flash fiction

Allison

2025 Writing in Review

My biggest writing accomplishment this year was, of course, publishing Green Light… even though it was written back in 2022! I’m glad it wasn’t immediately picked up, though, because publishing it on the 100th anniversary of The Great Gatsby is too perfect. A lot of my “writing” life dealt with interviews, reviews, podcasts, and fun extras relating to the book and its release. Get quick links to those things here!

I did a lot of my usual favorite writing experiences, like National Flash Fiction Day and the Ekphrastic Marathon.

I only had 26 submissions this year, yikes! I slacked a lot earlier in the year, but with my birthday resolutions in September, I promised to submit 4 places each month, and have done so since then! I just needed to kick my own butt into gear. I had 8 acceptances from those submissions. (I submitted 45 times in 2024, 111 in 2023, 134 in 2022, and 52 in 2021.)

I wrote several reviews for MicroLit Almanac, plus three craft essays for Intrepidus Ink. (I also wrote and submitted my essay for March Sadness, which of course won’t go live until March, but it’s definitely an accomplishment and I’m really proud of it.)

I started a monthly Substack, posting an article on the 14th of every month. I’ll be honest, it’s mostly just me trying to harness my LiveJournal days, but I have ideas for next year that might truly orient the posts toward “the love of writing,” as the name suggests it should.

While not specifically writing related, I was accepted to be a Short Story/Flash Fiction reader for Split/Lip Press. I’ve missed working with that team and am glad to be back in some small role, and I really think this will help my writing and editing life so much to read amazing submissions during the reading period. I’ll also continue to be a contest editor for Flash Fiction Magazine throughout the year; it’s always inspiring to read stories and help writers revise them (if necessary!).

Speaking of that… I also celebrated the one year anniversary of Lightning Flash Writing!

If you need help polishing your work (flash fiction, short stories, novels – I do it all!), getting your ideas on the page, or marketing yourself or your book, I’m here to help!

Related Posts:

2024 Writing in Review

2023 Writing in Review

2022 Writing in Review

2021 Writing in Review

Allison

National Flash Fiction Day Stories 2025

As with every year, I had a great time writing and submitting to The Write-In on National Flash Fiction Day! It was especially lovely this year as a much-needed distraction over the weekend.

I’m thrilled that 5/5 of my submissions were published! I’m sharing the links here, along with the prompts to give an idea of the guidelines/constraints.

Don’t forget to check out the complete list of prompts and stories!

Four Years: Write a story with two distinct sections, each taking place in a different season

It’s My Destiny: Write a story in which a character is searching for something specific, and unusual

Man’s Best Friend: Write a story involving a caring moment between two people of significantly different ages who aren’t family members

Home for Christmas: Write a story in which at least one character has gone somewhere at an unusual time of year

Sealed Envelopes: Write a flash with an open ending

Head to The Write-In to read everyone’s vastly different responses to these five prompts!

(The featured post image showcases the badges I earned for the pieces I wrote and submitted.)

Allison

“Last Time” published at Paragraph Planet

I’m thrilled to have a 75-word story at Paragraph Planet today. (The link takes you to the author archives, where you can click on my name and read my piece!)

I wrote this piece in a gurkshop with Janet Dale on 1/29/2022. It was originally a freeform prompt using the words “edge / balloons / contusion / words / kindness / breathing / crow / pulse / shapes / taste” – so you can see how I have worked it to death and then brought it back to life again.

Allison

Green Light: A Backstory

In June 2021, I took part in Jami Attenberg’s 1,000 Words of Summer. I wrote at least 1,000 words per day for two weeks, and those pieces included all nine flash stories that eventually ended up in Green Light: A Gatsby Cycle. (The first few days of writing were something else entirely… but we won’t go there.)

Janet had already found her poems. In fact, her idea of using the first page of each chapter is why I used a sentence from the first page of each chapter to start a flash story. But we didn’t collaborate. It wasn’t until later that we put it all together and realized… hey, this works!

We sent Green Light out into the world—to nine publishers total! The last submission was to Alien Buddha Press. Red loved the book but had never worked with two authors on one project before, so he encouraged us to each submit our own books instead. And we did! (Janet published ghosts passing through and I published Won’t Be By Your Side.) 

However, as the 100th anniversary of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby grew closer, we knew we needed to get this book out in the world. With all the excitement celebrating that centennial, it would be perfect timing! So we reached out to Alien Buddha Press once more, hoping that Red would be willing to work with us as a duo since he’d worked with us individually. And he agreed! We streamlined things for him (I hope!) and marketed the hell out of the book for six weeks leading up to its publication date of April 10, 2025 – 100 years after the original Gatsby!

Just for fun, here are photos of my original handwritten drafts of the flash in Green Light.

And for even more fun, here are the word counts – then and now:

Chapter 1: 1057, now 738
Chapter 2: 1008, now 729
Chapter 3: 1064, now 694
Chapter 4: 1013, now 700
Chapter 5: 1126, now 732
Chapter 6: 1023, now 714
Chapter 7: 1002, now 705
Chapter 8: 1117, now 712
Chapter 9: 1074, now 668