FLASH FICTION DAY IN DUBLIN

I'll be at the inaugural Flash Fiction Festival in Bath for NFFD this year but for those in Ireland, Big Smoke Writing Factory are having their customary celebration. See below for details of reading and comps.

 

Hello all! Our annual event for National Flash Fiction Day will take place this year on Sunday, 25th June, 3pm-6pm, in the International Bar on Wicklow St.

 

THE DEVIL'S IN THE DETAIL...

Bold and brief, fleeting and urgent - with National Flash Fiction Day now in its sixth year, we've embraced all things devilish! We're proud to present our #NFFD event, THE DEVIL'S IN THE DETAIL! Join us in The International Pub for our now-traditional event on Sunday 25th June to celebrate writing that is short and sharp. We hope to showcase the best flash fiction writers Dublin has to offer!

We're also thrilled to announce the return of our flash fiction competition, THE 66! This year we've made it even harder- the word-perfect flash challenge where every story entered must be EXACTLY 66 words (including title) . No more. No less. The competition is free to enter and we have a brillinat first prize lined up! The deadline for submissions is 18th June and 2 stories max can be sent (in separate emails please!) toflash@bigsmokewritingfactory.com!

We're also looking for readers! If you would like to read at our event please submit your work (published or unpublished) to us! We'll select the finest 666 word (including title) stories for the event. The deadline for submissions is 11th June and 2 stories max can be sent (in separate emails please!) to flash@bigsmokewritingfactory.com!

Whether you're a total flash-enthusiast or you've never encountered flash fiction before, this is an afternoon of creativity and inspiration not to be missed! As always this event is FREE and all are welcome. We look forward to seeing you there!

FlashFlood Submissions open for one week

National Flash Fiction Day (NFFD) is happening on the 27th June 2015, and once again FlashFlood wants to flood the internet with flash fictions.

Send stories up to 500 words, on any topic, and from wherever you are in the world. The team of editors will compile another issue of this popular journal. (They've had more than 190,000 page views so far! Can they burst the 200k this time?)

Full Submission Guidelines here.

HAPPY FLASH FICTION DAY!!

Happy (International) Flash Fiction Day!

I am delighted that my flash chapbook Of Dublin and Other Fictions has received a good review from Kelly Creighton, in New Zealand based journal Flash Frontier. A sample: 'Each fiction is a fresh one: a balance of truth and the surreal. The author makes us laugh (out loud) when we are not expecting to. Anyone who writes flash fiction should read this book; it should be taught! Ní Chonchúir makes brief look effortless, but this is her expertise.' The full review is here.

From 3pm to 6pm today I will be in Arthur's Pub on Thomas Street in Dublin for the Big Smoke Writing Factory's annual flash event. This year: Flash Fury! I'll be reading along with many others and also announcing the winner of the 99 word flash prize. I would love to catch up with some of you there.

I also have a flash called 'Cider and Simnel' in the NFFD anthology, Eating My Words. Which can be bought in paperback at £6.99 or for Kindle at £1.99. Lots of good stuff in there from writers like Tania Hershman, Eabha Rose, Nik Perring, Nigel McLoughlin, Cathy Bryant, Tim Stevenson and Jonathan Pinnock.

HAPPY (I)NFFD!!

A Shrine for the Mother of Birds - Fidelma Massey

Happy International Flash Fiction Day! It's a day PACKED with short-short story goodness, so it's a matter of take your pick of what to do.

A good place to start is the NFFD website which has info on all the global events. Their 2013 anthology Scraps is now available on Kindle or to order in hard copy. Go here. I have a story in there called 'Treedaughter' inspired by the Fidelma Massey artwork above. Also, the 2012 anthology is free on Kindle today!

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Today is the ONLY day you can submit to my guest-edited Flash Showcase in The Stinging Fly. You can sub your flash to stingingflyflash AT gmail.com. You have 24 hours to sub one flash of up to 500 words!! Send me your zingiest, most beautiful work. Full guidelines here.

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Tonight I'll be reading at Big Smoke Writing Factory's FLASH BULBS event in Dublin - a flash fiction reading with lots of writers taking part. Arthur's Pub, Thomas Street, 6pm to 8pm.

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Meanwhile over at the Flash Mob, the Top 25 list has been announced and the winners will be announced later today. Stay tuned! I really enjoyed the judging process for this with my fellow judges Marcus Speh, Leah McMenamin and Robert Vaughan. We were sent a Top 50 of the more than 100 entries. If it's any comfort to non-finalists, I had a read of many of the other stories and they would have made any list I was making. It's all personal!

Have a fabulous (I)NFFD and, if you can't make an event, there are plenty of online events to take part in. And if that doesn't suit, just write.

FLASH SUBS - STINGING FLY - 22nd JUNE *ONLY*

 
This Saturday - International Flash Fiction Day - is the day to sub your FLASH ONLY to my guest edited issue of The Stinging Fly, which appears spring 2014.

My, some of you are confused, judging by the emails I have been getting. It is quite straightforward. All month you can sub ordinary stories in the ordinary way i.e. by post.

This Saturday, the 22nd June, ONLY, you can sub your flash to stingingflyflash AT gmail.com. You have 24 hours to sub one flash of up to 500 words!!

Send me your zingiest, most beautiful work.

Full guidelines here.

FLASH MOB 2013

Image courtesy of fellow judge Marcus Speh

I am one of the judges for the 2013 Flash Mob, open for entries NOW!

FLASH MOB 2013 is a hybrid blog carnival and competition celebrating International Flash Fiction Day. To enter the mob, post a previously unpublished work of flash fiction (300 words or fewer, not including title) to your own blog sometime between now and June 10 (closing date of contest).

Then send the following (1-4 below)  to flashmobjune22@gmail.com

1. the link to the story

2. the story text in the body of your email without your name attached at the top

3. a brief bio

4. a picture of yourself looking mean or cool or funny or arty–nothing boring, no nudity.

NATIONAL FLASH FICTION DAY!

Image from Making Space exhibition, inspired by 'The Egg Pyramid'

It's here! National Flash Fiction Day (NFFD) - the brainchild of UK writer and super-organiser Calum Kerr. It will be a busy and fun day, that's for sure.

There are tons of events happening including readings and workshops. This is mostly a UK based event but there's a reading tonight in Dublin at the Big Smoke Writing Factory (inter)national flash fiction event in the Back Loft, La Catedral Studios, 7-11 Augustine Street from 7-9pm.

There are also free e-books to download if you go here. (At the moment* these seem to be only available at amazon.co.uk, which means Irish downloaders are out of luck as we have to download from amazon.com. I have asked if they will be available on amazon.com and will update with the answer later on.) *UPDATE: Jawbreakers, the NFFD anthology, is now free on amazon.com. Some of the others are too but you will have to check them individually.

FlashFlood is the pop-up flash journal for the day and my story '12th July1691' will be live there at 4pm BST today. Stories are being added every few minutes so you can be entertained all day long.

To celebrate the day, I also have a story 'The Egg Pyramid' on Thresholds along with short shorts from Nik Perring, Calum Kerr, Tania Hershman, Vanessa Gebbie, Valerie O'Riordan and David Gaffney.

The NFFD Write-In will take place between 11.00-15.00 BST. They will be posting prompts from 11am. The idea is to get as many stories written in that time, by as many people as possible, and posted to the Write-In blog. Anyone can take part - I hope to. UPDATE: Here's the story I wrote from three prompts, 'The Smell of Salt-sea Rime'.

Also on the Thresholds site, Steve Wasserman has an excellently questioning article about flash fiction here. His bugbears have crossed my mind too. ("Powerful opening. But I think you may have forgotten to include the rest of the story.") There are plent of rubbishy flash stories written and published, just as there are plenty of rubbishy novels, poems and short stories. But there are plenty of excellent ones too.

Lydia Davis divided opinion when she read at Cúirt recently. One friend reckoned there was no artistic merit to much of her work. I liked a lot of what she read (I laughed a lot during her reading) and I admired her ability to turn everything to art. I did feel that some of what she calls 'short short stories' (she dislikes the term 'flash') were really aphorisms. I prefer to call them 'short shorts' too but 'flash' is being embraced more and more as the generic name so it's hard not to use it.

A Very Famous Writer said to me recently 'You are not going to become a better writer by writing short shorts.' I disagree. Writing flash/short shorts makes the writer attentive to language and they hone concision. What can be bad about that?

Have a great day!