Thursday, September 28, 2006

Flash Fiction Flash Featured Markets


Each month in my Flash Fiction Flash Newsletter http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlashFictionFlash I publish John Young's "Featured Market" articles on paying markets for flash fiction (markets which pay an honorarium, a contributor's copy, and/ or subscription).

John does a great job with getting those extra bits of information out of an editor so that we writers can get a better idea of what works might best fit the publication. John's created a web site where all his past newsletter articles can be viewed. See them at http://mysite.verizon.net/ressce9j/id2.html

The many other markets listed in my free online newsletter are for subscribers only. You can subscribe by sending a blank subject header message to FlashFictionFlash-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com Then each month you'll receive the latest publishing news for writers of flash literature, including John Young's fine monthly articles, and it will be delivered right to your emailbox.

Keep flashing!

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Flash Fiction Articles Published by Writer's Digest

Today I'm going to list the feature-length articles Geoff Fuller and I co-wrote on flash fiction for various Writer's Digest publications (in case you'd like to look them up to learn more about flash fiction writing).

Pamelyn Casto and Geoff Fuller. "How To Write Short-Short Stories." Writers' Digest. Feb. 2001 issue.

Pamelyn Casto and Geoff Fuller. "Put The Flash Into Fiction." Guide ToWriting Fiction Today (A Writer's Digest Yearbook Publication). Winter 2002 issue.

Pamelyn Casto and Geoff Fuller. "Simple Complexity." Start Writing Now! Your Introduction to the Writing Life (A Writer's Digest Publication). Jan. 2002 issue.

Pamelyn Casto and Geoff Fuller. "4 Simple Steps to Short Fiction ThatShines." Writer's Digest. October 2002 issue.

Pamelyn Casto and Geoff Fuller. "Give Your Tales a Twist." Writer's Digest Yearbook:Guide To Writing Fiction Today, December 2002 issue.

Here are a couple of quotes from one of the articles (quotes I found at a Writer's Digest archive site) titled "Seven Fast Fiction Tips":

http://www.writersdigest.com/archiveitemdisplay.asp?id=1228&secondarycategory
(excerpts from the February 2001 issue of Writer's Digest):

"A short-short must remain simple, from conception through execution. Not simplistic, but simple. The key is to find a good port of entry by determining the point of the story in advance."-Geoff Fuller & Pamelyn Casto

"While many short-shorts rely on a sudden shock at the end-the victim turns out to be the aggressor, the man turns out to be a woman-the most enduring manage not merely to surprise us, but also to transcend their few words. They compound meaning by linking the surface to layers that exist above, behind and beneath them."-Geoff Fuller & Pamelyn Casto

More to come another day.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Flash Fiction, Sudden Fiction, Fast Fiction, Skinny Fiction, Micro Fiction, Short-Short Fiction, Smokelong Fiction, Palm-of-the Hand Fiction, Minute Fiction, Postcard Fiction

So many names for an interesting type of writing.

I'm new to the world of blogging, but not new to the world of flash fiction. I will be discussing this type of writing on my blog. I teach online courses in writing flash fiction through flashquake http://www.flashquake.org/online-classes/index.html (the four-week courses fill and fill quickly) and my next course will begin October30, 2006. (I also teach online courses in writing haibun.) I'm in the process of creating a new course in flash fiction writing, a course that continues on where my regular flash fiction course leaves off.

I've been fascinated with flash fiction for years now, and Geoff Fuller and I have written and had five articles on the topic published in various Writer's Digest publications.

I also have an online article on the topic of flash fiction at Riding the Meridian http://www.heelstone.com/meridian/meansarticle1.html and at Net Author's E2K http://netauthor.org/e2k/jan2002/features.html1 (This article has also been published at WritingWorld, Fiction Fix, and Whim's Place.)

I'm the administrator for FlashFiction-W http://home.att.net/~p.casto , a free online flash fiction critique group that's been active since 1998. (There's a waiting list to get into the workshop. )

Each month I send out a free online newsletter, FlashFictionFlash, a newsletter for flash literature http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlashFictionFlash where I publish markets, contests and publishing news.

So that's a bit about me and what I enjoy. Soon I'll begin blogging on aspects of flash fiction itself. What I hope to do in this blog is also to provide some markets for flash fiction, some book reviews on collections or anthologies that come my way, and to discuss various aspects and issues regarding flash fiction. So stay tuned.