Tag Archives: Flash fiction

Pre-order Clearly Defined Clouds, new collection by Jude Higgins

I am so excited that Clearly Defined Clouds my collection of flash fictions is open for pre-orders, at a 25% discount, from Ad Hoc Fiction, today, May 28th ( my birthday)! Thank you very much to the production editor at Ad Hoc Fiction for arranging this. It’s a collection of 75 short-short fictions which have been published in magazines and anthologies over the last eight years or so, plus some new ones. I was going to get a collection out in time for a big, big birthday four years ago, but that was in the middle of the pandemic, and it didn’t work out. The book is released on Monday July 8th in time to be launched at the Flash Fiction Festival in Bristol later the same week.

I love the gorgeous cover, in my favourite colours, created by artist and writer Jeanette Sheppard. The image reflects the title story. I am blown away by the wonderful comments John Brantingham Kathy Fish, Sara Hills, Diane Simmons and Alison Woodhouse made about Clearly Defined Clouds. All these comments are included on the pre-order page at Ad Hoc Fiction. Those from Kathy, Sara, John and Diane are also reproduced on the back cover and Alison’s are inside the book. She ends hers with quoting the last line of ‘Before The Diggers Come’, my last story ‘If you join all chinks of hope together you make a necklace that can’t be broken. I hope the collection which features much concerning the ups and downs of relationships and the state of the world in general leaves the reader with a sense of hope that some things, at least, can be resolved.

If you are coming to the Flash Fiction Festival 12-14th July in Bristol UK, Clearly Defined Clouds will also be sold at a discount there and I can sign copies. If you want to buy it now, I can also send signed copies, and it will make my birthday very special. Thank you.

Jude Higgins has been writing flash fiction since 2013. Her flash fiction pamphlet, The Chemist’s House was published by V.Press in 2017 and her stories have been published in numerous literary magazines and anthologies and have won, been placed or shortlisted in many contests. She has fictions included in the 2019 and 2020 lists of Best Flash Fictions of UK and Ireland, has been long listed for the Wigleaf, nominated for Best Small Fictions, a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Two of her stories have been selected for different volumes of Best Microfictions. She founded the Bath Flash Fiction Award in 2015, co-runs the Bath Short Story Award, directs Flash Fiction Festivals, UK, the short fiction press, Ad Hoc Fiction and runs reading events and offers flash fiction workshops online.

More 3rd prize and commended BFFA writers!

I’m posting stories from writers who have won third prize or been commended in previous awards ahead of the closing date for the 27th Award on Sunday June 2nd. Still time to be inspired and write a new story or to work on a draft. £1460 in prizes.

You’ll have heard it said that it helps to read your own stories out loud before you declare them finished. But do you read other people’s flash fictions out loud too? I heard a podcast last week by Michael Moseley, a broadcaster who hosts a series on BBC Sounds called ‘Just One Thing’ to promote heatlh and well-being. In this recent podccast be brings in researchers to show that reading poetry out loud boosts your mood and relaxes your body Of course, flash fiction with its careful attention to language is going to do the same.
And what better place to start reading aloud than with the brilliant stories I have linked today, by Stephanie Carty and Elisabeth Ingram-Wallace.

Stephanie won third prize in June 2019 with her story ‘Cosmina Counts’ ( published in the 2019 BFFA Anthology,With One Eye on the Cows and was commended, a year later,in June 2020, with her re-working of the fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel, The Price of Ginger Bread in print in the 2020 anthology, ‘Restore to Factory Settings’

Ad Hoc Fiction also published Stephanie’s excellent book, Inside Fictional Minds‘,in 2021 available from Ad Hoc Fiction and from Amazon. It’s a guide on how to create characters with psychological depth in fiction. Read the Q & A about it here. And you can find out more about her new writing guide books and other books on her website

Elisabeth Ingram-Wallace, SmokeLong Quarterly tutor and another extraordinary multi-award-winning writer won third prize in June 2016 with The Baby Came Early, Screaming in print in the first anthology, To Carry Her Home
and was commended in February 2017 with My Thirty-Eight Step Korean Cleansing Routine i which is published in the 2017 BFFA anthology The Lobsters Run Free. She was also commended in 2018 with Satin Nightwear for Women Irregular published in print in the 2018 anthologyh. Things Lost and Found on the Side of the Road.
Read more about Elisabeth Ingram Wallace’s work on her website

Please do read the stories linked out loud. There is a fantastic use of language in them.

If you are entering this time round, we are heading for the Last Minute Club. Virtual club badges for those who enter on the last day, Sunday June 2nd at midnight BST.

Jude, May 22nd 2024

Judge’s report, 18th Award, by K.M. Elkes

General Comments
Judging a story competition with a high standard of writing is a whole, twist-filled narrative in itself. There are beautiful moments of discovery, difficult decisions, inner wranglings, a love story or two, sadness over loss, and the inevitable questions, mysteries, and ambiguities.

Working your way from longlist to shortlist, you encounter risky, raw stories that promise to leave you changed; love-at-first-sight stories full of confident verve; ones that have an allure through their use of language; quietly persuasive stories, confident in their low-key power; there are stories to admire for their elegance and beauty, and ones that raise a smile with their quirky charm.

After a lot of deliberation, the narrative gathers pace and the climax nears when there are just 10 stories left. You sit with them. Take them on a walk. Gaze at them in silence. Read their words out loud, over and over. You study their deployment of craft – tone and voice, use of narrative tools, the way thematic ideas are conveyed, the pace and flow of the narrative, how well the ending has been earned. You find yourself, in cheesy parlance, asking: ‘is this story the best story it can be?’

Choosing the final group of winning and commended stories is when the tension of the judging narrative reaches its final, feverish pitch. The plot now becomes more complex, stories slide in and out of contention, some disappear then reappear stronger than before, some fade, some remain strong. The pervading tone of this denoument is tough love, and no little admiration, as final decisions are made.

And so, many congratulations to everyone who made it to right to the end of this particular story. Your work deserves it, after the difficult journey it has been on. Congratulations too, to those who missed out on final places – it’s often a case of fine margins. And if you were shortlisted or longlisted, take much strength from that and go again.

Finally, thank you to the whole Bath Flash Fiction Award team for their hard work and dedication and to Jude Higgins for trusting me to be the judge for this incarnation of the Award. Read in Full

Sara Hills talks about her new collection, The Evolution of Birds

Sara Hills

The Evolution of Birds is now available to buy

Jude Higgins

Saturday July 17th

jude (at) adhocfiction (dot) com

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Interview with Fiona Perry, 15th Award first prize winner

Fiona Perry is our 15th first prize winner in our three times a year Award, which has been running since 2016. Here she tells us how her winning story emerged from a ‘Covid’ dream about her father and a memory of going fishing with him. The painting reproduced here by Nod Ghosh, writer and artist, who is also the judge for our 16th Bath Flash Award, which ends in mid October, is called ‘The Sock’ and we agree with Fiona that it is very evocative of the sock of mussels alluded to in ‘Sea Change Fiona gives the tip to read lots of flash in order to get into the swing of writing it. We agree. There’s so much amazing stuff out there in anthologies, online and collections. Flash is evolving all the time. And we are very happy that ‘Sea Change’ will be published in our fifth year-end anthology in November this year, with many other great pieces from our 2020 Awards.

Interview

Can you tell us how your wonderful story ‘Sea Change’ came into being?

Before I structured the story, I researched mussels farming briefly, it was a bit of a gift because the language itself is so evocative and the process of mussel farming sounded symbolic of fatherhood (and transformation) to me so I wrote the story with that in mind. I’m also fascinated by how things and locations appear and disappear in dreams- a bit like a weirdly edited film- but somehow we accept that weirdness in dreams, we are rarely surprised. That’s how it came to be. It was interesting that Mary-Jane alluded to Gabriel García Márquez in her report. I re-read 100 Years of Solitude in lockdown so I guess that influence seeped into the story somehow too.

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June 2018 Judge’s Report
David Gaffney

First of all, I’d like to say a big thank you to Jude and her team for asking me to be the judge of this round of the Bath Flash Fiction Award. I judge a lot of flash fiction competitions, and I used to write a lot of flash fiction too (not so much now as I’m concentrating on novels, graphic novels and longer stories). It was a pleasure to read all of the 50 stories that made the long list and as ever it was a fascinating dip into the psyche of creative writers at this point in time. Some of the titles were tempting enough on their own; Fat Girls Have Fine Nails. Elephants In Flip Flops. Valentines Day At The Walrus Colony. Tupperware Genie. What on earth could these stories be about? I was drawn in immediately. On a sentence by sentence basis, there were lots of examples of great writing here by great writers. Yet, often these were the one that didn’t make it. The ones that did make the top twenty, and ultimately the top five, were the ones that allowed the story and the ideas to shine through above everything else.
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