It’s that time of year again. In two weeks our 2020 flash fiction contest opens once again, and this year the theme is Innovation. So we’re inviting past participants and winners to stop in and talk about how to write these short short stories, and what aspects of the theme we might explore this year! See our current rules here. FB: http://bit.ly/1MvPABVMeWe: http://bit.ly/2mjg8lf
Hey all… It was Mark’s turn to come up with the theme this year, and he came up with something that had a real relevance and resonance with today – “Migration”: Seasonal movement of animals from one region to another. Movement of people to a new area or country in order to find work or better living conditions. Movement from one part of something to another. We live in an age of migrations – from one kind of society to another, from one country to another, from one platform to another. It’s a rich vein to mine, and we look … Read more
FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Dave Fragments: How do you pick the theme or your story? For instance, I only and rarely do vampire stories because Anne Rice intimidates me. So if I have a character who is a vampire, then the plot must come before the character. Other stories begin with a thought like the main character being an abused orphan who doesn’t know his history and goes from there in self discovery. That’s character driving plot. Obviously. What motivates your story – character or plot and which of those are subordinate? Join the chat
Here’s how to give your morning cup of joe an interstellar “Star Wars” twist. Pinging a simple plastic coffee stirrer on the edge of a table, Deita Meira achieved a rousing rendition of Darth Vader’s “Imperial March” theme. Meira, from Ufa in central Russia, posted the clip to YouTube on Tuesday and it’s since garnered more than 1 million views. By Lee Moran – Full Story at The Huffington Post
Hey all, Something fun today – we’re pre-announcing our flash fiction contest theme for 2017. This will be our fourth year doing the contest – hard to believe it. For the first three years, our themes (and the people who chose them) were: Endings – Scott Discovery – Mark Flight – Angel For our fourth year, the theme was chosen by Ben, and is… *insert drumroll here*: Renewal We want your stories of when things changed for the better. Tell us about: The wicked witch who was redeemed by good magic The old bucket of bolts starship given a new … Read more
In about two and a half months, on April 1st, we’ll be launching the Third Annual QSF Flash Fiction Contest. It doesn’t matter if you have been published before or not – if you love to write, we invite you to submit a 300 word speculative fiction story – sci fi, fantasy, paranormal or horror – when the contest opens up on April 1st. As a bonus, we’ll be selecting the best of the submitted stories to be included in the book from Mischief Corner Books! Now it’s time to announce our theme for 2016. For 2014, it was “Endings”; … Read more