Stolen innocence. That is what Marsha thought as she stared out the window at her garden below. That’s where it had happened—just two years ago while she was weeding her vegetables, when John stomped over. “You’re a fool!” he’d snorted, waving a paper in his hand. “I told you not to trust her.” Marsha sat…
Tag: Flash Fiction
Flash Fiction: Fellow Grievers
Jacqueline heard the crows and felt called. Their caws brought her first to the window, where their black bodies balanced on the telephone wires, then outside to peer up at them. Caw caw caw, they sang, and she felt a strange calm. They brought her peace in a way she didn’t understand. A young woman…
Flash Fiction: The Fall of Adam Burlingham
“This isn’t the way it was supposed to be.” That’s all Adam Burlingham could say as City of London police, acting on orders from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, shut down his brokerage. “Be careful, you oafs,” he shouted as two officers grabbed the antique stock ticker—his father’s gift, still nestled in its walnut base…
Flash Fiction: The Legacy of the Dance
To my brother George, who gave me a similar statue before he died of cancer back in 2004. Mary Lou Holder sank down next to her brother, the one who was dying of cancer, and started tugging at the bright red bow of the gift he had just handed her. “This is sweet, Jake, that…
An Approach to Writing Flash Fiction That’s Fun and Fast
I wrote the story below a while back during one of those quick writing exercises I like to do when I’m looking to stir things up creatively. I grabbed a deck of alphabet cards—the same kind I’ve used with younger kids when they’re learning letters—and spread them face up on the table. From that deck,…
20 Minutes a Day 