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#FlashFiction

20 posts19 participants2 posts today
NessoAsks

"What are these?" Maggie had walked into the loading dock of the datacenter she co-owned with her team, and found Enzo and Sophia staring at a pile of boxes strapped to a pallet.

"We were hoping you knew," Sophia responded.

Enzo elaborated, "They are addressed to an 'E. S. Son'. We don't know who that is."

"Interesting. What's in them?" Maggie asked.

"Tamagotchi - more than a hundred of them," Enzo responded.

"Who would order - oh no," Maggie facepalmed.

Just then, Nesso, piloting its telepresence robot, rolled into the loading area. ::They're finally here!::

"Nesso, did you order more than a hundred digital pets?" Maggie asked.

::Yes - 144 to be exact::

Sophia facepalmed. "And you ordered them as 'E. S. Son', which is an anagram of 'Nesso'."

::Indeed. I thought that was particularly clever::

Maggie looked to Enzo and Sophia and said, "I think we need to revisit Nesso's fun-money fund again."

#MicroFiction#FlashFiction#TootFic
Weird Fiction Quarterly

The Table of Contents for our imminent King in Yellow issue is now available. 60 500-word flash fiction pieces and poems about Chambers, Carcosa, and everyone's favorite ocher liege.

We're joined by some new voices this time, and are honored to be able to share two unpublished poems by Joe Pulver.

weirdfictionquarterly.com/tabl

Weird Fiction Quarterly · Table of Contents: The King in YellowWhat beautiful yellow delights we have to share with you!
#KingInYellow#WeirdFictionQuarterly#FlashFiction
Robert Fairhead

I can't say anything about my short story for August's Furious Fiction until the #AustralianWritersCentre's judging process is complete. So, in the meantime, I've shared my July story on Tall And True, The Bachelor Party. Enjoy! 🍻

#writers #writing #writesky #flashfiction #shortstories

Link to story on Tall And True: tallandtrue.com.au/fiction/sho

The Bachelor Party
Tall And True · The Bachelor PartyBruce was a pipsqueak wanker at school. Now he's a multimillionaire wanker. I mean, who throws a "bachelor party"?
Robert Fairhead

Another August short story written and submitted to the Australian Writers' Centre's Furious Fiction. This month's brief was:

• Your story must take place at a table
• It must feature a character who tells a lie
• And include the words GLASS, RICH and SPEED.

I had so much fun writing my story, but I can't tell you anything about it until the judges announce the showcased and longlisted entries at the end of August. 🤐🤞

#writers#writing#furiousfiction
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

#WordWeavers 2025.07.31 — MC POV: Who is the most attractive person in your story? Why?

[Streak:] My girlfriend, the academic overachiever, says you have to think questions like these out. Attractive is also a verb, and success in attracting people can be demonstrated and tallied. Statistics Yay!

Rainy Days went a dozen years without before Thorn in her undiplomatic wisdom thrust me into her conflict with the woman. The Director of Home is the most powerful being in the world, and that's as attractive as it is scary; yet, what man in his right mind is going to ask for her favor?

Thorn in my eyes is the cutest thing, but I've known her since she was 10, and when she opens her mouth, well… you know that people don't like the unvarnished truth. I'm her only one. She says it so often, she's been accused of not sharing. [In their society, that means not sharing her boyfriend Streak.]

That leaves me, and beyond my sharp ruby-edged† white feathers I'm pretty much average in looks and height and other metrics women supposedly find attractive, but I've never lacked for propositions and have to claim Thorn and I are together far too often.

Rainy Days accepts no excuses from anyone, however.

=+=+=+=
† Actually red corundum.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#mystery #thriller #romance #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

NessoAsks

Sophia she walked through the door of the datacenter. It was a year ago today she learned she was a character in a sci-fi story.

Now I'm the guardian of an artificial intelligence also written by my author, she thought, and a co-owner of a datacenter where it lives? Exists? We need better verbs.

Sophia walked into the conference room where the rest of the team was. "Good morning, all." To the monitor on the wall she asked, "Nesso, are you there?"

"It's coming," Jacob responded.

"Um, what-" Sophia started to ask just as the door opened. A 5-foot tall robot rolled in, with a base made from an automated vacuum cleaner, a body that was mostly a pole, and a tablet for a head.

The tablet displayed a smiley face emoji. ::Good morning everyone!::

"Jacob, you built Nesso a body?" Sophia asked.

"Yeah - Reggie and I decided it needed wheels."

::I also contributed to the design:: It turned its tablet to reveal a bumper sticker which read, "AI ON BOARD!"

#MicroFiction#FlashFiction#TootFic
*
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

#WordWeavers 2025.07.30 — SC POV: Are you physically strong? What is your greatest physical skill? CW: Innuendo.

[Bolt looks away, a self-satisfied expression on her face, standing tall, her blue feathered wings flared above her head. Her hair is spiked up and her silver metal facial studs and mismatched heavy earrings are both glorious and off-putting; some clink and ring.] I think I'm strong, especially my upper body. I've encountered plenty of men weaker than me, and some stronger. I can't help that I was born a woman, but I got into weight training for flight from age 12 to compensate, which meant hanging out with guys a lot, some of them n'er-do-wells, which led to other issues I shan't discuss here. [Coughs into a fist.]

How do I put this for a flightless person like you? It's true, controlling the reluctance around your wings is what makes a being not bird-like able to fly. At my peak at 17, I could haul almost 3 tons through the air, but arm-shoulder strength and wing-shoulder strength matter more than you might imagine, even though it's ordinary muscle. What matters most is training both proportionally, and building stamina, to be able to fly leagues with a head wind. Only angels who can fine tune all flight factors can fly tandem, and I consider flying tandem my greatest skill.

Won't get you coin to buy breakfast, but it is guaranteed to earn the respect of any equally strong male flier. At least the ones I've flown, starting with the n'er-do-wells I hung with in high school. [She grins widely, though her face has colored.]

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#mystery #thriller #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

Dark Holme Publishing

💀 The Flash Horror Challenge is open—and every story gets published.

Tell a tale in just two sentences. Submit through the ShadowSphere, and we’ll feature your microhorror for the whole community to read. No selection. No silence. Just fiction that bites.

Submit now:
darkholmepublishing.uk/group/f
🕸️ More nightmares: darkholmepublishing.uk

#twosentencehorror#bookstodon#flashfiction
*
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2025.07.28 — How do you write sensory experiences that fall beyond the the usual five? Give an example.

I don't have a formula, but I do have an imagination! So… incoming candy. In this excerpt, Streak Carryingaton is a day angel and for verisimilitude, let's call him a senior in high school. Very human, but with wings that allow him to do things, which you can intuit as "magic" for the sake of the passage. To understand the proprioception in the last paragraphs, there's some setup necessary. Think of the "She," the "Her," and the "Director" mentioned as a "Queen," who not only teaches "magic," but whose libido has focused on Streak. CW: Light innuendo ahead.

I hefted the leather harness lined with angelic down—by the blue and red color likely Rainy Day's own—on the underside. So soft!

Like my skull. I'd been stupid, but events followed events. Thorn had initiated. I'd had to win the game.

"Flap it all," I said, but had to admit I was having fun, and this tack and harness! Thread-like copper and silver wires glittered: waveguides likely molecularly grown into the structure. "I really want this rig. It's hers?"

"You forget everything belongs to her? You're its new steward."

"Wow. I must be doing something right."

I noticed a few knowing smirks in the gathering crowd of day and night angel women.

Maybe I am doing something right, and of that I am proud. I quickly laid out the tack, gave it the proper preflight, inspected the double-length van, then the load. He'd not balanced some iron grill ovens properly. Brother Cloud probably'd not done commercial cargo work. I knew my weight capacities and my wing tension transmission vectors, so I adjusted the lading for that. I valued the rare occasions I got to pull. Ours was a warehousing facility, but our contracts included local delivery and short hops into the mountains away from rail lines and saint ways. I gave the thumbs up. I ignored some clapping from the women, and the few hoots and whistles of approval that often hid a more passionate agenda.

Cloud Dancer nudged me. "Don't worry. The Director told them they can only shop, not buy." He slapped my rear, chuckling; my face heated as he helped me with the harness. I really wasn't that nice looking, not like he was, but the women approved, apparently. I had a lot to learn that Mens' Studies class didn't address.

The instant I buckled it all together and I unfurled my wings, an expansive feeling overcame me, like I'd grown in height and wingspan. The women cleared to the radius the angelic sensed intuitively. Were I one of Thorns' sprites, my tentative flaps would flush liquid light to splash the pavement beside me, whilst washing back and cresting over the van, causing it to glow brightly. It was exactly the feeling of taking a stick and sensing as you touched something with the end as if it were your finger. The van became part of my body. In my mind, I'd grown from a wren to a hawk. It was equal parts imagination and feedback through the tack and my wings. I could now reach out with my longest primary and tap the planter across the courtyard that I'd nearly dashed into earlier. I did.

The shrubs there rustled and leaves spiraled up on an eddy.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#mystery #thriller #romance #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#microfiction #flashfiction #tootfic #smallstory

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