I’m trying yet another strategy for these #FridayFlash Favorites. This week, since I had some time to post them and found a number of stories that made the cut, I’ll post a selection from this week along with a few from weeks gone past.

This week, I want to feature a special #FridayFlash, special not because it’s better than the best I’ve read, but special because its author may remove it as soon as she discovers this link. (Monday, I’ll post the tale behind that hubbub, and what it means for the writing experience.) So catch this story now, before it (possibly) disappears forever:

I’m referring to “Too Shiny for a Ladybird” by Rachel Carter, a story about the people we love, who make us who we are.

And on top of that…

7 More #FridayFlash Favorites

Time overdue for another 7 of my favorite flash stories from #FridayFlash. I’m a month behind, but still reading through the short-short stories authors have posted on Twitter each Friday, marked with the tag #FridayFlash.

This past week, running on coffee fumes. I posted a new story, “Perhaps to Dream," with a woman who faces the difference between the career and what she wanted when she became a career woman. For Read-an-ebook week, I released two new free, short ebooks, small collections of short-short stories: “Pine” and 7 Other Short Romances and “Disorder” and 7 Other Flashes of Character. Download them or read them at my free ebooks page. Also remember, my Love-Idiot book and Ashes of Courage book are discounted on Smashwords for another day; and check out the other books being promoted for Read-an-ebook Week on Smashwords.

Without any further distracting links…

7 More #FridayFlash Favorites

… give the reader plenty of chances to get to know my work in short form.

The key, though, is to work toward writing short fiction with the appeal of a novel. You’ve got to write stories not experiments or clever bits of nothing. Short fiction used to be all about stories, but then the short fiction markets became more literary, and for the longest time even in genre, experiment seemed to win out over story. Well, you know, sometimes writing an experiment is good for your skills, and I don’t rule out writing that kind of story once in a while, but the plan is not to do that any more than necessary.

Finally! An author who is of the same mind as I! (Or truthfully, yet another author. I get a little over-excited with each new one I discover.)

Each Friday, writers post on Twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash. And I (eventually) wrap up my favorites of these into a “FridayFlash Favorites” post.

Recently, I’ve posted two short-short stories:

• "Of Death and Smiles," about a man who wants to live forever, and it changes his life in a way he never expected;
• "The Woman Who Loved Men," a twist on a kinda-cool storyline from The Love Boat (which has nothing to do with the novel or films of the same name). — And yes, even The Love Boat had the occasional storyline that I don't have to feel guilty for enjoying.

I’m up to February 4 in my #FridayFlash reading, and though I continue to fall behind, here are…

7 #FridayFlash Favorites

Remember these?

Each Friday, writers post on Twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash. And I (eventually) wrap up my favorites of these into a “FridayFlash Favorites” post.

I had begun and fully intended to continue these posts a few months ago, in November. Instead, my summer continued for a couple more months. And I’m just now getting back on track, though the continual, beating snow in these parts has made that process slow and difficult as well.

So now I have quite a backlog of stories to read through. And I am slowly reading through them, or rather drawing on them to fill out what my favorites from more recent stories. Over the past weeks, I’ve hit a dry spell when it comes to stories. I don’t know whether it’s just because I read Talyn and Hawkspar since last year, and maybe they’ve ruined all other stories for me. Or maybe a number of my favorite writers have been taking breaks until recently (which is also true).

In any case, here are 7 of my…

#FridayFlash Favorites (from January 28 and earlier)

I thought I’d kick this year’s posting season off (after the summer lull) with a change to my weekly schedule. I’m going to try posting “#FridayFlash Favorites” on Friday, one week after the stories themselves were originally posted. I’m hoping that will give these stories more exposure, especially with the #FridayFlash crowd.

Each Friday, writers post on Twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash.

I myself have been absent through the summer (and into the fall). But I did manage to post one story a couple weeks ago, about a young woman with a painful secret, and about the way our society treats people who have painful secrets, and how we maybe ought to treat them.

Of the rest of the stories that were posted Friday, here are my…

#FridayFlash Favorites (for November 5)

Slim pickin’s this week, so I included a few stories from a few weeks ago, too. In no particular order…

Each Friday, writers post on twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash. On August 6, I posted a story about a date gone bad.

Of the rest of the stories that were posted Friday, here are my…

#FridayFlash Favorites for August 6

I found an even 100 stories (including the 80 that made it onto the official #FridayFlash Report for August 6). Of those, here are my 8 favorites, listed with my 3 favorite authors first. (That is, the #FridayFlash authors who have most often appeared in these favorites lists.)

Each Friday, writers post on twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash. On July 30, I didn’t post anything for #FridayFlash, because I was still recovering from my life blowing apart (although I did start on a story). Most of my time and mental energy has been taken up with a new software contract I’m on. But I’m hoping to do some serious writing in August.

#FridayFlash Favorites for July 30

There were 111 stories (including the 85 that made it onto the official #FridayFlash Report for July 30). Of all those, here are my 7 favorites, listed in no particular order.

Each Friday, writers post on twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash. On July 23, I didn’t post anything for #FridayFlash, because I was still recovering from my life blowing apart. (I also didn’t post anything today, although I did start on a story.) Most of my time and mental energy has been taken up with a new software contract I’m on. But now that I’m on the ground running on the project, I should have some brain cells free to do some serious writing over the next month.

More immediately, today I sent in my first invoice, and I gotta tell ya, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen that many digits after the dollar sign (except on my credit-card bill). As a thank-you to God and the universe, I’m planning an Internet-wide Monster Book Give-away next month, hundreds of copies of my short memoir Love through the Eyes of an Idiot and From the Ashes of Courage, the first Ardor Point novel. The give-away is still in the initial planning stages, but if you have a blog and you’d like to give away a copy of one of these books, please contact me and let me know, and I’ll add you to the list.

With no further ado: of the #FridayFlash stories that were posted, here are my…

#FridayFlash Favorites for July 23

There were 103 stories (including the 82 that made it onto the official #FridayFlash Report for July 23). Of all those, here are my 8 favorites, listed in no particular order.

This is the second post in my getting-caught-up for #FridayFlash Favorites.

Each Friday, writers post on twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash. On July 16, I didn’t post anything for #FridayFlash, because my life was in the midst of blowing apart.

Of the #FridayFlash stories that were posted, here are my…

#FridayFlash Favorites for July 16

There were more stories posted on July 16 than on most weeks, 112 stories (including the 88 that made it onto the official #FridayFlash Report for July 16). Of all those, here are my 8 favorites, listed in no particular order.