August 2023
Ten stories picked by Amy Barnes
So, okay, I slightly dropped the ball with this newsletter. It sounded so simple - one story per day for a whole year. Tiny stories. A small slice of joy to begin each and every morning. But then, as it has a habit of doing, life got in the way. My body decided to go even wonkier than it was before, and I had to make a few sacrifices - you know, things like work and eating tomatoes and expecting to leave the house without it being a Herculean effort.
And while my health is still the shape of a mangled clothes hanger, I’m excited to be returning to Mondettes in a new format. From now on, I’m going to invite a different writer each month to pick ten stories they love, saying why they love them and providing a few prompts.
First up, is the wonderful Amy Barnes. Amy is the author of Child Craft (Belle Point Press, 9/5/23), Ambrotypes (word west press) and Mother Figures (ELJ Editions). Her words have appeared in many publications, including The Citron Review, JMWW, Trampset, Flash Frog, Leon Review, Complete Sentence, The Bureau Dispatch, Nurture Lit, X-R-A-Y Lit, McSweeney’s, Southern Living, SmokeLong Quarterly, and others. She’s been nominated for Best of the Net, the Pushcart Prize, Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, and long-listed for Wigleaf Top 50 in 2021, 2022, and 2023. She’s a Fractured Lit Associate Editor, Gone Lawn co-editor, Ruby Lit assistant editor and reads for The MacGuffin, Best Small Fictions, Mason Jar Press, and Narratively. Find her on Twitter, Instagram, and Bluesky at @amygcb.
**Amy’s new book “Child Craft” is forthcoming from Belle Point Press in September. You can pre-order it at the following links:
If you aren’t familiar with Amy’s work, here’s one of her pieces to start things off:
Dermatographia (Amy Barnes | Flash Frog)
Why I like it: the immediate intrigue created by that opening phrase “My mother sleeps in my bedside mirror”, the rich specificity in which Amy brings character and scene to life, how this story uses the speculative to hold a mirror up to the world.
Cupola (Jiksun Cheung | SmokeLong Quarterly)
Why I like it: the poignancy, strong sense of place, and narrator viewpoint. During the pandemic, SmokeLong held community Zooms where Jiksun read this in the wee hours where he lived. The printed words held so much loss; hearing it added even more depth.
PROMPT: A recent news story focused on lighthouses being sold or given away because newer technology has rendered them nearly-obsolete. Write a flash in a space like a lighthouse that has fallen out of use, an abandoned building or mall, a castle, an amusement park that once was bustling with tourists. Have your characters deal with a life change in that setting instead of describing their surroundings in great depth.
Public Transportation (Sara Hills | Flash Flood Journal)
Why I like it: Sara has written many memorable flashes but this is the one I go back to, for its unconventional characters, heart and empathy infused throughout – the bus setting illuminates and makes the surreal believable.
PROMPT: Write a flash with unconventional characters that exhibit human characteristics and emotions. To get started, make a list of your favorite animals and another list of people: aunts, uncles, cousins, mother, father, sister, brother, bus driver, postman, cashier, stewardess, cook, etc. Pick one from each column and write an anthropomorphized main character(s) in a realistic setting, where human characters don’t react to the animals filling in. Alternatively, write a flash with a public transportation setting.
A Dress of Shadows (Lisa Alletson | Gone Lawn)
Why I like it: I’m a sucker for great openings and characters: roller skater girl and a shadow dress – that’s what great flash is made of. Lisa’s always-poetic prose describes and draws the reader in from brilliant start to finish. A close second from Gone Lawn is James Montgomery’s “Cow Tree” which explores relationships too, with a dose of humor.
PROMPT: Find a main character and setting from your dreams. Remember the characters that are shadows or shadowed, empty or pierced, lost or found – write a flash where that main character describes their own dreams. Explore that dream within a dream through your character’s experiences.
In The First Draft The Baby Dies (Lindy Biller | SmokeLong Quarterly)
Why I like it: I did the interview for this flash; it was far more than a mother/child story. While that theme is enough, Lindy elevates it with hints of her culture and family, bringing poetic prose and surrealism to difficult subjects.
PROMPT: What is a story that your grandparents tell about how they arrived in this country? Your own birth story? Write a flash based on an important moment in your culture, background or heritage. Add in the unique details that create your origin story. Write as a creative non-fiction flash or fictionalize the names and characters.
Providence (Christopher Allen | Fractured Lit, Pure Slush)
Why I like it: This is another flash I first heard read aloud in a London church basement. The narrator and child’s voices are so identifiable, but also transport readers through careful worldbuilding. There’s a tenderness in the storytelling that belies the flash’s length.
PROMPT: Write a multi-generational flash including at least three generations. While the earliest family member may not need to speak or be present, include their influence, thoughts, advice, wisdom, culture in your storytelling. Help the reader feel how the grandmother/mother/child or grandfather/father/child’s lives intertwine, or don’t.
Gregor Mendel Never Knew My Father (Kristin Tenor | X-R-A-Y Lit Mag)
Why I like it: This is a “one that got away” from an editor’s perspective. It came through a Submittable queue, and even though we moved quickly, the X-R-A-Y acceptance was faster – for good reason. Kristin packs memorable characters and setting into a tiny space.
PROMPT: Choose a scientist or scientific fact and write a micro focusing on that person or fact. In Kristin’s story, the title carries a lot of weight. Try writing the title first to get started. Research what your chosen scientist’s greatest invention is and think about how it relates to your life and then expand it to a fictional character. You might tell the story of a person infatuated with lightbulbs, peanut butter, or the speed of light.
For Two Blue Lines (Hema Nataraju | Moria Online)
Why I like it: For this series, I found myself focusing on relationships, loss and sensory explorations of those themes. In this flash, Hema brings all that to life at its very base with a dive into dirt and fertility, infused with a cultural backdrop.
PROMPT: Write a flash with a child coming from an unusual source. The overall theme may still be mother and child but instead of a mother giving birth – try writing about a baby born from an inanimate object like chocolate pudding or the ocean or bricks.
Death is Colder Than Space (Cathy Ulrich | Parentheses Journal)
Why I like it: This is the first “Astronaut Wife” flash I read, and I found myself impressed with the careful and empathetic way Cathy presents her characters. Chloe Clark is another writer in a similar space (pun intended) who gifts readers with a glimpse into somewhere identifiable, but also worlds away.
PROMPT: Create a flash with a child living in the future. Try thinking along the lines of Bradbury’s “All Summer in a Day.” Is your child character living in a post-apocalyptic world or on another planet? Will children in the future raise themselves? Is your future child lost in a forest? After you build the place they’re living in, choose one adult or child character for them to interact with in your flash.
The Soup Kitchen Fathers (Casie Dodd | Slag Glass City)
Why I like it: That first line - “One year, all of my fathers lived in a soup kitchen.” Casie goes on to carefully unpack that opener and immerse readers in the setting and characters in a way that eschews pathos for memorable storytelling.
PROMPT: Write down a list of the people that have influenced your lives or become like a parent figure. That could be your third grade teacher or a next-door neighbor that let you borrow books or a negative force that changed your pathway. Pick two of those people and have them chat in a coffee shop. What would they talk about? You? Another student? Your siblings? Write that coffee shop chat or write a flash about their perceptions in a different setting.
Everything They Are Running To and A Few Things They Are Running Towards (Matt Kendrick | Cheap Pop)
Why I like it: It feels fitting to start this series with Matt. Sensory details always stand out in his writing; see his all white list flash. This Wigleaf50 flash features recurring images and word play, all poetically framed by the title.
PROMPT: Write a flash focused on one color. Start by choosing a color and write down all the things in that specific color that you can think of. Try contemplating emotions or feelings that make you think of that color as you write. Use the list format to link the different objects, people, places in that color together.
I hoped you enjoyed Amy’s recommendations this month. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. I’d also love to hear about any other brilliant ‘mondettes’ you’ve discovered over the past few weeks.
Next month’s selection will be manifesting itself on the 19th September and will be ten picks by the wonderful Gaynor Jones.
What’s going on in my world
As of today, I’ve opened back up to all forms of editing work, both short fiction and longer form stories. I’ve also reopened applications for my mentorship programme for the first time in eighteen months.
Short-Fiction Editing
Want an expert eye on a short story or flash fiction you are currently working on? Are you struggling to get to the heart of the story? Does the writing need a final polish at sentence level? I offer a variety of editorial services for short fiction from looking at the overall structure to approaching your writing with a magnifying glass.
https://www.mattkendrick.co.uk/short-fiction-editing
Editing for Novels, Novellas and Novellas-in-Flash
Working on a longer project? I know from writing my own novel how invaluable it can be to get input on your work-in-progress to help you move it along to the next level. I offer a variety of editorial services including:
First Steps Review: feedback on your outline plot and first 10,000 words (for writers who are just getting going with their first draft)
Structural Review: feedback on the narrative, structure, characters and emotional journey (for writers who have completed their first draft)
Submission Review: feedback on your cover letter, synopsis and first 10,000 words (for writers who are preparing to submit to agents)
https://www.mattkendrick.co.uk/novel-editing
Mentoring
Just starting out on your writing journey? Or perhaps you're a bit further along that journey and want help honing your craft at a word / sentence level? Or are you embarking on a new project and want some support as you take those first steps? In a one-to-one mentorship, I'll design a bespoke package that works for you, identifying short-term and long-term goals, putting in place a programme that helps you achieve them through a mix of monthly catch-up chats, feedback on your work and email support.
These are all wonderful! Grateful to you and to Amy!