By 
But I haven’t slacked off.
Six flash short stories completed and submitted to various literary journals and the like. When all this submission drama is over, an anthology will be released one way or another.
You know, I’ve fallen hard for the compact format.
In few words, flash fiction expects a story to reach a conclusion even if it’s an impasse. Each line should try to do more than just relay information: a sentence could set a mood, create or build tension, a sentence forms time and space relative to a character or object, controls rhythm, tone and pacing, it could reveal character (including the narrator), maintain or minimize distance from the narrator, the characters and the reader, generates or continues conflict (what, story) and builds toward the author’s larger goals of the why (plot). And all of this under 1,000 nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
Whew!
So much to think about. I can hear the waves crashing. Soon it will be time to nap under a warming sun.
