FlashBlog

For Webmasters: "My IP Neighbors"

2008-05-13T13:35:00.002-04:00

Okay, this has nothing to do with writing, but it has something to do with hosting an online 'zine (or online anything else, for that matter).

A while back I had to write to AT&T to get them to allow my email to go through to att.com (or was it .net?) email addresses. I assume that part of the problem was my shared hosting services -- if you don't have a dedicated server, a dedicated IP address, who knows who else might be sending spam out using your IP address?

I just found myipneighbors.com, which shows me all of the sites (159 of them!) that share Flash Fiction Online's IP address: 67.212.165.26. At least one is an adult site, and who knows who else is spamming whom from there? Use Firefox or Safari to view it or the scrolling is a total pain in the neck.

Announcing: New Column by Bruce Holland Rogers

2008-05-08T06:51:00.003-04:00

I'm thrilled to announce that, starting with our June issue, Bruce Holland Rogers will contribute a monthly column called "Short-Short Sighted: Writing the Short-Short Story".

Bruce is an award-winning writer and a teacher, and may be best known as a writer of extremely short stories. (If you doubt it, visit his web site, "shortshortshort.com". :) ) There's no one more qualified to write this sort of column than he is.

Watch this spot -- only a few more weeks to go!

Use the New Social Networking Tools to Promote Flash Fiction Online

2008-05-03T20:00:00.000-04:00

When I launched this issue, I added buttons for Digg, Stumble Upon, and Del.icio.us. Using these buttons will promote the stories we publish here, and you can add comments as well. This is good overall for Flash Fiction Online, and can also help you highlight the stories that you personally like the most.

I generated them on all of the earlier stories, too, so if there's one you particularly like, you can go back to it and digg it or submit it to Stumble Upon as well.

Thanks!

Subscribe to Pam Casto's Flash Fiction Flash Newsletter

2008-05-03T19:36:00.003-04:00

If you're a writer who's interested in Flash Fiction, and you haven't subscribed to Pam Casto's Flash Fiction Flash newsletter, hie thee to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FlashFictionFlash to get on her mailing list. It has enough really good information in it to make it worth the three-minute read once per month.

Review by Sam Tomaino at SFRevu

2008-05-02T00:46:00.003-04:00

Sam Tomaino at SFRevu kindly reviewed our April issue a few days ago. I thank him for his kind words, summed up like this: "I got a big kick out of them and look forward to next month's issue." (And here it is, by the way...)

Here's the link.

What is Flash?

2008-04-15T17:34:00.003-04:00

I really like this quote from an interview with Vanessa Gebbie over at Smokelong Quarterly:

Great flashes are diamond stuff. Perfect. They don't leave the reader hanging, or assume another role. Strong, resonant stories packed into non-safety matchboxes.

I have a strong emotional pull to the form. It feels very natural. I'm sure they are deeply seated in our psyches, these little stories, told in snatched moments. And it's such a joy to read a really good flash.

It's not a function of word count. It's more to do with the magic of 'scope'. Read a good flash and a whole world envelops you. You CAN'T turn the page and read another.

But I also see flash writing—the process—as a way of freeing up creativity. Of 'defeating the sentinels'. Of allowing the mind free rein to produce what connections, rhythms, voices, colours and textures it wants, with as little interference from the writer as possible... no planning, no 'conscious thought'.

If you don't read Smokelong Quarterly, they're worth a look. It's a very different 'zine from Flash Fiction Online -- much more literary, in particular -- but if you like that sort of thing then you should definitely check them out.

Review at "Grasping for the Wind"

2008-04-11T20:56:00.003-04:00

John Ottinger over at Grasping for the Wind just reviewed our April issue. His favorite story was "Call of the Wild, Line Three", but he says interesting things about the rest of the zine as well. Thanks, John!

R.W. Ware's Wares

2008-04-01T13:44:00.002-04:00

Our artist-in-residence, R.W. Ware, is a tattoo artist. He's going to the Down East Tattoo Show (DETS) in Bangor, Maine, this weekend. He's blogged about it -- along with the latest FLash Fiction Online offering and his Writers of the Future entry (busy contest-oriented week for him!) -- and you might like to check out his Web site to see work done a little differently than you'll see around here.

Even if living human vellum isn't your favorite parchment, you've got to admire his skill. And his versatility! Good luck, Rich!

Submission Guidelines Changes

2008-03-25T00:11:00.003-04:00

We just made some changes to what we will publish. Quoting from the new guidelines page:

As of 3/25/2008, we are no longer accepting submissions for stories of fewer than 500 words. All submissions must be between 500 and 1,100 words. (Stories of greater than 1000 words, if accepted, will be edited to 1,000 words.)

Stories submitted before 3/25/2008 will be reviewed for possible inclusion even if they are smaller. We had originally said that we favored the high end of the flash range, and that continues, but we still may accept smaller stories for the May and June 2008 issues.

Also as of 3/25/2008, we will be paying a flat $50 for all stories. Since the stories we publish will range from 500-1,000 words, this implies a per-word rate of five to ten cents.

The new payment terms will be retroactive for our earlier authors. It might take me a while to get the back payments out to everyone, but it won't be any later than December 2008. :)

Reviews and Backlinks

2008-03-14T20:38:00.003-04:00

Two items of note for this evening:

1. Futurismic was kind enough to note our March issue in their "Friday Free Fiction" section. Thanks for the link, folks, and back at you.

2. The Anonymous Reader just posted a review of this issue as well. Thanks again, AR!

Finally, this blog post will only be at the top of the list for a short time -- I'm about to release our St. Patrick's Day special!

Wikipedia Entry

2008-03-08T19:23:00.004-05:00

When I first launched Flash Fiction Online, I tried to put up a Wikipedia entry that described what I was trying to do. It got deleted as blatant advertising, even though I thought it was pretty objective about...well, about the site's objectives.

I've tried again, and it's been up for about a day with no complaints. Maybe this time it'll stick.

Here's the link to the Wikipedia entry for Flash Fiction Online. I'm wide open to adding things that people think would be good to add -- in fact, given the way Wikipedia works, you can add it yourself!

Technical Issues

2008-03-02T08:38:00.002-05:00

I've had some weird technical issues for the past few days, but I hope we're over the worst of them.

One thing that has taken a back seat is the creation of PDFs. If you like the PDF versions, check back on the blog every once in a while and I'll announce when they're up.

Another problem has been the forum: my connectivity has been intermittent enough that I haven't filled out all of the story topics or created the polls. Hopefully I'll have that fixed shortly, too. Either way, you should still be able to use them.

Meanwhile, the stories are there, along with a great interview with Eric Garcia. Check it out.

New Story By Rod Santos

2008-02-28T06:26:00.002-05:00

Rod Santos, who brought us "Speed Dating and Spirit Guides" in our January issue, has a new story up at the Town Drunk: "The Curse of the Friendly Forest".

Writers of the Future Semi-finalists

2008-02-26T12:25:00.000-05:00

Galaxy Press has released the names of the finalists, semi-finalists, and honorable mentions for the Writers of the Future contest for 1st quarter 2008. Of special note are two honorable mentions: Our very own R.W. (Rich) Ware -- showing he has a talent for writing as well as art -- and the author of our upcoming special feature for March, Barbara A. Barnett.

This is a very tough competition, and getting an honorable mention is a very big step for a budding writer. Congratulations to both of them!

Review by The Anonymous Reader

2008-02-26T12:08:00.001-05:00

Thanks again, Anonymous!

Is Somebody Fraudulently Clicking the Google Ads?

2008-02-22T21:22:00.002-05:00

I'm so not happy. Today I received an email from the Google AdSense team:

While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSense account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers. Since keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage our advertisers in the future, we've decided to disable your account.

Please understand that we consider this a necessary step to protect the interests of both our advertisers and our other AdSense publishers. We realize the inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation.

If you have any questions about your account or the actions we've taken, please do not reply to this email. You can find more information by visiting https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57153&hl=en_US.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

This is a real problem, since I made 51 cents off of Amazon ads in January compared to $11 (and growing with our increasing readership) from Google. I wasn't clearing a profit, but it was helping to subsidize my flash habit. Ultimately Rich and I wanted to make this a pro market for art as well, and I certainly can't do that without revenue. Without Google ads, I'll either have to eat the cost or start charging for access or something along those lines.

If anyone thought they would do me a favor by clicking on my ads repeatedly, PLEASE EMAIL ME ASAP. I need to show Google that I'm not engaging in fraudulent behavior, or (a) they'll keep the 60 bucks I already earned, and (b) they'll never let me use their ads again.

A Classical Composer and Friend of Flash Fiction Online

2008-02-19T22:34:00.003-05:00

If you like classical music at all, you should check out the Naxos Classical Music Spotlight. It's essentially a commercial for Naxos recordings, but what a commercial! Twenty minutes of music from recent Naxos releases, interviews with conductors (and composers if they're still alive), and historical and biographical information as well.

I mention this not only because I love the podcast (I was the first person to review it on iTunes), but also because we have gained a license to use music composed by James Hartway, a modern American composer, on the site. I thank Mr. Hartway and the Naxos label very much for this privilege.

If you'd like to listen to the podcast, click here. Visit Naxos of America, Inc. at www.Naxos.com, and purchase classical CDs at www.NaxosDirect.com. Jim Hartway's site is located at jameshartway.com.

Addition to the March Line-up

2008-02-13T23:49:00.002-05:00

Good news! Glenn Lewis Gillette just agreed to let us publish "Downstream from Divorce: a Drama in Three Acts" in March. It's going to be a great issue. For a little more detail, see this blog post.

What Authors Look Like

2008-02-13T00:07:00.005-05:00

I can't be the only writer who has wondered what authors look like, right? Real authors. The ones who have published books. Who get paid money to write. Those ones. I've seen some aspiring writers at local writing groups and the like, but I mean real ones.

Well I took my six year old son to the library in town on Saturday for what I thought was a used book sale. To my surprise we discovered we were at the St. Charles Literature Festival, (can't find a webpage for it, but here's a newspaper thing.) There was a book sale, but not a used one. The books for sale were fancy and new. And as you left the sale room, you entered wonderland, also known as the regular youth services department of the library, festooned with author placards and loads of people milling about (the greeter told us that she had clicked more than 500 times that morning on her hand clicker counter thingy. A technical term if I've ever seen one.)

Some observations about authors, at least this particular group of children's and young adult authors:
- Most wore glasses
- Most men had very little hair, neatly trimmed very short
- Illustrators are awesome. They draw tiny pictures for your kids when signing their books.
- Most were not young. I've reached an age at which I no longer speculate details on any individual, but I'd put the average age of the authors at high 40s, maybe even low 50s.
- Even after 2 hours of signing books (for 500 people!) the authors were gracious and kind to me and my son.
- Caldecott winners look just like regular people. Or at least like regular authors. (If you're dying to know who - there may have been others, but we met the illustrator/author of this book - which is one of our family favorites.)

Neat event, good time. Check to see if your town has a literature fest. Volunteer to work with the youth writers' workshops or do children's storytimes. Mill about to get the writing vibe. People watch. Just do it.

Karen Smith aka KayTi

Semi-retired from technology consulting and educational software design/development while the wee folk are wee. Reading, writing, and blogging in my spare time between carpools and playdates. Flash Fiction Online slush reader. Coupon clipper. Vegetarian eater. Global warming worrier. Lifelong learner.

Trouble emailing us?

2008-02-11T21:45:00.000-05:00

I got a report that att.net has blocked our IP address "for abuse" -- typically spam. Ours is a shared server, so other organizations share this IP address with us, and it's possible that one of them has been reported (correctly or not) for spam.

If you're having a hard time reaching us, use my alter ego's email address: oliverhouse@gmail.com.

Strange Horizons: Stories We've Seen Too Often

2008-02-05T09:48:00.000-05:00

I was reminded of this list this morning. Worth reading.

Why Not Name Your Main Character?

2008-02-04T22:42:00.000-05:00

This isn't a rant, but a serious question: why wouldn't you name your main character within the first sentence or so?

So many stories (especially short-short stories) have only "he" or "she" as the main character; some will start with the pronoun and then give the name later. But a name is so powerful! Consider the difference between the following opening sentences:

"She sat on an outcropping of rock that jutted out of the mountain."

"Martha Whittaker sat on an outcropping of rock that jutted out of the mountain."

"Svetlana Dushovsky sat on an outcropping of rock that jutted out of the mountain."

"Anunciación McGrew sat on an outcropping of rock that jutted out of the mountain."

"Elise de Martin sat on an outcropping of rock that jutted out of the mountain."

"Dr. Alexa Martin sat on an outcropping of rock that jutted out of the mountain."

"Libby sat on an outcropping of rock that jutted out of the mountain."

You get the idea. These women are, in order: an abtraction, English-sounding, Russian-sounding, racially mixed or an Hispanic woman married to an Irishman, French, educated, and casual or perhaps a woman (or girl) of the country. The abstraction is in many ways the least powerful, yet probably 80% of the stories I get have an abstraction as the main character -- a bare pronoun, not a name.

Why do that? I'm serious that this isn't a rant: if you have thoughts on the subject, please add your comments below.

Story Beginnings -- Ten To Avoid

2008-02-03T17:02:00.000-05:00

An amusing bit by William Meikle on sffworld.com. :)

The Lineup For March

2008-02-02T21:32:00.000-05:00

I didn't write a complete "coming next issue" article this month -- I don't yet know everything that's coming! -- but I want you to know a bit about what's on deck for March.

First, I'm very proud to present a new story by Jim Van Pelt called "Just Before Recess". Jim says on his blog that January has been a good month for him -- I'm happy to be a part of that.

We'll also present a great story by David Tallerman called "The Desert Cold". You can find his work around the Net if you look, but this will be his first pro sale.

"Avid rejection letter collector" Barbara Barnett-Stewart shows her sense of humor with our St. Patrick's Day special. She doesn't know it yet, but I'm going to ask her to post the haiku version in the Flash Forum. (And no, I don't pay by the syllable.)

Since Barbara's story won't go live on March 1, we're still looking at the last story to put up then. We're also still hashing out the details of our Classic Flash #4. And I hope to have an interview with Eric Garcia, who wrote The Materialist for our January issue.

It'll be good, it'll stick with you through the rest of the month, and it probably still won't take you more than 20 minutes to read. :)

Regards,
Jake

Stefanie Freele is Smokelong's Fish Fellow

2008-02-01T07:08:00.000-05:00

I just saw this good news for our January contributor Stefanie Freele: she has beaten out 89 other competitors to become Smokelong Quarterly's Fish Fellow. Congratulations, Stefanie!