2017 competition. She also keeps busy with writing short stories which keep “percolating in my head.” One story, 23 Items in Your Gallery of Absent Things, was named a finalist in the 2017 Fiction competition at Black Warrior and later received an honorable mention in the Glimmer Train Fall Fiction Open competition. Her advice to writers submitting to literary journals is to know the journal. It’s critical to get to the right market. For other informative advice, check out Angela’s posts in the Dear Editor column on Easy Street. If you want to read the rest of Snow Swept, check out the anthology available on Amazon. bit.ly/READFLASH. An ironic mishap led to the final draft and submission of Norm Titterington’s flash fiction, One Night Only. As he tells it, “A lost flash drive (fittingly enough) meant that all I had left of this piece [I began years ago for a writing contest] was my handwritten first draft, which was somehow missing a page—the original ending.” When Norm read the anthology’s call for submission, he wrote a new ending to revive his story, certain it was the right piece to submit.
Inspiration for the original story stemmed from him picking up his guitar after years of not playing. He struggled badly with finger placement, his fingers felt stiff and non-cooperative, as if arthritic. The image of an elderly bluesman, trying desperately to reclaim his former glory, popped in his head, and his new ending practically wrote itself. He hopes the story will encourage his readers to overcome “obstacles with perseverance, confidence and positive energy.” Positive energy runs throughout Norm’s life. He describes himself as “a pretty simple, ordinary guy,” but when asked about his greatest achievement, his response is anything but simple or ordinary. He’s a husband, a father, a valued full-time (and more) employee, a dedicated coach and organizer for a number of youth sports, and a community volunteer. Over the last seven years, Norm’s been working on a novel, tentatively titled, "Call Me River," about a mysterious woman who turns a man's life completely inside out. Working on the project “comes in fits and starts.” Unfortunately for his readers, and as is often the case for many writers, the rest of his life takes precedent over his writing. Still, he acknowledges that despite years of sporadic rejections of his writing and these major challenges, he’s continued to pursue the craft that he loves. More recently, he’s been working on a flash piece that’s morphed into a longer work of fiction. The story, Scars, Lies and Underwear, is about two women sharing their first video chat "date," but their conversation deepens beyond a simple chat. He has no idea where his story will end, but “it's a fun journey so far.” Norm’s final comments about himself are actually about an organization in which he’s heavily involved. He asks everyone to consider supporting their local Boys & Girls Clubs of America, a wonderful organization that had (and continues to have) a huge impact on his soon-to-be college bound son. He’s a firm believer that the organization gives young children a better path forward than what they might encounter on their own. And maybe his commitment to this organization ties in with his final remarks. He feels strongly that love and kindness are “missing from our world today,” and encourages us all to “share a smile or a friendly word.” To read more of Norm’s story, check out the anthology: bit.ly/READFLASH Stay in touch with Norm and his writing on his blog: A Writer In Progress. A writer’s first draft often pours out as a “jumble of thoughts and emotions” from the heart and mind. Contributor, Linda Wisniewski gives excellent advice to writers. After writing the first draft of anything, on the top of the first page, she writes in red, “What is this About?” She then gets up from her desk, leaves the draft to stew on its own, and takes a walk outdoors. The answer to her question typically comes during her walk and the jumble becomes crystal clear.
Her story, Dinner for Five, was inspired by a memory of waiting for her son in the parking lot of his elementary school. She recalls seeing an older couple in a car looking sad, and imagined them as estranged grandparents hoping for a glimpse of their grandchildren. Their heartache kick started a story in which she hopes to highlight these difficult situations and encourage parents and grandparents to preserve relationships for the sake of the child. She’s a strong believer in hope and forgiveness. It's never too late to say “I'm sorry” or to change your mind, to let go of a grudge, and make peace. People don't have to give up themselves to show compassion. Both Linda’s mother and mother-in-law suffered from memory loss. Both were great readers. She submitted her story because she “liked to imagine someone reading to them when they were no longer able. This book makes it possible for others to have that experience.” Ten years ago, Linda had the good fortune to publish her memoir, Off Kilter, after a career as a librarian. She’s currently looking to publish her first novel, Where the Stork Flies, loosely based on the life of her ancestor who was born in Eastern Europe in 1778. The plot involves a confused Pennsylvania librarian, a 19th century Polish peasant, and a wisecracking medieval queen who join forces to fulfill a mission from the Black Madonna of Czestochowa. When she’s not traveling with her sculptor husband, she’s volunteering as a docent at the Pearl S. Buck Historic House and teaching memoir workshops in the Philadelphia area. To read more of her story, check out the anthology on Amazon: bit.ly/READFLASH Stay in touch with Linda’s writing and workshop events on her website: https://lindawis.com/ photo credit: Pearl S. Buck Museum Library ©Donna Beckley Galanti Like her character in her flash fiction, Okay, Okay, resilience underscores Bernadine Lortis’ life and her writing. Her story expresses “how love can lift the deepest sorrow and provide safety to those in need.”
She’s spent recent years “turning snippets and scraps of writing” into poetry and stories which have found homes where they may be read by others. She accumulated her thoughts and reflections while caring for her daughter. And sometimes, like many writers, she could only push forward by ignoring friends and relatives who saw little purpose in “spending so much time writing.” Her own life has been touched by friends and relatives diagnosed with dementia. Only one is in a Memory Care Unit; while others remain in a loved one’s home at the detriment of their caretakers. Bernadine would make “good homes with well-paid, well-trained staff that care for our aged—a growing % of the population—a national priority.” More recently, Bernadine has been involved with San Miguel PEN in San Miguel de Allende, in the middle of Mexico on the high plateau. The center was created in 1979 as a place for English-speaking writers in Latin America with the hope of unifying the English and Spanish linguistic communities within PEN. She recently read her poetry at the San Miguel Literary Sala which had the theme of “Sing Out, Speak Up—Poems for a New Way, A New World.” The Literary Sala introduced Pen's Women Manifesto, writing on Women's Rights, Resistance, Climate Change, Peace and Hope as well as “Every Silence Broken Buys Another Woman Her Voice.” Bernadine believes that “Art is a civilizing force in most cultures throughout history and that is a quality in short supply in our times and greatly needed now more than ever.” Her advice to other writers? Stay true to your writing if it is true to you, no matter how the world might howl against it, and you'll find your unique voice. Share your insights with the world. Check out the rest of her story, Okay, Okay, here: bit.ly/READFLASH |
Anchala Studios
Anchala Studios, LLC is a micro press based in Chapel Hill, NC which selects projects appealing to broad audiences and which enrich the community. The Collection: Flash Fiction for Flash Memory is its first publication. Archives
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