Alone and Unobserved

Check out my webpage, where I’ve posted two new flash fiction pieces. Here’s the first:

“Better than Sex“
FlashFic, 335 words
Published May 18, 2007

I always try to write as if I’m in the scene, in hopes of drawing the reader in as well. Leave me a comment here to let me know if it worked.

My latest piece, “Cautery,” is barely under the bar for flash fiction at 960 words. It’s also the first flash piece I’ve written that wanted to be longer than I intended it to be. But I don’t think it turned out too long. I hope it didn’t turn out too dark and disturbing. Ha! As if there were such a thing.

“Cautery“
FlashFic, 960 words
Originally written for the exercise “Fire!,” but . . . it got away from me and decided to become something different.

I’ve had a lot to say about my family on this blog. Recently, I’ve mentioned both what a Tibbitts Family Christmas was like traditionally, and also what it was like last year. I guess I haven’t run out of words or emotion on the subject, so I wrote a fictionalized flash piece about a really painful Christmas memory from when I was about nine or ten. Read the story and draw your own conclusions about why the memory has stuck with me all these years. As usual, I’ve published it to my website. Have fun!

“The End of the World Comes Once a Year“
FlashFic, 298 words
Written in response to the exercise “Child’s Play“

Just published a new scene (very short—130 words!) on my website. Go check it out!

“The Kitchen Is“
Scene, 130 words
Written in response to the exercise “Every picture tells a story“

I just published my new flash piece, “The Message,” on my website. Leave any feedback here.

“The Message“
FlashFic, 398 words
Written in response to the exercise “Graffiti“

I’ve posted my response to last week’s Internet Writing Workshop exercise on my website, along with a short archive of past exercises. Some of them are legitimate flash fiction, some (like this week’s) are just scenes or snippets, but they all have the sweet savor of my blood, sweat and tears. Read this post for a little more background and a more complete explanation.

“The Bath“
Scene, 395 words
Written in response to the exercise “A Different Angle“

Yes, that’s right. Even though I barely have enough filler for this blog, I’ve gone ahead and used Google’s ghastly WYSIWYG page editor to create my very own website. Right now I’m just using it to link to my published Google Documents—including some Internet Writing Workshop exercises that have never been seen before!!—but that may change.

You can find the site at aloneandunobserved.googlepages.com. I know it looks awful—I blame Google.

I’ve rejoined the Internet Writing Workshop, a listserv devoted to writers and the craft of writing. Specifically, I’m a member of the practice list, which is an email list aimed at writers who are trying to hone their skills. The way it works is, every Sunday a new exercise is posted to the list (and to this website). Past exercises have included: writing a short scene incorporating a few fixed lines of dialogue; rewriting an existing scene to include at least one metaphor; and writing a complete 500-word flash-fiction piece. Members of the list have until Friday night to post a response to the exercise, and then other members of the list are free to critique each other’s submissions until Saturday night. Participation is only required once a month to stay active in the list, but I hope to be a little more active than that.

I’ve decided that I want a larger audience (and a larger body of critics) than just the IWW list, so at the end of every week I participate, I will publish the end-result product of my exercise on Google Documents and post the link here, as well as a link to the exercise that spawned it. Feel free to leave comments on this post, or email me. I may regret this later, but for now, here are this week’s exercise and response.

“Clean“
FlashFic, 393 words
Written in response to the exercise “Oh God, why me?“