Guest Post: Laura Besley on Writing Flash Fiction

Today's guest post is from my flash fiction guru, Laura Besley.  Originally from the UK, Laura currently lives in Hong Kong where she teaches English as a second language.  She is a published author, her short story "Dear Sylvia" can be found in As We See It:  Hong Kong, by the Hong Kong Writer's Circle.

Laura maintains a blog, Living Loving and Writing, wherein she shares the flavor of Hong Kong and the product of her flash fiction adventures.

Find my review of As We See It: Hong Kong and an interview with Laura here.

  —A Chaotic Mind

And now, our feature attraction:

Little and Often — How Flash Fiction can help you improve your writing

by Laura Besley

Background

Flash Fiction is the new kid on the block, so to speak, and the definition isn’t yet 100% concrete, but basically it’s a piece of fiction that is really short. Flash Fiction is usually between 250-1000 words, but I’ve personally set my limit at max of 500 words (no minimum). Due to people’s increasing lack of time and the fact that it can easily be read on an iphone or ipad, the popularity is growing.

On 4th May 2012 I started a writing challenge: to write a piece of flash fiction every day and to put ‘the best of the week’ up onto my blog on a Friday and that’s how, for me, Friday Flash Fiction was launched.

Follow me to Living Loving and Writing

Hey, y'all!  Check out my guest blog post today over at Living Loving and Writing, a blog kept by my friend and published author, Laura Besley.

You can also read an interview with Laura, as well as a review of the anthology As We See It:  Hong Kong here.  

Guest Post: Sumo and a Trip to Mars from Author Jennifer Griffith

Ladies and Gents, I am just tickled pink to introduce our guest blogger today, Jennifer Griffith, author of Big in Japan, just released this past week.  Find my review of this fun book here and don't forget to enter our Rafflecopter drawing for a free copy!  I admire Jennifer not only for her writing skills, but also for her determination to write about something that interested her even though she didn't know much about it.  She made herself an aficionado and shared this subsequent story in her delightful voice.  Heeere's Jenny!

SUMO AND A TRIP TO MARS

I’ve just finished my fourth novel. Yeehaw! Sometimes I think Big In Japan is just as much a surprise to me as it is to everyone else. It covers a topic I’d never have expected to write about, and the first six months as I frittered with the story I kept rolling my eyes at myself because it’s about…sumo wrestling. With a love story.

Who writes about that?

No one. Especially not me. I’m kind of just a short white girl. I’m not in that game at all! However, when I lived in Japan for 18 months I got a love for the country and the people and the language, and sumo is such a part of the Japanese culture, how could I resist? Then, as I dug deeper into the topic it got more and more fascinating.

Efficiency

As I mentioned in my last post here, my #2 son, Dallas II, is a writer.  (When writing, for disambiguation, I refer to him as D2). He was the editor of his high school newspaper, The Bearchat, his senior year, and penned a widely followed and eagerly anticipated humor column in it for two years.  

I, of course, am his #1 fan.  I claim this distinction over his wife, Lynda, because I have been cheering for and laughing with him the longest.  Even so, it delighted me to learn that  he found an eternal companion who laughs at his (admittedly occasionally obscure) jokes as much as I do.

D2 has just graduated from Texas A&M with a master's degree in mechanical engineering.  He, his wife, and their 15-month-old son will be moving to Austin, Texas, in a few weeks, where he will begin making microchips at Samsung.

While I hope I can claim some of the credit for his love of reading, I blame him at least partially for my eclectic taste.  Through him, I discovered authors such as Orson Scott Card (The Ender's Saga), Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time), Brian Jacques (Redwall), J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter), and J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings).  He writes engrossing speculative fiction with a delightfully wry voice.

D2 is currently on vacation, and I thought it would be a perfect time to hit him up a guest post for this blog.  I guess he's bored because the following was his response to my query.  Enjoy.

— Penny Freeman

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Efficiency 

by Dallas Freeman, II