May Day! May Day! May Day?

It's nearly May, and you know what that means?

It's nearly National Flash-Fiction Day!!

So, in honour of all of that, and following on the great success of last week's Shakespeare prompt, we'd like some more flash-fictions from you.

The deadline is 5pm on Monday, with the posts appearing over at our flashes blog (http://nffdflashes.blogspot.co.uk/) all day on Tuesday, 1st May.

The limit is 310 words (31 days in May, you see) and the theme is May Day! Or Mayday! Or M'Aidez! Or anything really, that includes any of those words and concepts.

Submissions accepted from anywhere in the world. (What's May Day like in New Zealand, I wonder...)

And that's it, that's your task! Send your stories to us at nationalflashfictionday@gmail.com and please put the word 'May' in the subject line. We can't wait to see your writing!

Flashmobbing flash fiction - Guest Post by Sarah-Clare Conlon

I’ve been writing – and writing about – flash fiction for a while now and I love how diverse a discipline it can be. Ask me my definition and I bet it’ll be different to what you were told last time, and different again to what you’re told next. And that’s what’s so great about writing micro: it might be small in scale but it’s more than substantial in scope, from process to performance. 

And that's what the Manchester-based FlashTag writing collective (which consists of Manchester Blog Awards winners and flash fiction writers Benjamin Judge, David Hartley, Fat Roland and Tom Mason - oh, and me) were thinking about when we came up with our idea for a National Flash-Fiction Day event. We're fans of site-specific stories and of delivering our prose in unusual ways, so we've decided to treat the rainy city to some guerrilla story-telling; some flash fiction flashmobbing, if you will. We plan to travel across town, stopping off at various locations - from cultural venues to iconic spaces - where one of the group will read out a piece of short fiction to the public then move on. We're not releasing details of the itinerary until the day, when you can follow our progress - and perhaps catch us in action - via our Twitter account, @flashtagmcr.

The FlashTag collective is currently running a flash fiction writing competition as part of Chorlton Arts Festival: you have until midnight today (Friday 27 April) to enter! Full details here: http://flashmobmcr.wordpress.com/

Sarah-Clare Conlon is a writer and editor, and one half of flash fiction/music combo Les Malheureux with David Gaffney. You can read more from her on award-winning arts blog Words & Fixtures.

We're workshopping - Guest Post by Valerie O'Riordan

There's less than three weeks to go before the first National Flash-Fiction Day is upon us, and two days before THAT, I'm going to be running a flash-fiction workshop in Manchester City Library. The event's sold out now, but you can still sign up to get on the wait-list, if you're interested. And to get you interested - and perhaps to demystify things for those of you who'll definitely be joining me on the day - here's a taste of what's in store.

First off: no lectures, no tutorials, no severe editorials - this workshop's going to be all about the writing. (And a little bit about the reading - it is in a library, after all...) If you're anything like me, the blank page is a savage horror on the desktop: whilst those first words can be honed and tweaked and crossed out and reconsidered, getting them down in the first place is often the problem. So I want to use this workshop as an opportunity to break down these barriers - for one night, at the very least! So what we'll do will be a couple of very fast, very frantic writing exercises. It'll be fun, and there won't be time to over-think - or, perhaps, to think at all! - or to get intimidated; we'll be gathering prompts and blasting our way through some far-from-premeditated stories as fast as a ticking clock will allow us. (I promise not to bring a ticking clock.) And to get you in the mood, in between rounds, I'll be showing you some of my favourite examples of flash-fiction - for inspiration, not intimidation! At the end of the session, nobody will have to share their stories, but if they want to, there'll be the chance to get them uploaded onto the library's website. Fame! Our great Director, Calum Kerr, has also set up a new flash-blog if you want to send him your work - and I'll also be talking to you about other submission opportunities for flash-fiction.

And if all this hasn't scared you off, I'll see you on Monday May 14th!

NFFD - Bulletin 7

Hello again everyone,

Aren't Wednesdays coming around fast now? Can you believe we are just THREE WEEKS away!? Amazing!

Anyway, here's a roundup of news, and some things for you to be looking out for and getting up to:

• First of all, in case you didn't notice, we completed our part in the production of Jawbreakers. The text has been proofed and finalised, the cover has been designed and the whole thing has been sent off to our printers. They reckon about 10 working days so, by our calculations, that puts the book in our hands round about 9th or 10th May! We are, of course, massively excited about that! When it lands we hope to be able to ship it very soon after. News will follow very soon of how you can pre-order your copy. And, if you are organising an event, we would like to you take a few copies (say 10?) to sell on the night. If you are happy to do this, please get in touch. 

• Next I should mention that we have quite a lot of competitions closing in the coming week from #Flashtag, Once Upon a Time, 1000 words, Writing on the Wall, The Journal and Flash Fiction World. So, if you haven't already sent your stories in, now is the time to do so! Full listings at http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/competitions.html. We've also listed a bunch of new competitions, some coming up after the Day, so do keep checking the page for new goodies.

• Other events coming up that you need to be aware of as we approach the day include workshops from myself and Josephine Corcoran down in the South West (http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/southwest.html), Writing on the Wall in Liverpool (http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/northwest.html), Emma J Lannie in Derby (http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/midlands.html) and Valerie O'Riordan and Collaborate Here in Manchester (http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/manchester.html). Do sign up while there are still places available, they all promise to be exciting and interesting.

• And another reason for signing up to those is your chance to see your work on our new blog: http://nffdflashes.blogspot.co.uk/ which we are using to pull together featured work produced by all the various NFFD events which don't already have their own embedded publication  (and the random exercises I've started to set for you all. Watch out for another one this weekend!). Do have a read of what is being produced, there's some great work there.

• Collaboration with our international friends is moving along, with some cross-pollination between us and National Flash-Fiction Day - New Zealand (http://nationalflash.wordpress.com/), a pamphlet being produced in Brisbane which is looking for your work (http://chriswhitewrites.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/national-flash-fiction-day/) and an event now happening in Dublin (http://www.inkwellwriters.ie/national-flash-fiction-day-at-big-smoke/). So make sure you check those out.

• As usual, we've been updating the website with new writers as well as new events and competitions. We've added a 'Kindle' page to bring together all of the e-books available from our writers. If you have a book on Kindle and would like to be listed, do drop us a line.

• What else? Well, the posters have arrived! (Whooop!) And I hope to be sending those out in the next couple of days. So, if you want any posters, or some of the story cards (or MORE story cards if you're run out) then, again, drop us a line.

And, apart from that, it's business as usual. Please do follow and promote our social media outlets at https://www.facebook.com/nationalflashfictionday, https://www.facebook.com/JawbreakersFlash, https://twitter.com/#!/nationalflashfd and join in with the various activties. And, if you get a chance to talk to your local press about us, we'd be awfully grateful!

If you have any questions, queries, ideas or comments about National Flash-Fiction Day, or to sign up for the mailing list, please do get back to me at nationalflashfictionday@gmail.com. A mail will be out in the next couple of days about pre-ordering the book. Thanks, as ever, for all your support and hard work. And here's to the next three weeks!!

All the best

Calum

(PS. On a very personal note, and I do apologise for this, my project to write a flash-fiction every day for a year will have come to an end by the time of the next bulletin, with the final story on April 30th. If you're not aware of it, it's online at http://flash365.blogspot.co.uk/ and, if you like it, a 'Like' at https://www.facebook.com/flash365 and a 'share' would be very much appreciated. Thank you and advert over!)

Jawbreakers Revealed

To Flash or Not To Flash? ... Flash!

Here at National Flash-Fiction Day we have asked you to do many things - enter competitions, organise events, buy things, sell things, all sorts of stuff - but one thing we have not yet done is that which is at the heart of flash-fiction writing; namely, we have never given you a prompt, a short span of time, and told you to sit down and write something.

Well, today that all changes!

Monday is 23rd April. It is St George's Day. But also, and perhaps more importantly for us writery types, it's Shakespeare's birthday.

So, your task is this. Sit down and write us a Shakespeare-related flash. It could use old Bill himself in the story, or it could be based on a character, event, scene or plot from one of his plays. The specifics are up to you, but it should be a recognisably Shakespearian flash.

And, as the man wrote 37 (confirmed) plays, let's make the word limit 370 words.

This is open to anyone anywhere in the world, and you have until 5pm on Sunday (BST).

Send your completed stories to us at nationalflashfictionday@gmail.com (with 'Shakespeare' in the subject line) and they will be posted on our story blog at nffdflashes.blogspot.co.uk on Monday.

And that's it. What are you waiting for? Lay on MacFlash-Fictioneers, and get writing!

NFFD - Bulletin 6

Hello Flash-Fictioneers,

Well, it's another Wednesday, another bulletin, and only 4 weeks to go!!

Here's a quick round-up of all that's new, and all that you can do to help:

• Our biggest news is probably the announcement of our anthology, Jawbreakers. I shan't reiterate all that's been said before, but you can read all about it at http://nationalflashfictionday.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/anthology-final-list.html. Just to say that we are hoping it will be available at the beginning of May, that it will be available via Amazon as both book and Kindle or directly from me as book or PDF. I shall send out more about price and how to buy it etc. once I know more. In the meantime, why not 'Like' the new Facebook page for up-to-the-minute info: https://www.facebook.com/JawbreakersFlash.

• In other news, we have managed to inspire the world with our efforts! New Zealand have announced their own NFFD, details at http://nationalflash.wordpress.com/. So do please support them in their efforts if you can. And, I've heard this morning that there will be an anthology being produced in Australia to tie in with our Day. More when I have details.

• Closer to home, we now have an event happening in Scotland, Edinburgh to be precise. I haven't had a chance to add it to our website yet, but details are at http://underword.co.uk/. And there is a whisper of something coming along in Northern Ireland too, so stay-tuned for word of that, or get in touch if you'd like to be involved. However we still have a lack of events in London, of all places. So if you are there and want to get something happening, let me know!

• The Story Cards I mentioned in the last bulletin have arrived and the first lot have been distributed, but we still have more left. So if you want some to pass out to friends, family, neighbourhood arts venues, or to promote your event, please get in touch. The posters are on order and should be here soon. Again, let me know if you want some, if you haven't already.

• A number of competitions have closed in the last week - thank you all those who submitted - but others are still open. The Dead Ink competition in Yorkshire closes today (http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/northeast.html ) and Lancashire Writing Hub's Flash-Fiction Competition closes on Friday, so don't miss out! http://www.lancashirewritinghub.co.uk/calendar/

• Also, Liverpool's Writing on the Wall, who are running the Flash Fiction at the end of the World competition, now have 20 entries up on the site for people to read. They will also be displaying them in a very prestigious site at the FACT arthouse and cinema in Liverpool. All the details can be found here for the final event – http://www.writingonthewall.org.uk/event-listing/flash-fiction-final.html with Author Mike Carey, who is nominated for a Hugo award, who will be reading and judging the final, and go here for all the stories and the entry page: http://www.writingonthewall.org.uk/flash-fiction-submission.html.

• Loads of you have been blogging about the Day, including featuring some interviews with me and some of my writing, So a very big thank you for that. If you would still like to, feel free to get in touch if you need anything.

• Thanks to all of you on Twitter who promoted us last Friday. That was a great boost. It would be wonderful if you could repeat that, say, every week? (Please?) And, if you haven't already, please do 'Like' our page at https://www.facebook.com/nationalflashfictionday, share it with your friends, follows us on Twitter at @nationalflashfd and generally help get the word out. Oh, and one specific request. If you are Tweeting about NFFD it would be great if you could include the hashtag #nffd or #NFFD in all your messages to see if we can get it trending. (If you don't use Twitter, that will probably mean nothing to you. That's fine. Ignore it!)

And that's it. Except to say keep visiting our website at http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/ for more updates, check out the events - some of them, such as workshops, are coming up before the day, so don't miss out - and thank you so very much for all your support. It just keeps getting bigger and better!

All the best

Calum

PS. If you have something you think should be included in this Bulletin, do please send it through to nationalflashfictionday@gmail.com, which is also the address to sign up for the mailing list.

Anthology - Final List

Hello again!

Well, the dust has settled, we have patched our wounds and salved our bruises, and we can finally announce the list of stories which have made it through into the first ever National Flash-Fiction Day Anthology.

The collection will be entitled Jawbreakers (taken from the story submitted by Jen Campbell) and is, well, just amazing!

The job of type-setting, proofing and publishing is already underway and we hope that the book will be available in the first week of May. Keep an eye on this blog, our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/nationalflashfictionday) and our Twitter feed (@nationalflashfd) for more news on that as we have it.

A big, big thank you to all of you who submitted, the standard was extremely high and we are just sorry we didn't have space to include you all. But, don't forget, there are many more opportunities (with others coming along all the time) listed on our site at http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/.

Now, without any more ado at all, here is the full list of pieces that will be in the anthology, commissions and accepted submissions:

Accepted Submissions:

‘Porcelain’ by Alex Thornber
‘Repetition’ by Amy Mackelden
‘Love’ by Benjamin Judge
‘Fiver’ by Bob Jacobs
‘Chemoids’ by Brian George
‘Arabesque’ by Brindley Hallam Dennis
‘Mauve’ by Carrie Etter
‘Peekaboo’ by Dan Powell
‘Cheese’ by David Gilbert
‘Marmite’ by David Morgan
‘Ciphers’ by Eli Goldstone
‘Elephant’ by Erinna Mettler
‘Boy’ by Jay Barnett
‘Jawbreakers’ by Jen Campbell
‘Blackhole’ by Jessica Patient.
‘Buttons’ by Kevlin Henney
‘Beauty’ by Kylie Grant
‘Superman’ by LA Craig
‘Rivals’ by Laura Wilkinson
‘Pink’ by Mark Sheerin
‘Wrapped’ by Martha Williams
‘Ash’ by Natalie Bowers
‘Favourite’ by Nathan Good
‘Bar’ by Nicholas Murray
‘Troll’ by Nick Garrard.
‘Inked’ by Rin Simpson
‘Ed! ’ by Rupan Malakin
‘Harps’ by Sal Page
‘Instructions’ by Sara Crowley
‘Summertime’ by Susan Giles
‘Celia’ by Susan Walker-Stokes
‘Shed’ by SJI Holliday

Commissioned Stories:

‘Quick’ by Ali Smith
‘Elsewhere’ by Alison Wells
‘Home’ by Calum Kerr
‘Bonding’ by David Gaffney
‘Bee’ by Emma Lannie
‘Waterman’ by Eunice Yeates
‘Fieldwork’ by Ian Rankin
‘Hammer’ by Jenn Ashworth
‘Camenbert’ by Jonathan Pinnock
‘Rapture’ by Kirsty Logan
‘Minutes’ by Nigel McLoughlin
‘Quinquireme’ by Sally Zigmond
‘Dinghy’ by Sarah Hilary
‘Natural’ by Sarah-Clare Conlon
‘Boom’ by Simon Thirsk
‘Stopwatching’ by Tania Hershman
‘Missing’ by Trevor Byrne
‘Space’ by Valerie O'Riordan
‘Flight’ by Vanessa Gebbie

And we will be including the winners of the Micro-Fiction competition too:

‘Relieving Mafeking’ by Alun Williams
‘Meredith’ by Amy Mackelden
‘The Worst Head in the World’ by Angela Readman
‘New Build’ by Clare O'Brien
‘Black Hole’ by Dan Carpenter
‘Sad Lover’ by Jason Bagshaw
‘New Shoes’ by Jenny Adamthwaite
‘She'll Leave You For a Man’ by Kirsty Logan
‘First Person’ by Martha Williams
‘Alterations’ by Tim Stevenson

Very many congratulations to everyone who made it in! It promises to be quite an amazing collection of stories. And thank you all for your support.

Flash(fiction)ing is good for your health - Guest Post by Alex Thornber

I am guilty of taking myself too seriously. Not to a crazy degree but just to the point of over thinking things a little too often. Over the last couple of years I have been writing short stories almost daily. I have figured out my style, the way I like to write and the things I like to write about and it is working. As a result however a few months ago I found that almost all of the stories I have written recently are of a similar length and invariably centred on a group of fictional friends.

This was not a problem, in fact it was an aim. I had fallen in love with this group of characters and I wanted to write a collection for them to live in. The problem was that every story I wrote was about them and between two and five thousand words. If I had an idea for a story that none of my characters fit in with, or was really short, I would pop it in my notebook and forget about it. I had to be focussed if I was going to get this collection done. Writing took discipline. I’d been told that a thousand times.

But, if there is one thing I have learnt over the years of writing, and receiving advice about writing, is that you should never close your mind to new ideas. I had been ignoring this advice and it lead to what I guess was writers block.

After a few weeks of frustration editing, trying desperately to believe that I was still writing, I decided to go back to my roots.

One of the first stories I had published was a flash-fiction called Movies and Stories From Friends. It was a six sentences long musing about a girl loosing her virginity at a party. I remember writing it in about two minutes; I then spent two months editing it but the feeling that remains is those two minutes. That flash of going from inspiration to finished story in less time that it takes to brew a cup of tea. I wanted that back.

So I put all my current stories to one side and cleared my head of those character names and their voices. I thought I’d try to write a couple of flash-fiction stories. I emptied my brain and waited for it to fill up with new stuff.

It worked. Without constantly thinking about my story collection or the characters who lived in it and focussing solely on trying to write something flash length, I managed to write three flash fictions a day for a month and a half.

I wrote stories about self-service check outs with attitudes, voodoo cigarettes, pre-apocalyptic imaginary zombies, vengeful guitar strings and a tonic that can turn humans into chameleons. Nothing I had ever written before prepared me for these stories, or even hinted that I might some day write stories like this. It was the most incredible creative burst I have had in a long time.

This burst was prolonged by one of my current undertakings: the National Flash-Fiction Day project Flashpoints. I’m one of a small team consisting of myself, Emily Cleaver and Rachael Dunlop, under the captain and champion of all flash-fiction endeavours Calum Kerr. Together we’ve been working on this project that we have dubbed “a site-specific mass writing event.”

Flashpoints is for everyone, wherever you are in the world. This is not a lit mag or blog in the traditional sense; it is a completely open writing project to celebrate the joys of flash-fiction. Anyone can get involved.

At Flashpoints we encourage people to get out in the world, writing flash-fiction rooted in their surroundings. We ask them to write stories on a single page, photograph where they are and send it all in to us at nffdflashpoints@gmail.com. Some contributors have even left their stories in the wild for strangers to find, all in the name of flash-fiction celebration. We ask them to push themselves, write a story in one burst, squelching the desire to edit. We feature every story we receive and there is no limit to how many times a writer can contribute, the more the better.

Seeing what people do with the form has been wonderful for my writing, boosting my own creativity. People have written on scraps of paper and coffee shop napkins, in play parks and underground trains. The variety of submissions and experimentation has truly been wonderful to see. Flash-fiction is a delicate art. It takes a lot of discipline and effort but it does allow complete freedom for your imagination. There is nothing you can’t do in a flash fiction. That is why I love it.

Writing Flash-Fiction has warded off my writers block and my frustration. Above all though, it has made writing fun again. I’m never quite sure what I’m going to write next.

You can see all the stories to date for some inspiration and more information about the project on our blog over at http://nffdflashpoints.blogspot.co.uk

[And you can read all about Alex, and some of his stories, over on his own blog at http://alexthornber.wordpress.com/]

Anthology - The Long List

Submissions for the first NFFD Anthology closed last Tuesday and Valerie O'Riordan and myself have had a hard week reading through the 297 entries we received.

It's been a wonderful task, getting to read all your stories, but a hard one having to chose between them. Thank you to everyone who entered, we're so pleased you gave us such a difficult job!

Yesterday we finally managed to arrive at a Long List from which we will be choosing the final stories for the anthology. We managed to narrow it down to just under 90, and that has formed the list below.

Unfortunately, we now have to cut it still further to about half that number, which is going to be really tough, and probably cause us to argue and fall out!

This also means that some of you listed won't make it into the final selection, but we thought we would publish this list because we wanted you to know that even if you don't make it we really liked your story and it's only because of space that it's not going in!

We hope to finalising the list in the next couple of days, so watch out for more news, but now, without any more fanfare, here is the Long List:

Saved by Alex Josephy

Porcelain by Alex Thornber

Repetition by Amy Mackelden

Dare by Andrew Blackman

Endings by Angela Ramsell

Love by Benjamin Judge

Fiver by Bob Jacobs

Chemoids by Brian George

Arabesque by Brindley Hallam Dennis

Fun by Carly Holmes

Mauve by Carrie Etter

Waiting by Cathy White

Skyscraper by Charlotte Unsworth

Homeless by Colette Hill

Fat by Colin Watts

Peekaboo by Dan Powell

Cheese by David Gilbert

Threshold by David Hartley

Marmite by David Morgan

Burn by Denrele Ogunwa

Justice by Dorothy Evans

Retriever by Edward Price

Ciphers by Eli Goldstone

Recovery by Elizabeth Welsh

Courage by Emily Cleaver

Elephant by Erinna Mettler

Flight by Freya Morris

Manager by Gavin Inglis

Branch by Helen Ladderbird

Gum by Helen MacKinven

Thaw by Helen Pizzey

Bycatch by Holly Corfield-Carr

Rain by Isabel Rogers

Incoming by Jacky Taylor

Feathers by Jan Harris

Boy by Jay Barnett

Vertigo by Jayne Thickett

Jawbreakers by Jen Campbell

Potatoes by Jenny Adamthwaite

Blackhole by Jessica Patient

Cat-Cash by Joan Lennon

Calling by John Broken Willow

Watchdog by John Freebairn

Birdcage by Juliet Boyd

1800 by Katy Watson

Buttons by Kevlin Henney

Promotion by Kristian Jackson

Beauty by Kylie Grant

Superman by L.A. Craig

Rivals by Laura Wilkinson

Falling by Lorna Louise Hutchison

Procrastination by Maggie Storer

Skint by Mandy Taggart

Pink by Mark Sheerin

Wrapped by Martha Williams

Innocence by Michael Grafton

Cheesed by Michael Leonard

Whaler by Nasser Hussain

Ash by Natalie Bowers

Favourite by Nathan Good

Bar by Nicholas Murray

Troll by Nick Garrard

Tattoo by Nicola King

Misgivings by Norma Meechem

Crucifixion by Oscar Windsor-Smith

Freeman by Pauline Frisk

Rhubarb by Pauline Masurel

Kite by Peter Domican

Tarnished by Rachel Green

Space by Rhoda Thompson

Inked by Rin Simpson

Celia by Rosie Williams

Ed! by Rupan Malakin

Noose by Ryan Foster

Harps by Sal Page

Instructions by Sara Crowley

Unteachable by Sarah Schofield

Traditions by Shirley Golden

Zomband by Stephen Green

Crosswords by Stephen Partridge

Summertime by Susan Giles

Eyewitness by Susan Howe

Isolation by Susan Shipp

Shed by Susi Holliday

Valhalla by Tracy Fells

Misunderstanding by Vivien Jones

Freaks!

Here at National Flash-Fiction Day we're delighted to be taking part in the online launch of a book by some great writers: Nik Perring and Caroline Smailes. They have written a book of flash-fictions entitled Freaks and it's been wonderfully illustrated by Darren Craske.

The book is out today, available in both paper and ebook versions, so you should probably go and snag yourself a copy! If you need more convincing, here is a sample for you. Enjoy it and buy the book, it'll keep you busy until 16th May!

Invisible

[Super Power: The ability to make oneself unseen to the naked eye]

If I stay totally still,

if I stand right tall,

with me back against the school wall,

close to the science room’s window,

with me feet together,

pointing straight,

aiming forward,

if I make me hands into tight fists,

make me arms dead straight,

if I push me arms into me sides,

if I squeeze me thighs,

stop me wee,

if me belly doesn’t shake,

if me boobs don’t wobble,

if I close me eyes tight,

so tight that it makes me whole face scrunch,

if I push me lips into me mouth,

if I make me teeth bite me lips together,

if I hardly breathe,

if I don’t say a word.

Then,

I’ll magic meself invisible,

and them lasses will leave me alone.

NFFD - Bulletin 5

Dear All,

Well, is it just me, or is 16th May starting to look really close? Only 5 weeks to go!

And, with the day drawing closer, things are hotting up. We have lots of new events online since the last bulletin, plus more in the pipeline that will go up in the next weeks. Yesterday saw the close of submissions for our anthology which will be going to press very soon, and we have started to appear in the press and on the radio. It's all very, very exciting and I need to thank all of you for your hard work so far.

But it doesn't stop there! Here are some of the things going on and ways you can continue to help:

• Today we received the Story Cards that I've been promising ( https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=266835560074710&set=a.227547067336893.51806.163757727049161&type=1&theater ) so if you requested some of these to hand out and help promote the day, then they'll be in the post to you before the end of the week. If you would like to request some, just drop me a line and I'll send them off. There will be posters too, as soon as we can get them, but they will be limited in number, so get your requests in now!

• Yesterday, flash-fictioneer Deborah Rickard was interviewed on Radio Bristol about the day and what's going on in the area. ( you can listen at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00qcf6l from about 1.53.30). If you are organising an event, taking part in an event, or just as excited as we are about the Day, why not drop your local station a line and go and tell the world?

• The Derby Telegraph are running a flash competition to tie in with the Day, and they interviewed me for last week's edition. (http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/Author-Calum-urges-writers-explore-flash/story-15703324-detail/story.html ). So, the same thing is true for your local papers. Don't forget to get them involved.

• The Guardian, on the 14th May, will be publishing an article by David Gaffney to promote the day. They will be listing our events. So, don't forget to let us know what's happening so we can add you to the list. (And if you don't have anything happening, there's still time to set something up!)

• We have launched some new projects for the Day. There is the on-going project, Flashpoints ( http://nffdflashpoints.blogspot.co.uk/ ), which asks you to go to a place, write a story, and leave it there. And now we have unveiled plans for an International Write-In ( http://thewrite-in.blogspot.co.uk/ ) to happen on the Day itself. Please do get involved with these, and spread the word to all and sundry.

• Along with this bulletin we have started to publish Guest Posts on our blog. We will be inviting a range of people to write for it, but if you have something you want to share, please drop us a line!

• And finally, don't forget there are still competitions on-going with a range of deadlines. ( http://www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/competitions.html ) And we are pleased to announce that the top-three winners in all of the competitions will end up in a special e-book anthology published by NFFD.

And I think that's about it for now. We will be publishing this Bulletin weekly from now on, right up to the day (and beyond, maybe!) so stay tuned for more exciting happenings. And, if you have some news we need to share, drop us a line at nationalflashfictionday@gmail.com and we'll spread the word for you.

In the meantime, make sure you have liked our page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/nationalflashfictionday) and that you follow us on Twitter (@nationalflashfd) and please spread the word to your friends and followers to do the same.

Thank, as ever, for your support with the day.

Until next time, happy flashing!

Calum Kerr

Director, National Flash-Fiction Day 2012

This message was originally sent out to our mailing list. To sign up, send us an email to nationalflashfictionday@gmail.com

Publishing Flash - Guest Post from Flashquake

Everything is a collective effort at Flashquake. We’ve got a great team working together to deliver the best content because our readers deserve just that. With that being said, we want to offer a collective response to what it is like to publish flash.

From Cindy Bell, Publisher and Editor-In-Chief:

We have a long tradition of publishing flash fiction, flash nonfiction, and short poetry including prose poetry. We've got a solid decade behind us, but aren't taking anything for granted. We strive to improve, to grow, and to offer our readers a quality publication. We're adding 10-minute plays, translations, multi-media, and reviews to the mix this year!

From Kellie Doherty, Editor and Segment Leader of Critique-A-Flash:

My experience with Flashquake has broadened my mind to what flash fiction is and how many writers love the style. As the segment leader of Critique-A-Flash, I am exposed to a wide variety of flashes each week. The quality ranges, of course, but, as long as they meet our requirements, I critique them, stating what could be changed or what I particularly liked. Writers, I believe, like the test of penning a flash. It challenges the very core of what a good story is truly about and, with my job, I feel like I'm helping those writers become better at what they love to do and allowing them to get the publication they rightly deserve. It's hard to write good flashes and the ones who try should be rewarded.

From Nichelle Seely, Editor:

Working with flash fiction has been an eye-opening experience. It's been an education to be on the editing side instead of the submission side. When faced with choosing four out of a hundred submissions, I can now appreciate how meaningful each nuance of care and style becomes. Amazing pieces pop out of the field with their originality of subject or beauty of language. At first I felt, 'who am I to judge,' and yet, that was my responsibility--it's humbling! And because Flashquake responds to every submitter with a brief critique, it reminds me that there's a human being with hopes and dreams on the other side of the story, someone who might be hurt or encouraged by whatever I have to say. I try hard to include something that works as well as the reason a story was rejected, because almost everything I've read has some merit. It usually takes me longer to compose my two sentence critique than the time it takes me to read the story.

Being an editor for Flashquake has improved my own writing. Flash fiction by nature must be laser-beam tight, and extraneous verbiage sticks out like a corn stalk in a pumpkin patch. My spidey-sense for needless words gets stronger every issue, and I now have a much better idea of what an actual paid editor must go through, and what they're looking for (or at least what puts them off!)

From David Bowles, Editor:

For me, flash fiction at its best is about the relationship between the author and the reader, the power of resonant writing to interact with a reader's own brain and create a story that is just hinted at on the page. This sort of intimacy is what many writers crave: a one-to-one collaboration with the audience from which powerful shared narratives arise. Finding pieces that accomplish this amazing feat is a joy for me, and sharing them with other word junkies is almost a responsibility.

From Elia Seely, Guest Editor:

I write flash fiction for the challenge of distilling a story down to its purest elements. I read this genre for the same reasons; that pure shot of "ahh" that comes from a perfectly measured portion of character, tone, setting, dialogue. Editing for an online magazine offers and immediacy of experience for both myself and the submitters; it feels good to be able to respond with some feedback right away. I love seeing people's imaginations at work, at it inspires me to get my own work out there.

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Our Spring issue is now up in a new format we are proud of and excited to deliver to our readers. We also just opened up our submission period and will be accepting literary works of flash as well as art through May 20^th.

At Flashquake, we have a theory: Words are meant to make an impact, to leave a trace, to enlighten and to inspire. We hope you’ll read along with us.