Flash Fiction Magazine, January 2022

Along with being on the Daily Science Fiction mailing list, I get weekly emails from Flash Fiction Magazine because I've submitted there. (Unlike DSF, I haven't been published there.) I'd forgotten that it published daily because of those weekly digests I got.

As always, if someone found this blog through a random search, I kept this log to remember some details of the things I've read (and to track my reading). It's not so much for reviews, but if I state an opinion, whatever.

Summary: Literary - 7, Fantasy - 1, Science Fiction - 4, Humor - 0,
Unclassified/Experimental/Out There - 0 (I'd otherwise classify as fantasy)

Week One

January 1, 2022: "Metamorphosis" By Evelyn Pearl Malina. I'm copying down this first paragraph:

In her black sequined off-the-shoulder taffeta dress, with a black and red ruffled lace asymmetrical hem, Allison’s grandmother Francesca looks ready to flamenco dance right out of the painting that hangs on the living room wall. Her long, thick jet-black hair is held back with a tortoiseshell hair comb that now lives on Allison’s mother’s vanity.

I love the name "Grannie Frannie". I believe that this is what would be categorized at "literary" and would explain why I haven't sold any of my stories here, but probably won't unless I wrote something specifically for this market. That said, how can I judge from one story -- except that it was a heck of a story (although devoid of conflict).

January 2, 2022: "The Surrogate" By Nancy Moir.

Women sit around the rim of a waiting room, elbow-to-elbow: short, tall, dark, pale. A stack of National Geographics elevates the table; an old-fashioned clock annotates the silence. The air smells of latex. The carpet is rough with sand.

The women are being artificially impregnated. With pandas or foxes or (in the narrator's case) dolphins. I counted it as scifi instead of fantasy, but again it's "lit".

January 3, 2022: "After the Argument" By Lori Cramer.

Andrea stomps upstairs to the bedroom and slams the door. Downstairs, Ollie cranks the TV volume up so loud that the floor beneath Andrea vibrates. Grabbing her phone, she jams in earbuds and paces the room. How could Ollie be so obtuse?

Two people don't talk to each other. One orders pizza and remembers the extra cheese. They eat in silence. Then go to bed. He apologizes.

It's a scene, not a story. I can see why my stories with plots don't do well here.

January 4, 2022: "Bumps in the Road" By Catherine Jordan.

Gone are the happy-go-lucky locals quick to hold up a fist with thumb and pinky extended—the shaka wave. Hang loose. Take it easy. No one does that anymore. Relax—everything is not okay.

The apocalypse comes through long dormant (millions of years) volcanos, particularly in Hawaii. This is combined with a plauge of leprosy spread with COVID through the fish, and through the air when everything was burned. Maybe the god Papa who created Hawaii was in a mood.

Interesting. End times.

January 5, 2022: "Tilt" By SE Zeller.

I am rudely reminded each morning, when I pour my first blessed cup of coffee onto the countertop, that I have absolutely no idea what is happening in this world.

Atomic blasts have tilted Earth's axis and somehow that's affected gravity enough that the narrator spills her first cup of coffee every morning when she pours it. Also gravity is pulling her husband Bernard away from her, in case the metaphor wasn't obvious enough.

Meh.

January 6, 2022: "Joy" by Mustapha Enesi.

Joy seeps through the layers of pain in our lives: massaging the tired muscles that rush through our days, unfurling the sun that lights our paths, letting us flourish. Joy is in the days I chase after Danfo buses with a tray of Agege bread balanced on my head.

I looked it up: Danfo are minibuses in Nigeria and Agege is a region in Nigeria. There are several more cultural references. And then there's the main character, chasing through the streets after his mother, until they get to a clinic, to have the growing lump on his head examined. No word what it is, only that they can't afford an operation. And that's it.

What did I just read? What's the lump? Is the story the "twist" that they're too poor to remove it?

January 7, 2022: "The Kindly Grocer" By Christopher Bruce.

Toby hadn’t changed out of his pajamas in what—a couple weeks? He was beginning to realize he should probably get out more often, and so he went to the Kroger Superstore to shop for groceries.

Toby needed to get more and just decided to be a nice person. No one knew how to deal with that.

This one was enjoyable.

January 8, 2022: "Mr. Abbington" By Michael Belanger.

Mr. Abbington is a glum person who married a dour soulmate and the two had a Little Abbington, whom they didn't give a name to. Over time, he notices that Mrs. Abbington is starting to smile and be playful with Little Abbington. Mr. A doesn't approve, but doesn't totally disapprove, and maybe he's starting to feel something.

A modern fairy tale? A gray world having color? Odd but not bad.

January 9, 2022: "The Crowded Velvet Cushion" By Derek Harmening. The narrator has mice in the house and doesn't want to cook because that will attract them. She sets traps to catch them. Her daughter, Marnie, thinks this is barbaric. The woman catches a couple of baby mice and dispatches them quickly without Marnie knowing. Then she discovers her daughter using olive oil to try to free the mother mouse when it's caught.

It's one thing to love all living things, it's another to put up with mice in your home. I'm not sure where the name of this one came from.

January 10, 2022: "Something in the Sky over Central Park" By Michael Harper. It was nothing. A helicopter or a drone or a flock of something. No one had a good look at it anyway. It can all be explained. If a group sees a UFO then they will talk themselves out of believing that and into believing something else. No one belives Grandma followed a fairy when she met Grandpa. This was good because you'd expect this. (I classified this sci-fi.)

January 11, 2022: "Kiss Kiss" By Peter F. Stine. A deconstruction of The Frog Prince where the frog talks normallys and isn't a prince, and the princess isn't a princess, either. It could've been a modern Fractured Fairy Tale. Didn't suck.

January 12, 2022: "No Pockets in a Shroud" By Kay Lesley Reeves. If Death comes for you with a suitcase, what would you take? What can't you bear to leave behind? I liked this one.

January 13, 2022: "Body Painter" By Malcolm Carmichael. Two grandparents with some regrets and some wild grandchildren have a crazy Friday night, after the "Law & Order" marathon.

January 14, 2022: A Saint of Sorts" By Stephanie Grella. Two kids go to see the statue of a saint that moves its eyes or arms or something, but it doesn't. Then they cause mayhen. Okay.

Summary of my thoughts: I don't think I will make it into this magazine. I can't say that I don't write as well as this -- I believe I do. I just write different from this. Okay, and better, in my own humble opinion. And I wrote this summary after reading fewer than 10 entries. Maybe I'll change it, and maybe this will stay here.

Maybe I'll try again next month. Maybe I'll look to see if there were any stories with intriguing titles from the latter half of this month. Or maybe I'll stick to reading more books.