Dear Editor,
Thanks for your cursory note referring to my multiple submissions as “it.”
I would reply more personally, but the volume of rejections received does not permit.
I have carefully considerd every word of your canned response.
Incidentally, two of the pieces have already been published elsewhere.
Sincerely,
Author
Phil Huffy wrote this story.
“I have wanted to be a writer for most of my life. I’m 62 years old. If I don’t start now, I may never do it.”
With that shocking realization, yet with no story she could think to tell, Sadie closed her laptop and gently slipped away from her desk.
Nancy Haines finally published her first two books after she passed 62 years old. She is looking for her next story. She currently has “Twitter-block” but someday hopes to learn to tweet. See more at pleasantgreenbooks.com.
Editor: And yet, Nancy, it looks like you got those fingers typing away after all!
It’s where his best stories arrived without fail, in the shower with warm water running down his back.
Later, pencil sharp, notebook open, squeaky clean, he’d chew on the pink eraser and try to remember. The muse just laughed.
That’s how he learned the best stories never make the page.
Guy’s work has appeared in 43 literary journals including Carve, dacunha, and Exposition Review, where twice, he was a flash 405 winner. Third Wednesday ran his story, The Most Shoplifted Poet, as both flash fiction and poem of the week. Guy teaches low-fat fiction, lives on a houseboat, and walks the planks daily. He prefers to write on ATM slips with low balances while waiting for traffic lights to change.
Fifty-word stories? Sounds easy, but HA! Challenge embraced; let the jotting and counting begin.
“Not tonight dear. One… too busy… two, three.”
Cloud of perpetual distraction.
“Sorry, what were you saying? Didn’t catch that. I was—”
“Yeah. I know,” he mumbles. “Counting. Scribbling.”
Relationship ends, but hey! Fifty words!
Judi MacKenzie is a writer who teaches yoga and, sometimes, meticulously counts words. She loves writing screenplays and is a reader for the Austin Film Festival.
The author bit her lip. “Well?”
“I’m pleasantly surprised,” replied the editor. “The world’s remarkably believable, although ludicrous! Creating these human characters with only two legs! It’s absurdly wonderful.”
The author beamed. “The characters took on a life of their own. It seemed as if they believed they were real.”
Melanie Rees is an Australian speculative fiction writer. She has published over 70 stories and poems in markets such as Apex, Daily Science Fiction, and Aurealis. More information can be found at flexirees.wordpress.com or on Twitter.
Russell walked into his English class and took a seat towards the middle. He wondered what everyone in class thought about his story. It received two likes on Facebook. Hillary walked passed him, stopped and said that his story stunk.
It made Russell smile. They hated Salinger at first, too.
Mark Konik is a writer from Newcastle, Australia. He writes short stories and plays.
I pick up a brush or place hands on the keys; the ghosts come out to share.
They’re bored, they’re lonely, with stories to tell.
They fib, omit, exaggerate.
They dream, they yearn, imaginate.
My hands are possessed. Others say I make art.
My beloved ghosts and I know better.
Maura’s ghosts are behind some cool microfiction published in 50-Word Stories, The Drabble, and Microfiction Monday Magazine, and some hot flash published in The Fiction Pool, Zeroflash, and The Dirty Pool. The ghosts also maintain a website at maurayzmore.com and tweet as @MauraYzmore.
Fingers table-tapping impotently. Clock striking, but not the keys on my laptop. Blank face reflected on white empty screen mirrors the inside of my dark empty head.
I prod my muse. “Any thoughts?”
She waves a bottle in my direction, hiccups and sinks into a torpor.
“Try Facebook,” she mumbles.
Vivienne Burgess needs to get some perspective in life, get her muse off the booze, and take a holiday from Facebook. It’s not helping her creativity… or blood pressure.
Gerald was in the unenviable position of having a pseudonym more popular than himself. He had submitted five stories and had none accepted. Mitchell Kent—Gerald’s middle name and favorite superhero—had been published twice. Gerald had to get rid of Mitchell. Murder or suicide? Either way it’d be messy.
Mark Konik is a writer from Newcastle, Australia. He writes short stories and plays.
Only fifty words?
Yes, fifty.
That doesn’t seem like very much.
It isn’t, but that’s all we have.
Alright, let me think.
You have twenty-three words left.
You mean we already started?
I’m afraid so.
Well, why didn’t you tell me?
Sorry.
Darn it! Okay, here goes: my story begins-
Jonathan Houston is a freelance writer who loves the great outdoors, films about redemption, and the occasional rack of ribs. But not necessarily in that order.