May’s Table of Contents

editorial by J.C. Towler

From the Editors

As an editor, you know it is a good month when you have two stories on your calendar titled “Dust” and “Lint” appearing back to back.  (“Dust” is by one of our readers’ perennial favorite contributors, Sarah Evans, and “Lint” is by newcomer Hall Jameson for that extra bit of literary feng shui.)

Happy May to you all.  EDF’s iron lady, Camille Gooderham Campbell is down with a Spring bug and has asked that Carol, Joseph, and I take over assembling this month’s stories for you, our devoted readers.  If this month’s offering pleases you not, you know who to blame. Or not to blame.

We want to pass on our deep gratitude and best wishes to S.A. Ross, who devoted a great deal of her precious time to EDF as a slush reader and who is now moving on to paid editorial work. We only ask our slush readers for a three month commitment, and Ms. Ross was with us since February 2011. We’re also sorry to be losing slush reader Ben Carey to school and work commitments. This does mean we’re looking for two new volunteer slush readers.

For Readers

It’s our usual packed slate of flash fiction par excellence for you.  Our Mother’s Day story, “Mom’s Last Laugh” is a poignant piece by EDF veteran contributor Sarah Crysl Akhtar.  On Memorial Day we feature “Pinging” by T. L. Sherwood, a story that reminds us of the sacrifice our soldiers and their families make.

But our favorite date this month has got to be Wednesday, May 16th, which is National Flash Fiction Day, and we have packed that week with what we feel are the very best stories of the month. Monday kicks off with Alisa Alering’s “Delicious”, a tasty little humor piece to whet your appetite for the flash to come. Tuesday we present a bit of a rarity in flash fiction: a sports story. “The Streak” by EDF alum Andrew Waters takes us back into a moment in the twilight of the great Joe Dimaggio’s life. Wednesday’s feature story is a thriller by Warren C. Easley called “To Catch a Wolf” about a young man down on his luck who finds himself thrust in the middle of an intense moral dilemma.   Thursday we introduce the EDF readership to Rohini Gupta through her fantasy story “Why do they Lie to Me?” and we close out the week on Friday with one of the creepiest stories I’ve personally read in quite some time, “Behind Closed Windows” by Juliet Wilson. For more about National Flash Fiction Day, check out the official Facebook page and anthology.

To celebrate National Flash Fiction Day and Short Story Month, Flash Fiction Chronicles is asking writers and readers alike to post on the FFC Facebook page their favorite flash fiction stories to share with others.  The stories must be available online since the point is sharing the link so others can go online to read it, and you’re also encouraged to comment on why you love that story.

For Writers

Humor us.  Seriously.  Humor us.  Funny stories, which we try to publish on a regular basis each Monday of the month (with the exception of conflicts such as themed days), always seem to be in short supply in the slush pile.  We tend to avoid stories that read like jokes, or ones that are obvious set-ups for a punch-line type of ending.  But we like pithy, irony, satire, and every flavor in between, and there is plenty to laugh at in this jumbled up world we live in.

June is fast approaching and we have a whole slate of openings for the special days for the coming month.  June 17th is Father’s Day.  June 20th is the first day of summer.  June 14th is Flag Day if you are in the U.S. and feeling particularly patriotic.  Heck, June 28th is Paul Bunyan day and if you feel up to spinning a new yarn about giant lumberjacks and blue oxen, we’d love to read it.

From Gay Degani, editor of Flash Fiction Chronicles: You are cordially invited to the Flash Fiction Chronicles New and Emerging Writers Group on Facebook. This is a forum for all writers, new, emerging, and seasoned, where the discussion of the craft of flash, writing, the writing experience, the process, and the writing life is the theme. While it is NOT a place to link to one’s own stories, it is the perfect place to ask questions, offer help to other writers, and to post links to articles about making art.  This is an open group.  You just need to ask to join.

May’s Table of Contents