Writing Flash Fiction By G. W. Thomas With the advent of the Internet, editors are looking for shorter works, more easily read on a computer screen. The current term is “flash fiction”, a tale between 300-1000 words long. Longer than micro-fiction (10-300 words) but shorter than traditional short stories (3000-5000 words preferred by most magazines),…
Author: lenleatherwood
I am a native Texan who has lived for the past 30 years in Southern California. I am a published author of both short memoir and fiction, a two-time Pushcart nominee, a nationally award-winning writing coach, an editor, as well as a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Texas. In addition, I am the mother of three grown daughters of whom I am extremely proud, a grandmother of four darling children and the wife of a man I still love after 44 years.
Prompt: A green brocade wingback chair
“I don’t know how to tell you this,” Frances said as she sat in the green brocade wingback in her oldest friend’s living room, “but yesterday, while picking up my favorite pair of pumps at the shoe repair shop, I succumbed to the charms of a very attractive man.” Claudia swiveled round on the piano bench…
Lesson from My Dog
Cordelia is my dog. She is a Cardigan Corgie, which means she’s black, white and tan, with a tail that curves like a sideways U above her back. Being a Corgie, her little legs are not long, perhaps four inches if she stretches, and her body is like a wiener dog but heavier, as if…
Prompt: Hot Flash
Why is it I get so hot? Sweat forming on my face and under my arms. The bed covers too oppressive to even touch my skin. And me getting up and adjusting the fan in my direction, hoping that in just a minute or so, I’ll feel the heat abate. At that point, the fan…
Prompt: Whir of the Coffee Grinder
I can’t say how it happened. One day I was willing to stay and the next I wasn’t. No big bells and whistles. Not even the infamous toothpaste cap out-of-place. Just done. All the juice drained from the relationship like a lemon accidentally left in the car for too long in a hot summer. Desiccated…
Back to the Blog
It seems almost impossible to think that 20 minutes a day is tough to find for anything, most especially writing. After all, most of us who love writing want nothing more than to write daily, to have a routine and to feel the satisfaction that comes with discipline. And yet, I must admit, that my…
Day 3 – Prompt: Outside My Front Door
For all of you who haven’t visited me, which is everybody since nobody takes me up on my invitation to visit the lovely, pleasant-weather location where I’ve chosen to reside, our house is on the line between Beverly Hills (Barely Hills, we call our location) and West Hollywood, the gay area of LA, with Dicks…
A Good Description on How to Craft a Flash Story
FlashFiction.Net For Writers, Readers, Editors, Publishers, & Fans Thursday Thursday Flash Craft: Desire & Narrative Structure in Writing the Short Short By Randall Brown | July 21, 2011 9:32 AM | 0 Comments [Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared at FlashFiction.Net on 7/30/2009] Narrative-based flash pieces tell a story. The basic structure of such a…
Day Two – Prompt: A Blanket
Mary pulled the blanket tight around her shoulders, its softness brushing her cheek as she leaned down to check on the baby sleeping peacefully in her cradle. How could she ever divorce George now that this child had been born? She would have to give him partial custody and that would mean being separated from…
Day One – Prompt: The sound of a fan in the room
The fan is whirring and it’s already a little stuffy. It’s 5:50 am. Not a good sign for the upcoming day where temperatures are supposed to soar into the high 90’s. I am not happy. I have to deal with a problem that I’d rather not face: a friend who is drinking too much. And…
