Writers’ Retreat UK, Super Shorts (Boxtree Media 2017)
It’s handy to have a short story collection handy, for bedtime reading when cracking a book seems like too much work.
Flash fiction and very short stories are challenging to the writer, in that the reader’s attention needs to be grabbed quite quickly, yet the work must contain every element of a complete story—plot, climax, denoument. The thriftiness of the wordcount means that every word, every sentence has to count, hopefully resulting in a real jewel.
Some think of a flash fiction piece as a little snapshot. Others believe a snapshot is not enough. It has to be a complete story.
Think of Hemingway’s famous six-worder:
For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.
The whole story is in there, read between the lines.
This collection contains 31 short stories, the winners of Writers’ Retreat UK’s 2017 Short, Short Story Competition, in a variety of styles, few over 1000 words.
The stories include a riveting rhinoceros-horn-smuggling chase scene, a story about depression remarkable in its depth of insight and one about a man craving to eat his wife’s leg.
Susie Helme 
Leave a comment