I just saw the trailer for the Bruce Springsteen biopic. Curious, anyone have strong (or not) objections to biopics when the subject is still alive? I feel like we might get a more creative story when someone isn't around and time has passed... Should this be a documentary instead? #filmsky #film

Woohoo! Very proud. I passed my Level 2 WSET Wine Studies course with distinction. #wine #education Getting to enjoy the spoils of my beautiful Oregon Willamette Valley Pinot Noir bounty.

Highlighting this fabulous visual history of the film La Bamba. It's gorgeous and insightful (really, the movie stands the test of time). Shout out to my friend Katherine Moore for her great editorial and creative production insights. #film #labamba #photography

Couple more days for @flashfrog.bsky.social’s ghost call! bsky.app/profile/flas...

Speaking of gorgeous book covers, I came across this beautiful one at the Sherwood Bookstore. The colors and the simplicity of the design are so intriguing and soothing. I love books that spark my reading interest, but also invite me to hold them because they are a pretty thing. #books

Sherman is expressing his feelings about the world. #cats

Thank you to @nffr.bsky.social for your fantastic canon of flash stories! During the #archivechallenge, I'm thrilled to have discovered new flash writers that I've become big fans of. Keep up the GREAT work! #flashfiction

All of this.

@smokelong.bsky.social - Since we've been talking about titles! #archivechallenge This title drew me in, and the story has a surprising emotional arc. I also love the use of "invulnerable" in the first sentence. Fantastic word choice! newflashfiction.com/used-hearse-...

@smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge Love this from @sarahillswrites.bsky.social and @nffr.bsky.social and all its specific details. Man, you can smell that diaper air! newflashfiction.com/trip-trappin... This great sentence will haunt me: "a swirling mist of urine and meatballs."

@smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge Prose poetry is tough for me, but this story resonates with my personal experience abroad. "Understanding the book was like trying to touch a whitecap on an ocean wave as it washed back out to sea." newflashfiction.com/kathleen-mcg... @nffr.bsky.social

@smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge Hurrah for Horo-Flashes! These are so fun, creative forays: newflashfiction.com/horo-flash-p... @nffr.bsky.social "I’m more fish than you are, I tell the goldfish. He keeps swimming."

@smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge A great example of a story working backwards to show the transformation of a character. Gorgeous use of language and imagery abounds here: newflashfiction.com/marissa-hoff... @nffr.bsky.social

@smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge A short flash that packs a punch. That title is EARNED. Proof that going short can astonish and astound: newflashfiction.com/melaniemarqu...

If you could revisit a book that took you by surprise and changed you the first time around? Just finished S2 of the Wolf Hall series adaptation that reinvigorated my love and joy for the books. The trilogy was my 1st intro to Hilary Mantel & I remember being so astonished by her writing! #books

@smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge A poignant flash. Rich in what it doesn't need to say. newflashfiction.com/steve-cushman/ and @nffr.bsky.social

@smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge What a delightful story that carries the right amount of backstory to showcase the relationship between these two women: newflashfiction.com/francine-wit... and @nffr.bsky.social

@smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge These 4 are all so different in tone and structure. Flash never ceases to amaze me with how you can tell a story. newflashfiction.com/robert-shapa... newflashfiction.com/doug-cornett/ newflashfiction.com/rupert-dastur/ newflashfiction.com/lou-beach/

Gorgeous work. Makes me wonder if I was a bookbinder in another life (possibly a French one)? www.nytimes.com/card/2025/06...

@smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge The ending of this story is an emotional highlight. You think you know what the story is about, and then you reach the end. It's a fierce flash from start to finish. @nffr.bsky.social newflashfiction.com/kathleen-nal...

@smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge I love this. An example of what I like to call 'when the story is about a thing without directly talking about the thing'. So much power in this short flash! @nffr.bsky.social newflashfiction.com/nin-andrews/

@smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge Great use of an existing fairy tale to tell a much darker story for modern times. newflashfiction.com/evelyn-n-alf... "And the wolves where she worked said, 'He didn’t intend to hurt anyone.'"

@smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge This story delights in imagery and setting. I keep coming back to it because it is so sprawling and sharp for such a short tale. newflashfiction.com/alicita-rodr... from @nffr.bsky.social Issue #4.

@smokelong.bsky.social #Archivechallenge This is one of my all time favorite flash stories newflashfiction.com/tiff-holland... from @nffr.bsky.social A touching and humorous meditation on grief and how we let go of a loved one. So much to learn from this story about the power of flash!

@smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge Highlighting the delightfully quirky, sneakily dark, newflashfiction.com/jane-ciabatt... from @nffr.bsky.social I love it when flash can transcend into the weird but still resonates and surprises!

@smokelong.bsky.social #Archivechallenge Highlighting newflashfiction.com/steve-adams/ and @nffr.bsky.social Not just '80s nostalgia, but a desire to connect with a city. 2nd person POV perfection. "Because you’re more afraid of sleeping through your life than you are afraid of New York."

@smokelong.bsky.social Archive Challenge #2! Highlighting this gem newflashfiction.com/sean-lovelace/ as a great example in flash about how the right word can do so much for a story and stand in for the character's emotional state ("his eyes two red, roaring cyclones" is just one example).

@smokelong.bsky.social Archive Challenge! Highlighting newflashfiction.com/allen-woodman/ as a flash to love (Issue 1, 2014, going deep!). This is a clever spin on both a breakup story and a love story. Humorous and touching. The specificity of the details in Paris brings a surprising depth.

Eat your oranges, I guess! 🍊 www.harvardmagazine.com/2025/07/harv...

Ever have one of those days, you wake up and it's finally sunshine with wispy clouds, the irises are in bloom, there's birdsong in the distance, you are warm, the world is full of promise and opportunity... ...and that Captain & Tenille song is still stuck in your head.

Wine down Friday. I mean "wind", no "whine", no, yeah... wine :) Happy Friday everyone!

Woohoo! Go flash fiction writers! So honored to be part of this talented group. #nationalflashfictionday flashfloodjournal.blogspot.com/2025/06/sign...

@natflashfictionday.bsky.social So excited and thrilled to be part of June 14th FlashFlood! My micro, Signals, is posting at 00.20 BST (or, I believer 4:20pm PDT if the math is right). Cheers!! #flashflood

Wowza, these judges! Anyone looking to get started on a novel? www.thenovelry.com/prize

NFFD is on 14 June! We are run by volunteers and receive no external funding. Please consider supporting us by pre-ordering a copy of our latest anthology. On Kindle & from our bookshop: www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk/index.php/bo...

@kathyfish.bsky.social I was traveling for most of May, but I'm stopping by here to tell you that I finally watched and LOVED the third webinar of the Art of Flash 3 In 90 Generative Workshop! Thank you again, this was a wonderful series :)

💙📚 I have reread The Great Gatsby for the 4th time in celebration of its 100 year publication anniversary. I also read it in 2022, 100 years after the novel was set. And the more I reread, the more I am certain that times rarely change. #books #gatsby #booksky

I mean...!

Aww. Sign-up time for A SmokeLong Summer is, by the way, right now: www.smokelong.com/a-smokelong-...

Where have I been lately? Japan! Travel certainly heals the soul.

Can never simply pass by a bookstore without stopping in. Support banned books and their authors. And The Color Purple has shown up twice this morning in a "you should read..." post, so I think it is a sign.

I joined the very first ever A SmokeLong Summer four years ago...This workshop has made me a better writer and connected with me to a supportive network with some of the best flash writers out there. Sign-up - it's worth it!

Nothing gives me more joy than a blossoming cherry tree! The "spring" switch has been turned on.

Does anyone else consider unwanted political texts a form of harassment? Does the "report junk" option on iPhone just encourage them even MORE?! If anyone has a sure-fire way to get yourself removed from these texts (aside from me flinging my phone into the river), I'm all ears.

So excited for you all to read this one! It's a tiny little heartbreaker 💔❤️‍🩹. Thanks to everyone at Reckon Review for sharing my story❤️. reckonreview.com/it-takes-a-t...

Woo hoo @lmbayley.bsky.social Congrats!

Even cats are slightly petty and passive aggressive these days. Steve is sending a message here.

Flash writers! Well seasoned ones as well as writers new to the form! The SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction is open for entries. Grand Prize $2500! Our judges read anonymously, so everyone has the fairest of chances here. www.smokelong.com/the-smokelon...

We all see the truth here. We all see it...

#LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched Anora, Emilia Pérez, The Piano Lesson... Still so many more movies in my queue!