As summer rolls around you may start thinking about the beach, the lake, or whatever happy place you hope to spend a modicum of free time at while the sun is in the sky. I don’t know about you, but one of my favourite things to do in my down time is pick up a great book. Unfortunately it is getting harder and harder to get through an 80k novel these days, there simply isn’t the time. Fortunately I have just the thing.
The Flashdogs are a collective of absolutely top notch writers from around the globe that specialize in short fiction (up to 1000 words). These talented guys & gals can take a simple photograph and transport you to far away places in the time it takes the kettle to boil. Every week they hone their craft on a variety of flash writing challenges, vying for the coveted bragging rights. Everyone brings their A game, but the spirit is one of collaboration rather than competition, which sums up these anthologies perfectly.
This is actually the second Flashdogs anthology. You can find the first one on Amazon here. As you can see below, what makes Volume 2 special is that it is actually split into two different versions, based around the theme of the upcoming Solstice. Dark and Light both contain different prompts and different stories from the same fab group of writers and are designed to compliment and mirror each other. The hardest choice for me is going to be which one to read first!
As you may have guessed, I’m particularly excited about these anthologies because I have stories in both of them, two stories in each. I was genuinely surprised and honoured to receive an email from Flashdogs HQ asking if I would like to be involved. I’ve followed this awesome group of writers since their inception and thoroughly enjoyed their first anthology, so to be included in volume two is something I’m extremely proud of.
Knowing a story you write is going to be published really raises the stakes. My typical approach to writing flash is to sit down and blurt out the first thing that pops into my head. If it’s a good day I’ll stop to make a couple of quick revisions and Bob’s your uncle, ready to go. For a project such as this though I had more time to play with. This was both a blessing and a curse. To get to those final four stories I actually ended up writing seven different stories. That doesn’t even include revisions, I mean seven completely separate tales! One prompt in particular just wouldn’t come together for me, I ended up rewriting it from scratch three different times, one of which was on the morning of the deadline. Ironically it’s the story I ended up liking the most of the four.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see several of these names on future New York Times Bestseller lists!
The anthologies are available as either paperbacks or e-books, and all the money raised goes to the fantastic charity of the book bus. They go on sale tomorrow (June 21st) in celebration of the Summer/Winter Solstice (depending on which side of the planet you live on). Links to all the books for the various Amazon stores can be found on the Flashdogs website here. If you don’t have a Kindle you can still read the e-book versions, either on your computer or by downloading the kindle app on your phone or tablet.
If you’d like to find out more about the Flashdogs you can follow them on twitter @flashdogs or visit their website http://theflashdogs.com
If you do happen to get copies of these anthologies I would love to know your thoughts!
