Just ate a salad and now I'm ready for real dinner.

TONIGHT: Celebrate a whole year of incredible flash fiction AND join us for the last WHQ event of 2025 AND it's all freeeeeeee. Yes it is. Live readings, a Christmas quiz, and prizes for best costume. Obvs @kathyhoyle.bsky.social is behind these shenanigans ☃️ writershq.co.uk/whq-event/fl...

The secret lore of book and toy shop owners holds that it is good to have a "Hollywood snow" in early November so that people's Gift Brains turn on, and they start shopping. This year... we're just going to enjoy the flurries around our icicles, and do whatever we can to reduce others' stress. ❄️📚❤️

all i'm saying is that there were better options

“Write what will stop your breath if you don’t write.” Grace Paley, born on this day in 1922

“Journalists were never intended to be the cheerleaders of a society, the conductors of applause, the sycophants. Tragically, that is their assigned role in authoritarian societies, but not here--not yet.” Chet Huntley, born on this day in 1911

‘If you want to work on your art, work on your life.’ — Anton Chekhov writingforwellbeing.co.uk #writing #WritingCommunity #WritersCommunity

ha

Spending a peaceful Sunday celebrating books and the importance of reading and writing. In this regard, I'm sharing a favourite passage from Sagan's Cosmos. ✨Books are indeed proof that humans work magic.✨ #Booksky #WritingCommunity #Booklovers 💙📚🪐

I like this more than I should. Nighto xx

"If I had the capabilities of being something other than I am, I would. It's no fun being an artist. You know what it's like, writing, it's torture." John Lennon, who died on this day in 1980

#DECEMBER “Chill December brings the sleet, blazing fire, and Christmas treat.” - Sara Coleridge

"I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done." Steven Wright, born on this day in 1955

ha

"Writing nonfiction is more like sculpture, a matter of shaping the research into the finished thing. Novels are like paintings, specifically watercolors. Every stroke you put down you have to go with.” Joan Didion, born on this day in 1934

adulthood is cool until adult things happen

When the sun shines,so too do the trees. #photography

kind of obsessed with this custom binding for Moby dick by Susan and Chaim Ebanks at Exeter Bookbinders

0h

Yes!

I like how Christmas is on a Thursday this year so there's this secret mini-week starting on 22 December that you can leave fallow in order to have a gentler entry into Christmas.

I feel like there's a sort of "funnel" to arriving at a powerful piece - (a) is it original, (b) is there structure, (c) is there build, (d) does the ending land, (e) is there atmosphere, (f) is there character, (g) are there layers etc. - so not surprised you see similar at Brilliant Flash Fiction

Thank you, Philip, for your donation to Brilliant Flash Fiction. It's Giving Tuesday, and we appreciate everyone who clicks the Donate button at brilliantflashfiction.com.

Thanks, Duotrope! It's also Giving Tuesday, so please consider clicking the Donate button on our website. We are a non-profit organization. brilliantflashfiction.com

(a) and (b) are the main reasons we say no to sooo many submissions at Brilliant Flash Fiction

"As a writer I'm essentially just trying to impersonate a first-time reader, who picks up the story and has to decide, at every point, whether to keep going." George Saunders, born on this day in 1958

Yes, thanks. :)

Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday. Please consider clicking the Donate button on our website: brilliantflashfiction.com. We are a non-profit organization depending on your generosity. Thank you for your continued support.

you don’t really know someone until you find out their favorite bird

“You can make anything by writing.” C. S. Lewis, born on this day in 1898

"I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little or make a poem which children will speak for you when you're dead." Tom Stoppard, RIP

Want some library book recommendations??? with @tanyapell.bsky.social, @datlow.bsky.social, and @joe-hill.bsky.social among others :)

On this day in 1899, the first theatrical production of Lew Wallace's "Ben-Hur" opened at the Broadway Theater in New York City. By the time of its last performance in 1921, an estimated twenty million people had seen the play. rayboomhower.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-...

It’s open!!!!!!

"These wrinkles are nothing. These gray hairs are nothing. This stomach which sags with old food, these bruised and swollen ankles, my darkening brain, they are nothing. I am the same boy my mother used to kiss." Mark Strand, who died on this day in 2014

Leonard and Hungry Paul trivia: anyone notice that, when he's picking up his mother's ashes, Leonard (who has no surname in the book) gives the surname Dranoel (Leonard backwards). Before I ever thought of writing a book, I used to make up stories for my kids about a little boy, Leonard Dranoel.

Communities need used-book shops. As the trends in our world are increasingly standardized and entrenched by "predictive" technologies that stifle innovation and reduce human actions into economic categories... We need a full range of possibilities for readers and communities to explore and share.

We will be known forever by the tracks we leave." - Dakota Tribe Pic of the day #photography

“Isn’t every human being both a scientist and an artist; and in writing of human experience, isn’t there a good deal to be said for recognizing that fact and for using both methods?” James Agee, born on this day in 1909

“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.” W. Somerset Maugham, born on this day in 1874

Arabic numerals are the ten symbols (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) that form the basis of the modern decimal system used worldwide. Despite the name, they originated in ancient India and were introduced to the West via Arab mathematicians.

I love going to the public library and so should you 🫵🏾😐

We are currently open for submissions of contemporary #microfiction. Please click on the link for our guidelines #MicroMonday #callforsubmissions fictivedream.com/submission-g...

Looking forward to taking part in the BBC Radio 4 book club discussion of Leonard and Hungry Paul on 17th December in Glasgow. If anyone would like to attend the recording, the details are in the link below. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/a...

ha

"The Enforcer" An adult Rook (Corvus frugilegus) - one of the seven crow species commonly found in Ireland. They include Ravens, Hooded crows, Rooks, Jackdaws, Magpies, Choughs and Jay's. County Clare, Ireland.

Happy FlashGiving to all who celebrate! @smokelong.bsky.social

Hey Writers, why not send Brilliant Flash Fiction a 300-500 word story with a winter theme for our January issue? We'd be happy to read these. brilliantflashfiction.com