Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online August 2018

I wasn’t sure if I was going to review this issue of Flash Fiction Online, because it is entirely made up of reprints. But because these reprints are from Flash Fiction Online, making up something of a “Our Favorites” issue chosen by the editorial staff, and because I don’t want to skip the publication this month, I’m going to do ahead and review the stories that I haven’t already reviewed (all of them but the Samantha Murray piece, which I did very enjoy). Many of the stories are about families or children, though in very different ways, and many of those feature a focus on the ways that adults impact young people, for good and for ill. So yeah, let’s get to the reviews!

Art by Dario Bijelac

Quick Sips - Fantasy Scroll #12

A new issue of Fantasy Scroll has dropped and this issue seems to me to be all about frustrated simplicity. Thinking something will be simple, will be easy, only to find that when you start pulling it apart there's all this…mess. All these angles that weren't considered and situations that weren't foreseen. Things go from bad to worse in some, from bad to better-but-not-great in others, from bad to still-rather-bad, and even from not-all-that-bad to oh-fuck-no!!!! These stories (and graphic story) around about having something in your grasp and then finding there's no ground beneath your feet, and either learning to fall well or trying to fly. Lots to look at, too, so I'm going to jump right in! 

Art by Jonathan Gragg