July 2020

I’ve always been into ‘fast-paced, don’t bore ’em, keep it moving along, stick with the story.’ You know: tell a story the way I want to hear a story. – James Patterson

It takes a creative mind to tell a story. It takes an even more creative mind to tell a story in 500-words or less. As James Patterson points out, sometimes getting right to it, makes the reader want to read the entire piece. As I’ve learned with freelancing and blogging, people have a short attention span. You can blame it on social media. You have 280 characters to express an opinion or tell a story in a Tweet. Other social media outlets like Facebook and Instagram are much more forgiving, but the issue becomes the dreaded “See More…” People are less inclined to “see more” if you don’t get to the point right away.

The other issue we as writers run into today is creating an interesting title that will peak a reader’s interest enough to click or buy. Additionally, it has to be something unique. How many times do you see, “The Top # ___ of 2020.” Fill in the blank with whatever you choose; books, movies, outfits, apps, etc. That’s tough too!

That’s why flash fiction is so much fun to read and write! Writing a title for a short piece without giving away the story is difficult. This makes flash fiction all the more challenging. A good challenge, but enjoyable nonetheless. Always keep your eyes peeled. There are a lot of flash fiction contests to submit to. We were recently contacted by the creators of the Annual Barren Flash Fiction Prize. They are currently not accepting submissions, but the Book Smuggler’s Den keeps in contact with the contests listed at the end of this publication to keep our readers and writers up to date on where to submit their work.

We received a lot of submissions for this month’s magazine and are so grateful to see interest in submitting to us! There were so many that we weren’t able to get to them in time to publish. We will continue to read through the submissions and will contact you if we decide to include you in our August issue.

You’ll breeze through this publication in no time. Enjoy!
Dani & The Book Smuggler’s Den Community

Fiction

The Supporter, Reayah Lundquist
Blacky Jean, Brittany Oppenheimer
Sara, Jacob Rivard
Purple Dreams, Rubin A Rubina
You’re a Savant, Son, Scott Stimler
Brain Waves, Audrey Wick

Book Reviews

Repentance by Andrew Lam, Reviewed by C.E LaVigne
Parisian Lives, by Deirdre Bair, Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, Reviewed by Martha Patterson
Jakarta by Reviewed by Desiree Willis

Writing Prompts

Writing Contests

 

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