Bulletin - 3rd October 2012

Well, hello there, and how are you? 

Keeping well I hope, now that the evenings are drawing in and winter is looming over the horizon.

Here in NFFD Towers we are using the cold outside as an excuse to seclude ourselves in darkened drawing rooms and start plotting for next year's Flash-Fiction Day, and I thought I would bring you up to date on current developments.

First, just to let you know, the plan at the moment is to make it Saturday 22nd June next year, the shortest night in the northern hemisphere (yes, I know I got it wrong last time), and the shortest day in the southern. This will help us to tie the globe together to make it an international event. (And a 36 hour long one, at that!)

Speaking of which, I am in talks with the organiser of New Zealand's day to hook up with them, but we want more than just our two countries involved, so, if you are somewhere else in the world (Ireland, USA, or Australia, South Africa, France, or Peru, Portugal, Japan, Jersey or wherever) and want to join in with the 2013 day, we'd love to hear from you. 

We've also been talking to the Arts Council of England about next year, and they're keen to help us out again, which is great news. It will allow us to make the day even bigger and better for 2013, improve the website and repeat some of our triumphs, like the anthology and the story cards. In order to help us with our bid to the Arts Council, it would be great if we can include some indication of our support. We don't need any definite plans at the moment, but a statement of intent to join in would be great. So, if you ran an event this year - a reading, a competition, a slam, a flash-mob, whatever - we'd love for you to join us again. If you didn't, but would like to for 2013, then we'd be delighted to have you on board too. Please get in touch so we can register your interest.

We'd also like your help to get in touch with those organisations who might be able to help, or who would like to be involved. So, if you are part of a writing community, work for or with an arts organisation, have a publisher who might be interested in promoting their flash-fiction titles, are on friendly terms with a librarian, or whatever, we'd appreciate it if you could either ask them to get in touch with us, or send us their details so we can contact them directly. We managed to reach a huge number of people this year, and spread the flash word, but we could do a lot better, and with their help we hope we can do so.

Additionally, in order to raise the money that all of this costs, we will shortly be launching a crowd-funding project, and it would be great if you could keep your eyes peeled for that and spread the word to help us reach our target. 

And what are we offering in return. Well, you remember how much fun NFFD was this year, don't you? Imagine that but... you know... more!

However, we thought you might need something to jog your memory, so I'm pleased to be able to announce that we are running another of our FlashFlood pop-up journals. Submissions open today, and close next Wednesday, 10th October, at 23.59 (BST). The journal will run next Friday, 12th October, from midnight to midnight. We had a huge response to this in May, so let's see if we can do it again! Send your best flash-fictions (max. 500 words, limit of 3 stories per author) to flashfloodjournal@gmail.com and let's make it even bigger and better! Please use all your social media tools to spread the word.

And, if that's not enough, here are some other things you need to know about:

• There's a flash-slam in Warwick tomorrow (4th October) so do go along if you can: http://warwickwords.co.uk/index.php/whats-on/events/444-flash-slam

• A display of flash-fiction books is working its way around South Glos libraries as part of the Discover festival: www.southglos.gov.uk/discover.

• Spry is a new journal in the USA with a flash-fiction only section is looking for your stories: http://sprylit.submittable.com/submit

• The successors to my flash365 project, Mrs Flash365 (Kath Kerr) and Son of Flash365 (Chris Bissette) are over the 150-story mark and will hit the halfway point at the end of the month. Please have a read, leave some comments, follow, share, like the Facebook page or follow them on Twitter. Your support is what keeps them going.

• The NFFD anthologies, Jawbreakers and Kissing Frankenstein are still available, and if you haven't got them already, why not? They're great!

• NFFD projects 1000 words and Flashpoints are still up and running, and looking for your work.

And finally, on a sadder note, we heard last week that Brian George, whose story 'Chemoids' was included in Jawbreakers, passed away at on the 23rd September. I'm sure you'd like to join us in sending out condolences to his wife, Chris, and to his family and friends, and to express our thanks for the pleasure his writing brought while he was with us.

So, that's it for this time. Lots for you to think about, get involved with, and lots of 'yes, I want to join in and so do all of my friends' emails to send us. We'll be waiting!

Until next time, take care.

Calum

-- 

Calum Kerr

Director, National Flash-Fiction Day

www.facebook.com/nationalflashfictionday

http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/

Bulletin - 22/08/2012

Dear All,

Well, can you believe that it's been 14 weeks since National Flash-Fiction Day? That's more than one quarter of a year. And do you know what means? It means that it's time to start thinking about next year!

So, here's where we are at the moment:

First, we are looking at moving the date back a little, towards the shortest day, in June. Partly this is logistical and partly, well... the SHORTEST day... you know? We'll let you know the exact date as soon as we've organised it.

Also, following on from the interest from other countries in this year's NFFD we will also be aiming to make it a much more international event and spread the flash-fiction word around the world. If you're outside the UK and want to get involved, please get in touch.

For the new year we will be revamping the website, updating the content and hopefully adding some new features. If you, or anyone you know, knows how to build/maintain websites - in particular using something like WordPress or a similar Content Management System - please do drop me a line as we could really do with your help!

On the day itself, and in the lead up, we will be aiming to do some similar activities to those that we did this year - including another anthology if the funding is in place - but we also want new events and activities to make it even bigger and better. So, time to get your thinking caps on and come up with some possibilities. Email me with your ideas and I'll start cataloguing them.

Speaking of funding, we are hoping to be able to secure the support of the Arts Council once again, but alternative sources would also be of real help. So, if you are in a position to sponsor the day, or know someone who is, or any bodies that we really should apply to, please get in touch and let us know.

All of the events of NFFD2012 couldn't have been done without the help of hundreds of you who pitched in on the day. We hope you will be able to help out again next year, but NFFD is one of those cases where more is definitely merrier. So, do please keep spreading the word about our Facebook page (at https://www.facebook.com/nationalflashfictionday), our Twitter account (@nationalflashfd), our blog (http://nationalflashfictionday.blogspot.co.uk/) and, of course, this mailing list!

And finally, to keep your appetite whetted, here are some things of note for you:

• The people at CAKE are holding a write-in today and there's still time to join in. Details over at http://cakeshortandsweet.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/wednesday-write-in-1/.
  
• The 2012 NFFD anthology, Jawbreakers, is still available in print from http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/anthology.html or in Kindle format from your local Amazon.
  
• Jawbreakers co-editor, Valerie O'Riordan's collection, Enough, released to coincide with NFFD is also still available at http://gumbopress.co.uk/books.html or, again, on Kindle from Amazon.
  
• Flashpoints, the site specific writing project created for NFFD is still up, running, and looking for your photos and stories. Check it out and submit at http://nffdflashpoints.blogspot.co.uk/.
  
• The multi-user, Twitter-driven graphic novel 3 Hundred and 65 is still going, and well worth a daily look at http://www.3hundredand65.co.uk/.
  
• Brighton's upcoming Digital Festival have loads of great events, including a Flash Slam on the 16th Sept (including yours truly and Manchester-based flasher Sarah Clare-Conlon) http://2012.brightondigitalfestival.co.uk/event/flash-lit-fiction/ and also an evening of flash from the Quick Fictions people on the 24th (http://2012.brightondigitalfestival.co.uk/event/quick-fictions/).
  
• And finally, in a blowing-your-own-trumpet kind of way, I will shortly be running some online courses, including one in flash-fiction (short stories, life writing and editing being the others). If you're interested (or just kind enough to encourage others who might be) the details are at http://www.calumkerr.co.uk/pp006.shtml.

I'm sure there are many other events and activities going on, so if you are up to anything, be sure to let us know and we will spread the word for you. In the meantime, get your thinking caps on, and let's start looking forward to next year's bigger, brighter and better Flash-Fiction Day!

All the best, and happy rest-of-the-summer.

Calum

--

Calum Kerr

Director, National Flash-Fiction Day

www.facebook.com/nationalflashfictionday

http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/

National Flash-Fiction Day 2012 is proud to be funded by Arts Council England. 

If you no longer wish to receive these bulletins, please email to tell us and we will remove you from the mailing list. 

NFFD NZ and Write-In 2

Hello everyone,

Hope you're having a nice, if wet, summer, and that you enjoyed some of the International Short Story Day activities that took place yesterday.

This is just a quick message to remind you that 22nd June is National Flash-Fiction Day in New Zealand. All the info about what's going on is online at  http://nationalflash.wordpress.com/ so tune in and see what's going on.

To celebrate, we're launching another Write-In. This will start to coincide with the start of the 22nd in NZ (about 45 mins at time of writing) and finish at midnight on the 22nd here (about 35 hours and 45 mins...)

How this will work is that we will provide a prompt for you, over at the The Write-in ( http://thewrite-in.blogspot.co.uk/ ) which will go live at 1pm BST and we will be accepting submissions of flash-fictions on that theme (max word count of 500, no limits on style or genre) until it closes at midnight tomorrow. Submissions outside that time will not be considered. 

So, get your brains back in gear, and get ready. Oh, and please spread the word. We'd love as many stories as possible, from all over the globe!

Let's do that antipodean flash thing!

Calum Kerr

Director, National Flash-Fiction Day

www.facebook.com/nationalflashfictionday

http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/

NFFD Report

I just had to write a roundup of the day for the Arts Council. I was amazed to re-explore all that went on, and thought you might like a read. So here it is!

The intention for National Flash-Fiction Day (NFFD) was to encourage writers, publishers, readers and the general public of the UK to engage with the form of flash-fiction in a diverse range of ways through print, spoken-word performances and online.

At the time of making the original bid a number of events were already organised, all of which took place, but in the time between the bid and the actual day on 16^th May, a large range of extra activities emerged.

Physical events took place in Edinburgh, Carlisle, Leeds, Hartlepool, Manchester, Liverpool, Abergavenny, Cardiff, Shrewsbury, Derby, Oxford, Trowbridge, Winchester, Southampton, Brighton and Dublin. These included reading/open mic events, workshops, flash-mob-flash-readings, slams, exhibitions and competition finals.

Eighteen competitions were run to coincide with the Day, including events in USA, New Zealand and Australia, with many announcing their results on 16^th May itself. Another five have also been created, inspired by the day, with deadlines to come during the year. Many of the competitions provided prizes, and all have involved some sort of online publication, physical presentation on the day, or publication in printed anthologies. In many cases this publication was not limited to a small number of winners but has seen the publication of dozens of the entries. The top three pieces from most of the competitions are also being gathered together for publication in a free e-book which will shortly be released by NFFD, entitled I Can Show You The World and other stories.

In the southwest of England a group was created by Rachel Carter especially for the Day, called Flash-Fiction South West. The results of their competition were turned into a print anthology entitled Kissing Frankenstein and other stories. This group will continue beyond the day running flash events and competitions and creating publications.

Likewise, the Once Upon a Time competition, run in the UK by Susi Holliday and in the USA by Anna Meade, having collected 88 flash-fiction fairy tales, will soon be available as a print anthology.

NFFD itself also created an anthology which came to be titled Jawbreakers after the submitted story from Jen Campbell. This featured a number of paid commissioned pieces, including Tania Hershman, Vanessa Gebbie, David Gaffney, Jonathan Pinnock, Valerie O’Riordan, Simon Thirsk and Jenn Ashworth. It also included freely donated work by Ali Smith and Ian Rankin, as well as over thirty pieces gathered by an open call for submissions. As a result of the way it was put together this book now features writers at all stages of their careers, from those seeing their work in print for the first time, to established names, and everything in-between. It is now available in paperback from the NFFD website, as a print-on-demand edition from CompletelyNovel, and as an e-book from all branches of Amazon. The book was launched at the Southampton event on 16^th May, has had a subsequent launch event at Blackwells in Manchester on 8^th June, and further events are currently being planned to be held in Foyles in Bristol and London later in 2012. It is also currently stocked in Waterstones in Brighton.

In addition to the print anthology, NFFD organised a number of online publishing opportunities for writers. These started, in the build-up to the day, with prompts being provided through Facebook, Twitter and the NFFD blog, to which writers had just a few days to respond. The resulting pieces were published on our NFFDFlashes blog. Pieces created at NFFD workshops were also uploaded to this blog.

In the week leading up to the Day, we opened up worldwide submissions for a ‘pop-up journal’ called FlashFlood, also hosted on a blog. Seven editors took a day each to read and approve submissions, resulting in 144 pieces being posted on the 16^th May, one every 10 minutes from midnight to midnight. The editors have subsequently agreed to make this publication a regular one throughout the year, on a 3-4 monthly basis.

On the day itself, a four hour window was devoted to writing and publishing stories on a blog entitled The Write-In. Over 200 prompts were provided by a number of volunteers and were uploaded for writers to respond to as many as possible in the time allowed. All submitted pieces were then posted. This produced over 100 pieces of flash-fiction from all over the UK and the world. The prompts have been left-online for writers and workshop facilitators to use.

Additionally, a number of online projects were set-up, initially in support of the day but with the intention of continuing on afterwards, as well as FlashFlood, these included 1000words (providing images as prompts for stories) and Flashpoints (site-specific writing).

As well as producing new work, NFFD sought to promote the existing work of flash-fiction writers. As such, the website has expanded to over 150 pages, featuring profiles of more than 70 writers (64 from the UK and 9 internationally) with samples of their work and links to their publications, blogs, websites etc. This includes both high-profile and the unknown writers making no discrimination between them, and has helped to create a real community of flash-fiction writers. The site also includes pages for 18 magazines/websites/publishers, video clips of writers reading their work and links to flash-fiction e-books,

On the day itself, we were also able to promote the e-book publications of our writers with Jawbreakers and eight individual e-book collections being provided for free download on Kindle throughout the day. This resulted in the download of approximately 1200 e-books. We were also able to provide a copy of the Brisbane-produced pamphlets compiled by Photocopier Press for the day on the NFFD website, which is still freely available.

We were pleased to secure a wide range of press coverage including articles in local and national papers including The Guardian, interviews and features on BBC Radio Solent and BBC Radio Bristol and coverage on BBC Radio 4’s iPM programme. Added to this, we received a huge amount of coverage on websites and blogs – both personal and professional.

The response to National Flash-Fiction Day was over-whelming, with the majority of the activities listed above being organised and run by volunteers who were simply happy to be involved in such an exciting event. As a result of the day flash-fiction has raised its profile in the general consciousness, and it has been commented by the people involved that they feel as though flash-fiction writers have finally come together in a community of their own. With this now formed, moving forward to other events and publications is now easier and more likely.

Also, as a result of the day, there has been a lot of interest internationally. As commented above we had events and publications created to coincide with our day occurring in Ireland, USA, Australia and New Zealand, and NZ are now holding their own NFFD on their shortest day, 22^nd June, for which we will be hosting another online writing event. In addition we received expressions of interest from France, Portugal, Cyprus and Hong Kong. As such, plans for next year are to make the UK’s NFFD part of an International Flash-Fiction Day.

With that in mind, we are very much looking forward to making this year’s Day an annual event, with many of the volunteers who were involved this year making plans for 2013 already. The aims of the Day have not just been met, but greatly exceeded, with hundreds of writers seeing their work published, performed and publicised, and the general public being made aware of the form through print and broadcast media as well as in person. The enthusiasm generated for flash-fiction, in the writing community and beyond, has been much larger than our expectations. In this respect, this year’s event has created a bedrock on which future years can build. 

NFFD New Zealand

Did you know that 22nd June (next Friday for those not paying attention) is National Flash-Fiction Day in New Zealand? We thought it was far too good an opportunity to pass up, so we're going to hold an online writing event to celebrate.

At midnight on the 22nd, NZ time (1pm on the 21st here in the UK), we shall release a prompt to inspire you to write a flash-fiction. You will then have 35 hours, (until the end of 22nd here in the UK) to write something and submit it for us to publish on a special blog.

And, we hope, this global write-in will be just the first of many as we start to look forward to next year's INTERnational Flash-Fiction Day!!



(PS. If anyone wants to help out with administering this, please drop me a line through the usual ways... Thank you!)

NFFD Bulletin - 7/06/2012

Hello again, everyone,

Not a full bulletin for you today, but just bringing you up to date with what's happening and some events you might be interested in.

• First of all, just a reminder that Jawbreakers is still for sale, both in paperback (via the website at http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/anthology.html) and for Kindle at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jawbreakers-ebook/dp/B0083BRYKW/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=A3TVV12T0I6NSM&qid=1337333761&sr=1-1) and another plea that, if you downloaded it or any other of the other e-books which were free on 16th May, it would really help the writers if you could go along to the Amazon pages for each, click the 'like' button up at the top of the pages, and maybe leave a review . And reviews on your own blogs would be really helpful too, thank you!

• If you don't want to bother with that pesky online ordering stuff, and would like to meet some of the authors, there will be a launch event for Jawbreakers tomorrow at Blackwells Bookshop in Manchester (in the university precinct on Oxford Road) from 6.30pm. This will also be a launch for Valerie O'Riordan's new pamphlet, Enough (http://gumbopress.co.uk/books.html) and my own new pamphlet, Braking Distance (http://www.saltpublishing.com/pamphlets/smv/9781844719129.htm). Details of the event can be found at https://www.facebook.com/events/429476600404131/). Please do come along, it'll be a wonderful evening.

• We are also currently planning to hold a launch in Bristol later in the year, with possibly a London one to follow. But if you have a friendly bookshop or other venue near you which would be ideal for a launch, do please get in touch and we'll organise something.

• NFFD has snuck it's way into the Worcestershire Literary Festival this year and I have been judging a competition for them. The winners will be announced and I will be talking, reading and selling/signing books there, and it would be great to see you if you can make it. Details here: http://www.worcslitfest.com/flash-fiction-event-23-june-2012/

• AND, as if that wasn't enough, I shall also be reading and talking NFFD at the Summer Wordfest held by the Vale Royal Writers Group and Dead Good Poets Society of Liverpool. It's held at the Blue Cap pub in Sandiway on Tuesday 26th June. (http://vrwg.co.uk/how-to-find-us/).

• If you'd rather write than listen, don't forget we still have open competitions listed on our site at http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/competitions.html. And, we are now putting together some hasty plans for a way to help celebrate New Zealand's NFFD which is being held on 22nd June (the shortest day in the Southern Hemisphere). We have an idea brewing, but if you think of something that would be ideal, please send over your idea.

• And it doesn't end there. This is a busy summer for the short story with International Short Story Day occurring on 20th June (http://www.internationalshortstoryday.org/). A number of events will be happening, including the collaborative creation of short stories, against the clock and team against team.(http://shortstorydayafrica.org/) I'm exteremely happy to be part of the UK team along with 5 other wonderful writers including NFFD writer Sarah Hilary (aka Sarah Frost Mellor) and Stella Duffy. So, do keep your eyes on that one.

And, I think, for now, that's about it. I'll keep you up to date as best I can over the coming weeks and months, and there will be updates to the website and blog posts and all the usual stuff. So, have a great summer, and keep flashing!

All the best

Calum 

--

Calum Kerr

Director, National Flash-Fiction Day

www.facebook.com/nationalflashfictionday

http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/

National Flash-Fiction Day 2012 is proud to be funded by Arts Council England. 

A report from the Oxford Flash Slam

Oxford celebrated National Flash Fiction in style with its first ever Flash Slam (http://eightcuts.com/events/flash-slam/), which showcased this fabulous format with some of the performance and pizzazz of a poetry slam. Fourteen fabulous writers came from as far afield as Birmingham, Bristol, and Gloucester, and included the likes of Jonathan Pinnock, bestselling author of Mrs Darcy vs the Aliens (http://www.mrsdarcyvsthealiens.com/), and Gloucester poet Laureate candidate Sarah Snell-Pym (http://www.snell-pym.org.uk/sarah/). They each performed for four minutes to a packed Albion Beatnik Bookstore, and subjected themselves to the scrutiny of expert judge and our headline reader Tania Hershman (http://www.taniahershman.com/), one of the UK’s most celebrated flash fiction writers, who delighted us later in the evening with readings from her book My Mother Was an Upright Piano. They were then scored out of 100 by a panel of judges comprising Paul Askew (http://paulaskew.tumblr.com), poetry slam winner and editor of Ferment Magazine, author of short story collection Knowing Look Rebecca Emin (http://ramblingsofarustywriter.blogspot.co.uk/), and leading Oxford cultural blogger Ingrina Shieh-Carson (http://aicarson.wordpress.com/). All presided over by yours truly.

The top three performed again in a final that demonstrated perfectly the dazzling diversity of the form. The pieces that got them there couldn’t have been more different. Joe Briggs (http://somedaysthethundergetsyou.blogspot.co.uk/) is a music blogger whose semi-autobiographical pieces have the energy and edge and sense of imminent eruption of those underground punk gigs you heard about but never seemed to go to. Anna Hobson (http://makewordsnotwar.wordpress.com) is one of the leading figures in the Oxford literary scene, coordinator of poetry (and many other things) at Oxford International Women’s Festival and MC of spoken word at Oxford Pride. Her first round flarf (an alternative form of literature achieved by pasting quotations from the internet into a formal structure) was the highest scoring piece of the night by a long long way and it took the audience several minutes to regain their composure after her exquisitely-crafted and breathtakingly delivered look at the strange world of internet dating. But the winner, fittingly, was Bristol’s Kevlin Henney (http://asemantic.blogspot.co.uk/), an award-winning die hard practitioner of the flash form who married superb storytelling with effortlessly engaging delivery to carry off the spoils.

I should add a postscript that shows just how successful this whole endeavour has been, and illustrates the debt we all owe to Calum and NFFD. On Wednesday of this week, I took a troupe of my fabulous eight cuts gallery regulars to the Poetry Cafe to perform at London Literature Lounge. Anna reprised her flarf to equal acclaim, and we were joined by Marc Nash, master of flash (sorely missed on NFFD). Literature Lounge host Anjan Saha was so buzzed by the vibrancy of the flash community that he and I will be running a flash slam at the Poetry Cafe on September 19^th. And that’s not all. Thanks to NFFD, the Warwick Words festival organisers got in touch with me and have asked me to put on a flash slam for their festival, on October 4^th. The format will be the same as Oxford – only this time our judge and headliner, for his sins in Oxford (and he thought he was just coming for a jolly night out), none other than Kevlin Henney.

So, thank you all who took part. A special thanks to Tania, and our judges on the night. And biggest thanks of all to Calum – new worlds are opening up.

 - Dan Holloway

A report from Shrewsbury Coffee House – Flash Fiction Eve:

We advertised an evening with an Open Mic, reading, writing and whatever came along, with a film of the event to end it off.   The results came be seen on https://vimeo.com/42253978.  The Shrewsbury Coffeehouse was full.  For tablecloths we had lining paper and left pens about.  People arrived saying they hadn’t brought stories to read – they’d just come to listen - but as the evening progressed and others went up to the Open Mic, just about everybody began to write.  We had individual stories and collaborative ones, friends making up stories together [anything between ten words and five hundred] and strangers coming together to share their imaginations and have a go at flash, then get up and read it.  People left in a state of high excitement.  Apart from the flash itself, they found the evening an amazing experience of coming together and breaking down boundaries. They’ve been talking about it ever since.  People are now writing who weren’t before. Visit us on our Facebook page, Flash Fiction Shrewsbury 2012.  Or watch our film.


- Pauline Fisk

NFFD Bulletin - 23/05/12

Hello again, everyone!

Well, can you believe that a week has already come and gone since National Flash-Fiction Day? How time flies!

I thought I would send out this bulletin to bring you up to date, let you know what happened, what's happening, and what's going to happen, and generally set you on your way.

First, though, I need to send out another thank you to everyone who took part in events on the day. I need to make special mention of the following:

Gavin Inglis for the Edinburgh event, Brindley Hallam Dennis for Carlisle, Wes Brown for Leeds and Denise Sparrowhawk for Hartlepool. Thanks also to all of #FlashTag - Sarah-Clare Conlon, Fat Roland, Dave Hartley, Tom Mason and Benjamin Judge - for flash-bombing the whole of Manchester, and to Dan Carpenter, Nici West and Joe Daly of Bad Language for the Manchester evening event, as well as Jane Bradley at For Books' Sake for the workshop run there.

I must also thank Mike Morris for Liverpool's End of the World event, Carole Burns for organising the Cardiff event and Emma Corfield-Waters from Book-ish for the Abergavenney one; Pauline Fisk and The Shrewsbury CoffeeHouse for the Tuesday event which started everything off, Dan Holloway for the Oxford Slam, and also Grit Lit in Brighton for linking their event up with us.

Thanks also to Valerie O'Riordan, Emma J Lannie and Josephine Corcoran for running flash-workshops on and around the day, and many thanks to Angela Hicken from Winchester Discovery Centre and Allison Kirby from Southampton Central Library for their help with the workshop and reading/launch that I organised down here, as well as to everyone who came and read, wrote or listened. 

Thanks to Rebecca Emin, Ian Hawley, Dan Holloway (again), Kirsty Logan, Helena Mallett, Marc Nash, Alison Wells and (eventually!) Simon Sylvester for making their e-books free for us to give away. 

And also thanks to Rachel Carter, Bad Language (again), 4.33", Book-ish (again), Antonia Bell, Sarah Hilary, Jane Brunning, Natalie Bowers, Vic Errington, Susi Holliday and Anna Meade for running such wonderful competitions in the run up to the day, and producing, in some cases, such beautiful anthologies, and of course thanks to Valerie O'Riordan (again) and her partner Andy Broadey for helping to put Jawbreakerstogether and make it look so darned good!

And (nearly done...) to Alex Thornber, Rachel Dunlop and Emily Cleaver for running http://nffdflashpoints.blogspot.co.uk/ and to Susi (again), Shirley Golden, Nettie Thomson, Cassandra Parkin, Susan Howe and Caroline Kelly for helping me to run http://flashfloodjournal.blogspot.co.uk/. 

And a personal thank you to Kath Lloyd who kept me (reasonably) sane through the mammoth process of running the day and did a lot of behind the scenes work. 

I know I've left loads of people out, but in lots of cases I don't know your names! So a huge, huge thank you to everyone who wrote something, read something, listened to something, came along to something, passed the word about something, or just generally sat at home with a cup of tea and supported the efforts of National Flash-Fiction Day!

Okay, Oscar-acceptance speech over, onto the nitty gritty!

• First up, just to let you know that there are still competitions on the Competitions page and events on the Events page of the website (including my own appearance at the Worcestershire Lit Fest, do come along), so don't forget about those. And, if new 'flash' events or competitions come your way, do send them over. The website is not going to just disappear now the day is over, it will change a bit and we will not be updating quite so often, but we'll still be here and still doing our thing, so don't forget us.

• Next, I want to mention the free e-books that we gave away. Apologies, first, for those of you who tried to download Simon Sylvester's 140 Characters only to find it wasn't free. Apparently there had been a glitch somewhere in the process and a switch didn't get thrown. I did try to let people know through the Facebook page, but only had limited internet access so couldn't get to the web-page to alter it. The book was listed as free the next day, so hopefully some of you caught it then. On the subject of the books, however, it appears that around 150 people downloaded each of the books, which is wonderful, but the giveaway only works to support the writers if you spread the word. So, if you have read the books and you enjoyed them, please do go back to the Amazon pages and click on the 'Like' button up near the top, and also please leave a review to tell other people why they should buy copies with real money. Also, if you run a blog or website, please do consider writing reviews of the books there, or putting up a link to the books, or similar. One of the best ways to support a writer is to recommend their work. Thanks.

• A quick mention, as well, for the mooted anthology collecting together the winning entries from the various competitions. This is still on the cards and will be called 'I Can Show You The World and other stories' and will be out soon. It will be a free e-book available (probably) from Smashwords, so stay tuned for that. 

• Having mentioned books, I should mention Jawbreakers. The e-book is now available on Kindle at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jawbreakers-ebook/dp/B0083BRYKW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1337333761&sr=1-1 for you to download and enjoy immediately! Or you can still order real, physical, paper copies from us here at NFFD via http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/anthology.html. If neither of those take your fancy, there are copies for sale in Brighton's Waterstones (it would be great if they could sell out...) or you can come along to one of the launches we're organising for the book. We only have a confirmed date for one so far, but it is at Blackwell's in Manchester (by the university) on Friday 8th June at 6.30pm, so do please come along. More details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/429476600404131/. We are also now working on a Bristol launch, a Brighton one, and a London one, and if you'd like us to come to your area, do drop us a line.

• And so, onto the future. As you might have noticed above, I already alluded to the fact that the website will be continuing, so you have probably guessed that so will National Flash-Fiction Day. It's true. It went too well to give up. So plans are already being made for NFFD2013. But... we're not going to start just yet. Personally, I need a bit of downtime after all that hard work and excitement, plus I have lots of my own writing to do and - oh yes - I'm getting married in less than 6 weeks! So, the website will be tidied up, sales, events and launches for Jawbreakers will continue, and the occasional bulletin will trickle out, but I think we should all take a breather now until about September, at which point we'll pull the tarp off, put the key in the ignition and get the engine ticking over once more. Thank you for all your hard work, take a well earned break, but start thinking about what you'd like to do for next year, because that was just a trial run, next time we do it even bigger and better!!

All the best, thank you again, and have a great summer.

Calum Kerr

Director, National Flash-Fiction Day

NFFD Blog Roll

Following the events of last Wednesday - for which another hearty thanks should go to you all! - lots of people have been writing about what happened, what they did, where they went, and what they wrote. So, I thought they should be gathered together for you all to read. I'm sure this isn't exhaustive, but it's not a bad selection, I'm sure you'll agree!


Don't forget, as well, the two special blog publications that came out from NFFD Central - FlashFlood, our 24 hour journal (http://flashfloodjournal.blogspot.co.uk/) and The Write-In which took place on the day (http://thewrite-in.blogspot.co.uk/) and, of course, the flashes which have been produced before,on and since the day on our Flashes blog (http://nffdflashes.blogspot.co.uk/).


Blogs, Articles and Website features (in no particular order):

Flash Fiction Day | THRESHOLDS

By Thresholds Admin

In celebration of National Flash Fiction Day, 16th May, THRESHOLDS has teamed up with some of the UK's best-known writers of the form to bring you a selection of fantastic flashes – stories to read in just a few minutes, that will stay with you ...

THRESHOLDS

(INTER)NATIONAL FLASH FICTION DAY | Every Day Fiction - The ...
Today — May 16, 2012 — is the first ever National Flash Fiction Day… and International Flash Fiction Day as well, since this special day has quite naturally ...
www.everydayfiction.com/international-flash-fiction-day/


Tom Conoboy's Writing Blog: National Flash Fiction Day
National Flash Fiction Day. Today is National Flash Fiction day. So write a flash. Her's some prompts: Posted by Tom Conoboy at 7:00 AM. Labels: writing craft ...
tomconoboy.blogspot.com/.../national-flash-fiction-day.html


Spies, lies and pies: National Flash Fiction Day
National Flash Fiction Day. It's today, apparently. If I'd had more planning and not been at work so much, I might have tried my hand at a story especially for ...
spiesliesandpies.blogspot.com/.../national-flash-fiction-day.ht...


I call it research...: National Flash Fiction Day
I love a good flash, me. Tiny complete micro stories of up to about 500 words. David Gaffney, a brilliant writer of flash fiction, writes about it here in the Guardian .
icallitresearch.blogspot.com/.../national-flash-fiction-day.html


National Flash Fiction Day « Pete Denton – Writer
Today is National Flash Fiction day in the UK. I must admit that I had never heard of Flash Fiction until last year. When my writing group were talking about ...
petedenton.wordpress.com/2012/05/.../national-flash-fiction-d...


National Flash Fiction Day « Brainstorms & Bylines
Do you write flash fiction? Lucky you! Today is National Flash Fiction Day (U.K.)! In honor of the holiday to celebrate writing small, I've compiled a round-up of ...
barbaratyler.wordpress.com/tag/national-flash-fiction-day/


National Flash-Fiction Day « Vanessa Couchman
Tomorrow, 16th May, is National Flash-Fiction Day (NFFD) in the UK, celebrating this short story form. What is flash fiction? A very short but complete story, ...
vanessacouchmanwriter.wordpress.com/.../national-flash-fictio...


Subtle Melodrama Book Reviews: National Flash Fiction Day
Happy National Flash Fiction Day! Isn't that exciting? It is! But what even is flash fiction? As far as the submission guidelines I've seen are concerned, flash fiction ...
www.subtlemelodrama.com/.../national-flash-fiction-day.html


Flash Fiction: Conversion - Flash Fiction - National Flash Fiction Day ...
Conversion - Flash Fiction - National Flash Fiction Day UK. Accessing the county water treatment facility proved far easier than he'd thought. Adding the contents ...
lisavooght.blogspot.com/.../conversion-flash-fiction-national-f...


It's the first ever UK National Flash Fiction Day (and lots of lovely free ...
Hello — and today is the first ever EVER UK National Flash Fiction Day — three cheers for Calum Kerr! So, what's happening today? The quick guide to NFFD ...
marthawilliams.org/2012/05/16/nffd-2012/


It's National Flash Fiction Day!* « worcesterpoetsasylum
It's National Flash Fiction Day!*. *In the UK. BUT! It's a great excuse to bust out yer pencil and write up some 500-word goodness, right? Right! You can also ...
worcesterpoetsasylum.wordpress.com/.../its-national-flash-ficti...


National Flash Fiction Day « CMStewartWrite
(Inter)National Flash Fiction Day Press Release from Annie Evett of Raging Aardvark: What do Hemmingway, Kafka, Chekov and Lovecraft have in common ...
cmstewartwrite.wordpress.com/tag/national-flash-fiction-day/


Chris Bissette: National Flash Fiction Day
It's the first National Flash Fiction Day. Hurrah! This has been a long time in the making for everyone involved, and it's great to have watched it all come together ...
www.chrisbissette.com/2012/05/national-flash-fiction-day.html


Ganymeder » Blog Archive » National Flash Fiction Day: (text ...
National Flash Fiction Day: (text & audio) Dust and Dime Novels. *Click here for audio. Dust and Dime Novels. by Catherine Russell. The boy sat beneath the ...
www.ganymeder.com/.../national-flash-fiction-day-audio-dust...


Announcing our top 5 #FlashFiction contest finalists!
May is National Short Story Month, and today Flash Fiction gets its day. (Visit the National Flash Fiction Day 2012 website for more info.) We decided to celebrate ...
www.leagueofextraordinaryauthors.com/.../announcing-our-to...


National Flash Fiction Day | Jocelyn Rish
Today is National Flash Fiction Day (NFFD), which is a day to celebrate the art form of the very short story. I love writing flash fiction - it's a fun challenge to create ...
www.jocelynrish.com/content/national-flash-fiction-day


National Flash Fiction Day | THRESHOLDS
In the spirit of debate as we approach National Flash Fiction Day, THRESHOLDS asked STEVE WASSERMAN to take a close look at Flash. Was he blinded by ...
blogs.chi.ac.uk/shortstoryforum/?tag=national-flash-fiction...


Happy National Flash Fiction Day! « The Pygmy Giant
Happy National Flash Fiction Day! … especially to the winner of our competition: Joy Manné! Enjoy her story and flash responsibly today.
thepygmygiant.com/2012/.../happy-national-flash-fiction-day/


Flash-fiction competition winners announced
Journal Live
by David Whetstone, The Journal TODAY is the first National Flash-Fiction Day, a special day to celebrate all that is short and sweet – and fashionable – in ...


Manchester writers read to passersby on 'flash fiction' day
Manchester Evening News
Members of a Manchester writinggroup are reading their work to unsuspecting passersby today to celebrate the first ever National Flash Fiction Day.


VANESSA GEBBIE'S BLOG: NATIONAL FLASH FICTION DAY!
By Vanessa Gebbie
NATIONAL FLASH FICTION DAY! Happy First-Ever National Flash Fiction Day! The story goes like this. A couple of years back I was due to give a talk at the NAWE conference, on flash fiction writing. It struck me that so many of the writing ...
VANESSA GEBBIE'S BLOG


National Flash Fiction Day « Thing of the Day
By mluvit
National Flash Fiction Day. by mluvit. Today is National Flash Fiction Day. Also known as Microfiction, this form of creative writing involves composing very short stories of no more than 750 words or so: http://nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/ ...
Thing of the Day


A flash day! | Merc's World - writing & ruminations
By Merc
Today is Flash Fiction Day! It started out as National Flash Fiction Day in the UK, but so many flash fiction writers wanted to scramble aboard and so there are events going on all over the place. There are masses of free stories flashing over the ...
Merc's World - writing & ruminations


not exactly true: Happy...
By Valerie O'Riordan
National Flash-Fiction Day, dudes - but I'm just a teeny bit more excited about the launch of my chapbook, Enough, which is also today! I'm celebrating by, eh, feeding the baby porridge and paying my National Insurance bill. Oh, hell, yeah.
not exactly true


Strictly Writing: What's my motivation?
By Derek
Consider this slice of Flash Fiction* (which I will now hastily make up to order)... He watched the fly... As today is National Flash Fiction Day, allow me to introduce Kissing Frankenstein & Other Stories by Flash Fiction South West. You can also ...
Strictly Writing


Flash Fiction Day – Competition Winner! « The Lancashire Writing Hub
By mikeyaddict
Flash Fiction Day – Competition Winner! We are pleased to announce the winner of our Flash FictionCompetition. Thank you for all the fabulous entries which made picking a winner a very difficult task. In total we received seventy five entries ...
The Lancashire Writing Hub


National Flash Fiction Day: Five Shorts To Help You Celebrate ...
In the UK, today marks its first annual National Flash Fiction Day. Flash fiction, a term coined around 1992, is also known as micro-fiction. Though there's no hard ...
www.clutchmagonline.com/.../national-flash-fiction-day-five-s...


Stuck in a Book: National Flash Fiction Day
As the clock has just ticked past midnight, I'm afraid you've just missed National Flash Fiction Day... If case you don't know, flash fiction is, essentially, very short ...
stuck-in-a-book.blogspot.com/.../national-flash-fiction-day.ht...


National Flash Fiction Day & Jawbreakers | dan powell – fiction
It's National Flash Fiction Day and Jawbreakers, the official collection, is available now. It includes commissioned pieces from well-known writers including Ali ...
danpowellfiction.com/.../national-flash-fiction-day-jawbreaker...


National Flash Fiction Day! | 1889 Labs
National Flash Fiction Day! By mer. Posted May 16, 2012. 296 words. Support the author of this article by liking it on Facebook! Most Popular Posts The End is ...
1889.ca/2012/05/national-flash-fiction-day/


National Flash Fiction Day | Vapour Trails
National Flash Fiction Day The internet tells me it was National Flash Fiction Day yesterday, in the UK. Well, it's flash fiction day here on Vapour Trails today.
theknockingshop.blogspot.com/.../national-flash-fiction-day.ht...


Leda and the Swan: National Flash Fiction Day « Tale Spinning
She's also the one who let me on that there was a National Flash Fiction Day. There are many others out there, and it's been a pleasure finding them, bit by bit.
stuartnager.wordpress.com/.../leda-and-the-swan-national-flash...


this is not the six word novel: Look! It's National Flash Fiction Day ...
There's a whole load of flash fiction up today at the pop-up FlashFlood magazine. You can also purchase 'Jawbreakers,' the National Flash Fiction Day ...
jen-campbell.blogspot.com/.../look-its-national-flash-fiction-d...


National Flash Fiction Day – An Announcement «
This Wednesday, 330 Words will be taking part in a very special event with Manchester writing group Flashtag (in association with the marvelous National Flash ...
330words.wordpress.com/.../national-flash-fiction-day-an-ann...


Tania Writes: Happy National Flash Fiction Day - And A Giveaway!
Labels: book giveaway, flash fiction, flash fiction anthology, flash fiction collection , flash fiction slam,national flash fiction day, oxford, sudden fiction, sudden ...
blog.taniahershman.com/.../happy-national-flash-fiction-day-a...


National Flash Fiction Day Clive Martyn
What do Hemmingway, Kafka, Chekov and Lovecraft have in common? They all wrote Flash Fiction, short-short stories. The most poignant captured in just 6 ...
www.clivemartyn.com/?p=356


Flash Fiction Gets Its Day | D. Thomas Minton
I bet you didn't know it's National Flash Fiction Day. I'll forgive you, especially if you don't live in Britain. It is, after all, the first time flash fiction has been honored ...
dthomasminton.com/2012/05/16/flash-fiction-gets-its-day/


Happy National Flash Fiction Day | 21st Century Writer
Call it micro or call it flash, it's all fiction pared down to the bare essentials. Today marks the first-ever celebration of the flash genre in which 150 words or fewer ...
www.mscottfiction.com/21stCenturyWriter/?p=609


Wanted: your flash critique
The Guardian
... who were too deeply engrossed in an old-fashioned book to be following the week's literary news, Wednesday was our first National Flash Fiction Day.


Words & Fixtures: Reading to Manchester
By Sarah-Clare Conlon
Reading to Manchester. Some videos of me performing on National Flash-Fiction Day... ...at Cornerhouse. ... I write flash fiction, edit anthologies and organise spoken word events with the FlashTag collective. I also perform as part of Les ...
Words & Fixtures


(Inter)National Flash Fiction Day Press Release from Annie Evett of ...
While there is nothing new about the short-short story, National Flash Fiction Day is being celebrated for the first time in the UK and has been adopted around ...
cmstewartwrite.wordpress.com/.../international-flash-fiction-da... 


Melanie Writes: Happy National Flash Fiction Day!
Happy National Flash Fiction Day! Today is National Flash Fiction Day in the UK! The event has become somewhat international, but the organizers are mainly ...
www.melanieconklin.com/.../happy-national-flash-fiction-day.... 


National Flash Fiction Day Contribution - BULLISH INK | BULLISH INK
Bare As Bones Standing along the shore at the edge of the cove, Simona sees the mainsail fluttering in the breeze above the cool blue of the...
www.bullishink.com/.../national-flash-fiction-day-contribution... 


The Picador Book Room · May 16th is National Flash Fiction Day (in ...
May 16th is National Flash Fiction Day (in the UK but, with the internet, isn't everything local?). We're celebrating this feisty genre with a short, original piece from ...
picadorbookroom.tumblr.com/.../may-16th-is-national-flash-fi... 


Expose Yourself! Celebrating Flash Fiction Day | Black Balloon ...
While not technically a celebration of pervy exhibitionism, Flash Fiction Day can still be a grand opportunity to expose yourself...to good writing. If you're in the ...
www.blackballoonpublishing.com/.../expose-yourself-celebrati... 


Hurray for (Inter) National Flash Fiction Day - Writing.ie - Guest Blogs
On National Flash Fiction Day here more about events and competitions in the form. National Flash Fiction Day takes place today May 16th. Last week I ...
writing.ie/.../hurray-for-inter-national-flash-fiction-day.html


National Flash Fiction Day | Joanne Phillips – a writer's journey
Happy National Flash Fiction day to all you writers out there. In the spirit of the day, a very short post indeed. Check out the competitions pages for May and June ...
https://joannegphillips.wordpress.com/.../national-flash-fiction-...


Stories in your pocket: how to write flash fiction | Books | guardian.co ...
It's National Flash Fiction Day on Wednesday – the first one ever – and it's an exciting day for me and many others who specialise in this particular truncated ...
www.guardian.co.uk/p/37hb8/tw 


Yearning for Wonderland: National Flash Fiction Day and ...
HAPPY NATIONAL FLASH FICTION DAY! Although this is a UK based website, National Flash Fiction Day (#NFFD on Twitter) has gained traction worldwide.
yearningforwonderland.blogspot.com/.../national-flash-fiction... 


Pam's Writing Exploits: Happy National Flash Fiction Day!
Happy National Flash Fiction Day! May 16 is apparently National (and International?!) Flash Fiction Day, so happy flash fiction day! To find out more click here.
pamgriffin.blogspot.com/.../happy-national-flash-fiction-day.h... 


Happy National Flash-Fiction Day! Today's a big... | A Butterfly Mind
Happy National Flash-Fiction Day! Today's a big day for me … First, I'm announcing the 1000words stories chosen for inclusion in the National Flash- Fiction Day ...
abutterflymind.tumblr.com/.../happy-national-flash-fiction-da... 


Flashtag celebrate National Flash Fiction Day – People's History ...
Enjoy this short fiction performance to celebrate National Flash Fiction Day ... As part of National Flash Fiction Day, Wednesday 16 May, the innovative Flashtag ...
www.phm.org.uk/.../flashtag-celebrate-national-flash-fiction-d...


4'33” 60 Second: Flash Fiction contest/ results « Creative Writing ...
By writingcomps
Thanks again – and happy National Flash Fiction Day! To submit a story, visit ... to like this post. This entry was posted on 20 May 2012 at 9:48 pm and is filed under Fiction Contests, Flash Fiction, Helpful Links, Literary Events, Uncategorized.

And last, but not least, some links from the Edinburgh event:A full reader list  at http://underword.co.uk/
Pictures at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thalamus/sets/72157629769445230/
and a review at: http://www.scottishreviewofbooks.org/index.php?option=com_kunena&func=view&catid=18&id=2330&Itemid=122#2330