Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online March 2018

A rather unprecedented four original stories mark Flash Fiction Online’s March offerings, ushering in the official spring months (though where I am there’ll still be snow into May) with a heavy issue full of abuse, grief, and fear. Which, hey, these are the times we live in. The stories are beautiful, exploring a rich variety of themes while maintaining a tone and mood that’s a mix of shadows and the singularity of a black hole. Characters reach of escapes from their pains, from their abuse, from their grief and despair. They stand transfixed between hope and destruction, between the thinnest thread leading toward a better place and the vast avenues leading toward ruin. It’s not a particularly happy month of very short fiction, but these are stories that bring a moving power and driving impact. They aren’t messing around, and I guess I shouldn’t either—to the reviews!

Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online May 2017

It’s May and so it’s rather fitting that this month’s stories from Flash Fiction Online focus on growth and transformation and budding love, all blooming in the shadow of loss and destruction and doom. The stories all feature characters caught in a moment of change. For some it might be a sudden shift to their world, a loss of the people who kept them safe and secure. For others it might be dealing with the prospect of change, with the advancing doom that seems like it might devour everything, that might take everything the characters have left. These are stories of spring, though, and hope, and pushing forward despite the hardship and despite whatever doom might come. The stories feature these characters choosing to grow and adapt and move forward, and they are beautiful to behold. So yeah, let’s get to those reviews!

Quick Sips - Clarkesworld #122

It's another packed month at Clarkesworld with six original stories, including a rather charming novelette in translation. And it's another month that is entirely science fiction, with a splash of science-fantasy thrown in for flavor. These are tales that show visions of the future, conflicts playing out for the soul of humanity and for the fate of planets. Many of the stories take their focus off of Earth to show what humanity is capable of, the way that it can move from place to place, leaving a trail of destruction behind it. There's hope, though, too, and the stories also show the power that humanity can hold to create and to change and to love. So yeah, review time! 

Art by Joseph Biwald

Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online November 2016

With the latest issue of Flash Fiction Online the publication continues its trend of recent months of focusing on the relationship between mothers and daughters. All three stories orbit this central relationship and the many forms it can take. And there is an additional focus in these stories of distance. The distance between a mother and a child. And the stories approach that very differently. These are very complex pieces, and ones that strike me as a definitely-not-objective reader. At their best the stories are brilliant examinations of scale and hope, difference and distance. So yeah, time to review! 

Art by Dario Bijelac

Quick Sips - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #205

The stories of this issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies look at violations. Abuses. The ways in which consent can be perverted, that relationships can become harmful. The stories look at how situations can become tainted, can become toxic. How, in the end, sometimes the best option is to escape. Sometimes the only hope is in escape. And perhaps to some extent in taking steps to remove the abusers from power. These are complex stories with that examine power and abuse and hope. Time to review! 

Art by Marek Hlavaty

Quick Sips - Flash Fiction Online

A new month means first stop: Flash Fiction Online! I swear I normally start here in part because it's less a huge commitment and the beginning of the month is always full. But also because I know that I will probably very much enjoy at least one story. Usually I like more than that, but one normally stands out to me as more "my thing." And this month is no exception. Three stories, on the shorter side even for flash, but still a nice mix of things. So let's get to the reviews!

Art by Dario Bijelac