Better late than never. Right? Here are the short story recommendations for April with just a couple of hours left of the month.
I finally got back to reading short fiction more regularly this month. Returning to something that resembles my old reading schedule also meant getting back into reading Flash Fiction Online (FFO) stories. A whole bunch of stuff seemed to have happened with the magazine since I unfortunately had to leave the staff due to my all too limited spare time (about a year ago, I think). Not only have they had a change in the role of Editor-in-Chief, but there are several new faces amongst the senior and junior editors as well. I’m sad to see so many of the people I enjoyed working with are gone, but on the other hand, I’m also looking forward to seeing how this new staff constellation will affect the magazine’s publications.
Rather than start on their new publications right away, though, I was hit by nostalgia and took the opportunity to dig through the FFO archives and pull out some of their hidden treasures. So let’s start with a couple of older but golden stories.
Pieces of My Body by Caroline M. Yoachim (DSF/FFO/Toasted Cake): I’m honestly not sure what it was about this story that pulled me in, but obviously there was something. Probably that same something that led it to be published in several of the premier flash fiction magazines out there.
The story does have a very cool speculative element. The MC is — post mortem — handing out different parts of their body to different people who had been part of their life. These bodyparts are then used to explore the MC’s relations to those people in what is essentially a bunch of one-paragraph mini stories. That works surprisingly well.
There’s not much of an over-arching plot, though, but somehow the story still works as a whole. It’s perhaps not the best Caroline M. Yoachim story I’ve read, but even her mediocre stories are worthwile reads, and I really wish I could write stories like that myself.
Silhouette Against Armageddon by John Wiswell (FFO/Fireside): “Someone’s trying to get into my coffin.” That’s a creepy yet catchy opening line if ever there was one. And the story doesn’t go downhill from there.
This story really shouldn’t work. The MC is dead, passively waiting in their grave as the end of the world has started and someone is trying to dig through to them from above. And who that person is becomes obvious very early in the story, killing the driving mystery. And yet, the story made the list.
This is a great example of how a great writer can make something beautiful out of a mediocre idea. With vivid descriptions and especially a snarky and funny narrator, Wiswell manages to turn what could easily have become a dull vignette into an entertaining and heartfelt flash fiction story
I’m not usually much of a poetry fan. I try. I really do. Once every month or so, I decide that I should give reading poetry another go, but almost always I’m left bored, frustrated, or just plain confused. I won’t say that has really changed, but April did prove to be the month where my poetry reading experience was more positive than negative.
I stumbled across mentions of the Ignyte several times during the month, and for some unknown reason, I decided to go for the poetry short list rather than the short stories. The result was more than one recomendable piece of poetry.
Kuala Lumpur Urban Legends by Jack Lin Kim (Strange Horizons): This poem tells the story of Malaysian folktale monsters trying to survive in a world that is modernizing and changing all around them.
It didn’t exactly have the lush writing and vivid images I expected from a poem, but it was easy to read and painted a clear picture of a city undergoing modernization and all the people left behind. For something so short, it was an incredibly strong plot and an interesting speculative element.
Post Massacre Psyche Evaluation by Abu Bakr Sadiq (Uncanny): Again, the writing didn’t really blow me away, but the poem had a nice flow and the author did really well in bringing the emotions onto the page.
The poem is about opression, surviving a police massacre, and all the emotions and trauma the MC goes through afterward. It is not a pleseant read but and interesting one.
That’s it for me this time around. I hope to see you in May.
Toby Backman 