My soul is weary with sorrow;
strengthen me according to your word. (Psalm 119:28)

Flashlight in hand, I progress slowly down each step, toward the dungeon in which I keep my soul. Repeating drops of condensation drip, drip, drip and echo off the cold, dead walls. The scent of urine and defecation permeates the air, and intermingles with a poison must.

I loathe this place, which reeks of hell and depression.

I approach the cage. My keys rattle against the thick, steel slats, as I wrestle with the heavy padlock.

I’m trying yet another strategy for these #FridayFlash Favorites. This week, since I had some time to post them and found a number of stories that made the cut, I’ll post a selection from this week along with a few from weeks gone past.

This week, I want to feature a special #FridayFlash, special not because it’s better than the best I’ve read, but special because its author may remove it as soon as she discovers this link. (Monday, I’ll post the tale behind that hubbub, and what it means for the writing experience.) So catch this story now, before it (possibly) disappears forever:

I’m referring to “Too Shiny for a Ladybird” by Rachel Carter, a story about the people we love, who make us who we are.

And on top of that…

7 More #FridayFlash Favorites

Something a little different today. I signed up to take part in Tony Noland’s Great April Fool’s Day #FridayFlash Blogswap. Tony paired me up with Danielle La Paglia, who has in gracious silence endured my haphazard attempt at keeping to a deadline.

(Oy. Just be thankful you’re not my publisher.)

Danielle and I both wrote a story around the same prompt. I’m posting hers here, and she’s posting my story over on her blog. Tony gave us the following prompt to inspire our stories: “three free tickets to a movie.”

-TimK

Time overdue for another 7 of my favorite flash stories from #FridayFlash. I’m a month behind, but still reading through the short-short stories authors have posted on Twitter each Friday, marked with the tag #FridayFlash.

This past week, running on coffee fumes. I posted a new story, “Perhaps to Dream," with a woman who faces the difference between the career and what she wanted when she became a career woman. For Read-an-ebook week, I released two new free, short ebooks, small collections of short-short stories: “Pine” and 7 Other Short Romances and “Disorder” and 7 Other Flashes of Character. Download them or read them at my free ebooks page. Also remember, my Love-Idiot book and Ashes of Courage book are discounted on Smashwords for another day; and check out the other books being promoted for Read-an-ebook Week on Smashwords.

Without any further distracting links…

7 More #FridayFlash Favorites

Head down in the middle of her solid mahogany desk, eyelids blocking the mid-morning sun from the searing pain behind the bridge of her nose, the expanse of her office morphed into a loosely packed suburb of rich greens and blues. A month of late-night facts and figures melted into the insanity of random imagination. Her Starbucks dark-roast tasted like Kahlúa. The bottle of store-brand ibuprofen became a mailman in sexy shorts, delivering packages of happiness.

“We finally made it!” she bragged.

He wrapped strong hands around the back of her shoulders and her aching neck muscles, and firmly massaged. “Mmm,” she groaned, and stretched and relaxed her neck.

“I’ll pick up the kids and meet you at six?” he said.

She nodded, laid back on her mahogany deckchair, closed her eyes again, and sipped her Kahlúa. A long, deep sigh.

Then thunder boomed from the overcast sky.

Each Friday, writers post on Twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash. And I (eventually) wrap up my favorites of these into a “FridayFlash Favorites” post.

Recently, I’ve posted two short-short stories:

• "Of Death and Smiles," about a man who wants to live forever, and it changes his life in a way he never expected;
• "The Woman Who Loved Men," a twist on a kinda-cool storyline from The Love Boat (which has nothing to do with the novel or films of the same name). — And yes, even The Love Boat had the occasional storyline that I don't have to feel guilty for enjoying.

I’m up to February 4 in my #FridayFlash reading, and though I continue to fall behind, here are…

7 #FridayFlash Favorites

Mark, timid little creature, he stammered through, asked me to “dinner or something, sometime.” I smiled and told him I’d love to, because he’s cute and sweet, and he plays a beautiful guitar. He’ll never dominate the top of the heap, but you always know where you stand with him, and you can trust him always to be faithful and to do the right thing. Mark, it turns out, is also a great kisser, which I knew he was going to be. And deeply passionate. Sigh.

Tony, on the other hand, he lives the life of the stereotypical alpha male. Six feet, 190 pounds, works out at the gym every day and benches 350. Top dog in his world, and he knows it. So when asked me to drinks, he already knew I’d say yes. You could see it in his eyes. He strolled by while I was halfway through my run on the treadmill, stopped for a minute and admired me— I wanted him to take me right then and there.

Remember these?

Each Friday, writers post on Twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash. And I (eventually) wrap up my favorites of these into a “FridayFlash Favorites” post.

I had begun and fully intended to continue these posts a few months ago, in November. Instead, my summer continued for a couple more months. And I’m just now getting back on track, though the continual, beating snow in these parts has made that process slow and difficult as well.

So now I have quite a backlog of stories to read through. And I am slowly reading through them, or rather drawing on them to fill out what my favorites from more recent stories. Over the past weeks, I’ve hit a dry spell when it comes to stories. I don’t know whether it’s just because I read Talyn and Hawkspar since last year, and maybe they’ve ruined all other stories for me. Or maybe a number of my favorite writers have been taking breaks until recently (which is also true).

In any case, here are 7 of my…

#FridayFlash Favorites (from January 28 and earlier)

I thought I’d kick this year’s posting season off (after the summer lull) with a change to my weekly schedule. I’m going to try posting “#FridayFlash Favorites” on Friday, one week after the stories themselves were originally posted. I’m hoping that will give these stories more exposure, especially with the #FridayFlash crowd.

Each Friday, writers post on Twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash.

I myself have been absent through the summer (and into the fall). But I did manage to post one story a couple weeks ago, about a young woman with a painful secret, and about the way our society treats people who have painful secrets, and how we maybe ought to treat them.

Of the rest of the stories that were posted Friday, here are my…

#FridayFlash Favorites (for November 5)

Slim pickin’s this week, so I included a few stories from a few weeks ago, too. In no particular order…

Quiet, pretty, young, she rarely smiles, even when serving customers their coffee and muffins. Each morning, I make it a point to grin long and broad, with “please” and “thanks.” But in return I rarely receive more than a rote, “Café Americano, two sixty-five.”

Then, at about 10 o’clock, she takes a break, to sit and stare. The sun peeks around the edge of a cloud overhead, now gleaming through her tender blue eyes and warming her luxurious, dark hair. Her face softens, and my heart melts, and I wonder what she thinks about.