Tag: flash fiction

Flashes in the Dark – Worst of Love contest results in

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

Jodi MacArthur’s extraordinary story “Spindled Souls” has won the Worst of Love contest for flash fiction at Flashes in the Dark. Jodi’s story is complex, dark and very multi-layered – absolutely a clear winner. Laura Eno’s wonderful “Ironies” came in second and my own “Fiancees Among Us” made third. Well deserved honorable mentions to Graeme Reynolds and Erin Cole.

Thanks to Lori and Bob for running such a challenging contest. Writers – check out Flashes in the Dark for their next contest: Lycanthropy. That contest closes on March 21st.

Join the Band, out now on PowderBurnFlash

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My story Join the Band is out now on the crime writing site PowderBurnFlash. This is a quirky and compressed story, and some readers might notice links between it and an earlier piece – While He Lay Crumpled published last August in The New Flesh. Yes, there’s a bigger story at play here, which also involves (though it’s not obvious yet) Breathe In from Flashes in the Dark, and two other stories in late draft stage which will be looking for publishers in the next couple of months.

New story in Bewildering Stories, January 25th

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My story “Into the Green Pit”, after lots of editorial work on the title (whew, titles – I think I’ll do a big post on creating titles sometime), will appear on Bewildering Stories on Monday January 25th. Usually I post on the day, or a little after something comes out, but I’ll be away from the web for a week on writing retreat next week, so here’s the news.

Bewildering Stories is one of the more eclectic sites – publishing a range of speculative genres, and a great range of forms, from poetry and flash through short stories, novellas and serialised novels.

… from the “can’t keep up” files …

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 1 Comment

Two authors I blog – Jodi andLaura both have flash stories in the January issue of 10flash.

10Flash is a new discovery for me – a quarterly that publishes ten genre stories in each issue, all flash and all based around a common theme. This issue’s theme was “an encounter at dusk on a lonely road”.

Keeping track of Laura and Jodi’s prolific outputs is getting exhausting. Whew. Great work – very exciting watching these careers flourish.

Quiet times

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

No posts for a few days – I have my head down, trying to complete my novel before the new year. I’m about five or six thousand words out, but with family stuff and holidays it’s actually hard to find concentrated time work on it. December 31st feels like such a psychological point – new year, for new writing and it’s good to work to a target.

The novel is an expansion of my flash fiction story The Rotated, as published on Infinite Windows. Incisive editor Mr Tannenbaum asked me why I’d written the story as flash fiction – there seemed to be so much more to it – the concept, their relationship, why do the invaders come, etc. Sure enough, there was so much more to explore. The story is sitting at around 60,000 words right now, so it is on the shortish side for a print novel, but the plan, if the editor likes it (current signs are good) then it will be serialized on Infinite Windows. I will be making the story nicely Gordian, I hope, in the next few days. Then of course, will be spending coming months on revisions and re-writes. I just need to get the draft done by the 31st … I may not post here for a few days as I try to keep my online time to a minimum.

The New Flesh, best of 2009

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 4 Comments

William Pauley III, editor extraordinaire of The New Flesh Magazine has selected the ten best stories of 2009. There are some extraordinary stories in there, including some of my favourite writers like Jodi MacArthur, Angel Zapata and Laura Eno. And, to blast my own trumpet (after all, that’s a big part of blogs, right?), my own story “Submissions” has made the list.

I’ve got to say, I’m honoured, again. The New Flesh has very quickly proven itself to be a quality site, with some excellent stories. I’m sure that Mr Pauley’s job in putting together this list was a tough one.