Tag Archives: Michelle Elvy

Out today! ‘All That Is Between Us’, by K. M. Elkes and ‘the everrumble’ by Michelle Elvy

It’s 22nd June and National Flash Fiction Day in New Zealand! On this auspicious day, Ad Hoc Fiction, our short-short press, which recently won best publisher category in the Creative Bath Awards, is thrilled to publish the everrumble ‘a small novel in small forms’ by Director of NFFD, New Zealand, Michelle Elvy and All That Is Between Us the debut flash fiction collection by K. M. Elkes from Bristol, UK, who was one of the judges for NFFD New Zealand’s micro competition, MicroMadness which culminates today. We love these global connections from authors in different hemispheres. And is doubly exciting that Ken and Michelle are teaching workshops at the Flash Fiction Festival, Bristol UK next week 28-30th June and are launching their books there.

Both collections have received many glowing endorsements from well known flash fiction writers and teachers.

Here’s one from Tania Hershman about All That Is Between Us

“I could dazzle you with well-chosen superlatives or make clumsy attempts to sum up K. M. Elkes’ work, but really what I want to say is: This collection is so good. So very, very good. Whoever you are, whatever you like to read, you need these stories in your life.”
Tania Hershman, author of Some Of Us Glow More Than Others

And one about the everrumble from Christopher Allen.

“A tour de force, Michelle Elvy’s the everrumble is a profound, poetic constellation of notes on the Earth’s ‘alive noises’, the hope that lives in the natural world. Zettie’s story – all her moments of evolving, her capacity to listen, and her gift of becoming all the sounds of the earth – affected me to the core.”
Christopher Allen, author of Other Household Toxins

You can buy both of these brilliant collections now in paperback in several different currencies for worldwide posting directly from the Ad Hoc Fiction online bookshop. Go straight to the bookshop page for All That Is Between Us by K M Elkes here and straight to the bookshop page for the everrumble by Michelle Elvy here. And you can also buy in digital format on Kindle via Amazon. Links to Kindle for each collection are on the bookshop page.

Flying the Flag for Flash

We’re so thrilled and honoured that Ad Hoc Fiction,the short-short fiction press which publishes all our anthologies and flash fiction collections won the publisher’s category in the Creative Bath Awards, 2018 announced last night, June 13th, in Bath, a recognition for all the publishing work we did last year. Jude, Ad Hoc Fiction’s representative here, is pictured proudly holding the trophy which was designed by a student at Bath Spa University and she is with Ad Hoc fiction published authors, Diane Simmons, holding her book Finding A Way and the prosecco and Alison Woodhouse, an Ad Hoc Fiction micro winner. The Awards are sponsored by Bath Spa University among others, so it’s altogether thrilling. And we hope this continues to extend the reach of flash fiction in the South West and beyond.

Huge thanks to John at Ad Hoc Fiction who has worked very hard to produce so many beautiful books since 2017 when our paperback publishing venture began. Hundreds of writers have been published in the five anthologies compiled from Bath Flash Fiction Award submissions over the years since 2016 and from submissions by participants who attended the flash fiction festivals and these publications have travelled around the world. Hundreds more have been published online in the weekly free Ad Hoc Fiction micro contest, which John administers and which has a worldwide writing, reading and voting community. Without his work in typesetting and designing the books we would never have reached the stage of receiving this prestigious Award..

It’s timely to receive it, because Ad Hoc Fiction is publishing several new books this June. First up on 22nd June, National Flash Fiction Day, New Zealand New Zealand based author, Michelle Elvy’s ‘small novel in small forms’, the everrumble, and local writer, K M Elkes’ debut collection, All That Is Between Us will be published in paperback and available in paperback for purchase in many different currencies for posting worldwide from the Ad Hoc Fiction online bookshop as well as for sale in various locations in New Zealand on 22nd June. Ken’s collection is available for pre-order here and Michelle’s here. Both marvellous books. And NFFD New Zealand is a good day to support them. We’re also very happy that both Ken and Michelle will be at the Flash Fiction Festival running workshops and talks and their books will be for sale for cash or by card there.

We’re also launching Birds With Horse Hearts the winner of the 2019 Novella in Flash, Homing, the runner-up novella by Johanna Robinson and Roster by Debra A Daniel, highly commended in the same Award. These three books will also be published on 29th June, the Saturday of the festival and the three amazing book covers will be revealed on that day.

All That Is Between Us
Debut flash fiction collection by K. M. Elkes

Ad Hoc Fiction, our short-short fiction press, is thrilled to publish All That Is Between Us, the dazzling debut flash fiction collection by Bristol-based author, K.M.Elkes. The collection “explores the complex fragility of human relationships, both the challenges of belonging and how much we risk to avoid being alone. It is a book of moments, evoking the beauty and comfort that connection brings, and the pain when it is severed.”

All That Is Between Us, includes Ken’s first-prize winning flash fiction, Extremities from Bath Flash Fiction Award, June 2018 and many more wonderful fictions and is highly rated by the eight well-known flash fiction writers quoted below. The art work for the stunning cover is by Bridport based artist, Suzanne Clements.
Read in Full

Michelle Elvy, published by Ad Hoc Fiction, June 2019

Ad Hoc Fiction is honoured to be publishing the everrumble, “a small novel in small forms” by Michelle Elvy. It’s a wonderful and important work of fiction highly praised by the writers quoted below. The striking cover art is by acclaimed Ethiopian artist, Eyayu Genet.

“the everrumble is a poetic imagining of intense focus and sweeping ideas. Zettie’s story is fluid and in motion, transcending geographies and time. She stops talking, at age seven, and starts to listen – to the worlds she finds in language and books, and to the people and places she encounters as she moves across continents. Her silence connects her to people, to nature and to the elemental world. Magical and beyond boundaries, this collection focuses on small fragments, taking Zettie, and the reader, inevitably to the place where human history began.”
the everrumble was launched at the Flash Fiction Festival, UK on 28th-30th June where Michelle ran workshops, chaired a panel on Flash Around the World, introduced the latest Best Small Fiction anthology, and talked about flash fiction in New Zealand. It is for sale at the Ad Hoc Fiction bookshop in paperback in several different currencies and in Kindle ebook format via Amazon. Read in Full

Michelle Elvy
October 2016 Commended

Whale Shark

by Michelle Elvy

I dreamed I was a whale shark dreaming he was a boy dreaming he was a whale shark dreaming he was a boy dreaming he was a whale shark dreaming he was a boy. Illuminating. Diving. Soaring. All in one night, or maybe it was one hour, or even one minute. I dove down down down and found fluorescent charms swinging from the snouts of seahorses. I flew firecrackerfast, fearsome and jubilant at the dizzying depths and the iridescent shape of things. I fed on plankton but they weren’t plankton at all – they were morsels of delight, merry magical minstrels skipping on my tongue, pressing and lifting at the same time. Between bites (gapes, because there’s no chewing when you’re a whale shark) I napped and dreamed, and I was the boy, and I had a ladder, and I climbed and climbed and climbed. The ladder went up to the top of my house and beyond. It touched treetops and the salt of the sea-sky in the harbour. It exceeded the reach of my mother’s call, way out in the everdark of the night. I dove through silk raindrops and I was a whale shark again, pectoral fin browsing slippery sand. And then I was a boy again. Shifting back and forth, down and up: first tail swish, long and smooth and elegant like a shark but not a shark, then boy with hands – hands! – digging a mote of water for protection (naturally) around a castle, singing sea-lavender songs. As a whale shark, I dreamed the boy, and as a boy, I dreamed the whale shark. And so on. Blueblack of ocean to blackblue of sky. Down and back up. Swimming laddering lunging climbing.

I can be anything in my dreams.

I open my mouth and swallow the stars.

About the Author

m-elvy A writer and manuscript editor based in New Zealand, Michelle Elvy edits at Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction and Blue Five Notebook. She is chair of NZ’s National Flash Fiction Day and Assistant Editor of the critically acclaimed Best Small Fictions series. This year, she is assembling an anthology of New Zealand flash, with Frankie McMillan and James Norcliffe. Currently in East Africa, Michelle is writing two collections, one essay and one flash, inspired by the extraordinary animal life she’s encountered during her travels aboard her sailboat, Momo. ‘Whale Shark’ is from those new stories. Read more at michelleelvy.com and svmomo.blogspot.com.

June 2016 Judge’s Report
Michelle Elvy

BathFlash This was a marvellous long list. I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the stories several times. There were stories in flight, secret meetings, barbershop chats, runaway brides; there were mystical yearnings and mythical transformations; there were stalkers and lovers, nuns and tattoos, jam and germs. Such riches, such variety.
Read in Full

Michelle Elvy
New Bath Flash Judge

We’re delighted that writer, editor and manuscript assessor, Michelle Elvy who we interviewed in January, has agreed to be our judge for this round of Bath Flash Fiction. Michelle reads and selects flash fiction on a daily basis for the online journals Blue Five Notebook and Flash Frontier and has judged many flash fiction competitions in recent years. She also organises New Zealand’s National Flash Fiction Day competition which is now open for entries to New Zealand writers.
Read in Full

Guest Interview: Michelle Elvy

Michelle Elvy

Michelle Elvy is a writer, editor and manuscript assessor based in New Zealand’s Bay of Islands. Her poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and reviews have been published in numerous print and online journals. She lives on her 43’ sailboat with her husband and two daughters and is presently exploring the waters of East Africa. She edits at Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction and Blue Five Notebook and is Assistant Editor, International, of the Best Small Fictions series, by Queens Ferry Press.
www.michelleelvy.com