This month’s Mondettes are from the ever delightful S A Greene.
S A Greene’s short fiction has appeared in numerous online journals (including Janus Literary, trampset, Mslexia, Maudlin House, Flash Flood, Reflex Fiction, The Phare, Ellipsis Zine, Free Flash Fiction, and Sledgehammer Lit) and in a number of print anthologies (including the 2023 Bath Flash Fiction Award). Her work often features tables (dining, kitchen, picnic), but it has also featured a blue sponge, a musical vagina, a foetus with dodgy political views, homesick capybaras, duplicitous eels, a mysterious wombat, and Champion the Wonder Horse. Her stories have received 2 Pushcart nominations, 2 Best Microfiction nominations, and the blue sponge one made the 2022 Wigleaf Top 50 Longlist.
She tweets at @SAGreene1 and blueskies at SAGreene1.bsky.social
S A Greene is a Resident Facilitator at Flash Cabin this year. She’d love you to join her in the Cabin for the workshop ‘Write Like A Cubist Paints’ on February 24th, details and bookings at Write Like a Cubist Paints. And keep an eye on the Flash Cabin website for her upcoming Dolly-Parton-themed generative workshop in May!
If you aren’t familiar with her work, here’s one of her pieces to start things off:
Brand-New Blue Sponge to Clean Up After A Memorable Dinner For Two (S A Greene | Janus Literary)
Why I like it: the wonderful back-and-forth structure of “the man” / “the woman”, the rich specificity of the details and the way a reader is asked to interpret each of these body language moments, how everything builds towards that brilliant endpoint.
Bunnies (Kik Lodge | Ellipsis Zine)
Why I like it: Because this bizarre and twisted story unsettled me at the start and went on to make me cringe, squirm, laugh nervously, and feel increasingly anxious. Little details appear trivial but contribute strongly to the characterisation and sense of weirdness. Subtle breadcrumbing of family dysfunction, withheld parental love, sibling rivalry and obsession underpin the wackiness with a strange poignancy.
Domestic Fiction (Michelle Ross | Pithead Chapel)
Why I like it: The characterisation is superb – oh, that entitled patronising male writer! The precise, matter-of-fact tone of the first-person narrator that lets the reader decide what to think. The topical and timeless subject-matter. The way the writer trusts the intelligence of the reader – nothing is forced, everything is conveyed. A delicious, enraging and engaging read.
Everything So Different and the Same (K.C. Mead-Brewer | Fractured Lit)
Why I Like It: Because this tiny story says so much about love and living and dying. The poetic effect achieved by the anaphora – all but one of the sentences begin with ‘How’. The rhythm of the piece and the beauty of the language – ‘ How quiet, a tree. How peaceful. How they shade brides and graves alike.’ The devastating final sentence.
PROMPT: Think of a natural object or phenomenon. Describe it in a series of sentences, with all or most of them beginning with the same word. Vary the sentence length. As you write, begin relating the descriptions to a human story. This could be one to start writing without an ending in mind and let the underlying story emerge as you write.
If Your Childhood Runs Away To The Forest And Comes Back Part Forest (Erin Calabria | nurture literary)
Why I like it: The originality of the concept. The sumptuous imagery, which never slows things down but is thoroughly intertwined with the story and characterisation: ‘Never mind how you find her there like some churchyard statue sleepwalking from its grave’. The tone - so loving and wistful, yet also honest and clear-eyed. And the way the ending lands perfectly, gathering up all the preceding tenderness and placing it squarely in the heart.
A Stork Arrives at My Doorstep Expecting a Baby (Regan Puckett | Flash Flood)
Why I like it: This tiny, exquisitely wrought gem of a story is gentle and understated but has a devastating impact. I love the characterisation of the weary but polite stork. ‘She settles on the couch, nodding her beak when I offer tea.’ I love the quiet rapport between the stork and the narrator and the fact they drink a cup of tea together. Nothing is spelled out for us – we don’t know why there isn’t a baby, but we don’t need to know. The ending appears to land so softly, yet delivers all the emptiness in the world.
Sometimes she wishes he was dead, but then she’d miss him (Dawn Tasaka Steffler | Flash Frog)
Why I Like It: The heartrending nature of the conflict of the mother. The distillation of her position in the sentence: ‘She can see his childhood face peeking out from his adult head, partially balding, skin leathery and dark from the sun, open, oozing sores by his mouth.’ The unflinching details, for example the mother not inviting him into the car because of the smell of his urine lingering the last time. The presents she buys him – all things to make him clean, and which she knows he will not use. The way the story moves through its settings. The way this masterful, scalding story shows us how, as the title suggests, seeing her son once a year is almost more painful than never seeing him at all.
Murmuration (Sally Jubb | Bath Fiction Award)
Why I like it: The way it unsettled me from the first sentence. The heightening effect achieved by contrasts – between the familiar, non-threatening setting and the increasing sense of creepiness; between the gorgeous sensual things like chocolate and lupins and the remoteness of the narrator. The hint of sadness about the narrator’s relationship with her child. The way the structure affects the impact – the first 3 paragraphs are of equal length and appear conversational and unhurried, but the final paragraph which starts off equally conversationally, is less than half the length of the preceding 3 and ends suddenly, taking us short (literally) with an abruptness and decisiveness that delivers an icy shock. I wondered (and worried) about all three characters long after I finished reading this.
Prompt: Write a story in which a first-person narrator is describing watching two people from a hidden vantage point. As they describe the surroundings and the actions of the two people, reveal more of the narrator’s character and motives in a way that is likely to disconcert a reader.
Mastodon (Robert P. Kaye | JMWW)
Why I Like it: Because of the originality of the idea. Because of Wayne’s bonkers but almost-in-a-way-logical project. How the short abrupt not-proper-sentences convey his determination and character. Wayne’s interested but unshocked response to his ‘finds’. The low-key but respectful relationship between Wayne and Boris. The touches of humour – at one point Wayne says to the Stone Age man ‘You want to come up to the house, have a beer and talk about it?’ The deft touches of backstory. The way this unique and beautifully crafted story shows a longing to belong, to connect, that is universal and timeless.
Warm Days Will Never Cease (Deborah Zafer | Scrawl Place)
Why I Like It: The way the seasons framing the story are described in terms of clothing and colours. The lightness of touch – for example the way the strength of the friendship is indicated by ‘the evening air carries the murmurs of people who are not us and do not matter.’ The way the narrator avoids facing the truth for as long as she can. The parallels between the condition of the John Keats bench and the condition of Anna. The way the sense of place and John Keats and his words are woven into the story. The sad, inevitable ending. The hopefulness within that sadness.
Old Men (Jeff Friedman | 100wordstory.org)
Why I Like It: Because it’s whimsical and lyrical and sometimes playful, but never twee and always intelligent. Because of the visual images it creates in my mind. Because it pushes flash prose so close to the border with poetry. Because its joyousness and almost-nonsensicalness are anchored by the poignant ending. And because I wish I had written it!
What did you think of these choices? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments - have you found a new favourite piece? Did you try out one of the prompts?
Next month’s selection will be chosen by Melissa Llanes Brownlee and will be appearing (fingers crossed) on the 20th February.
Would you like to be a story-picker in the future? Let me know!
Opportunities to work with Matt
Write Beyond the Lightbulb
I’m delighted to announce that I’ll be starting up my #WriteBeyondTheLightbulb courses again in 2024:
Colourful Characters (8th-21st April 2024): BOOK NOW! (FOUR PLACES LEFT!)
Go With The Flow (9th-19th May 2024): BOOK NOW! (ELEVEN PLACES LEFT!)
Lyrical Writing (3rd-16th June 2024): FIND OUT MORE (GET YOUR NAME ON THE PRIORITY LIST!)
Editing
NOVEL / NOVELLA EDITING: First steps review, structural review, line edit, proof edit, submission review
EDITING FOR COLLECTIONS: structural overview report, line edit, proof edit
SHORT FICTION EDITING: Structural review, line edit, detailed edit, proof edit