Things that are bringing me joy this year number 23. I loved the @smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge. Such a great way to remind us that flash doesn't have to be ephemeral. If you want some great reading, use the hashtag to see all the brilliant pieces that were highlighted over the challenge.
Thanks to @smokelong.bsky.social for running the #ArchiveChallenge - it's been fun seeing old stories shared with new audiences!
Special shout out to @adelegallogly.bsky.social @pleomorphic2.bsky.social @michellefb.bsky.social @christinaltudor.bsky.social @kimmurdock.bsky.social for your shares ❤️
@smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge This is a very off-kilter story which is one my favorite styles to write. Really great work on a difficult and sensitive topic.
Been loving your shares, Michelle! Thanks for making the #archivechallenge such fun to participate in.
Thank you to @nffr.bsky.social for your fantastic canon of flash stories! During the #archivechallenge, I'm thrilled to have discovered new flash writers that I've become big fans of. Keep up the GREAT work! #flashfiction
Thank you @summermoth.bsky.social for spotlighting my prose poem, "Radium Girls" for the @smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge! It was published in the awesome Flash Flood Journal! flashfloodjournal.blogspot.com/2024/06/radi...
'let the radioactive dust coat them so they’d glow like fireflies when they danced with their sweethearts at night'
From 2024, 'Radium Girls' by @kathrynsilverhajo.bsky.social flashfloodjournal.blogspot.com/2024/06/radi...
@smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge - and that's a wrap! (5/5)
'I only glimpse them when the garden is moonlit - and they take to the air like phantoms.'
From 2022, 'The Call of Owls' by John Holland flashfloodjournal.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-...
@smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge (4/5)
'Four hours in the arms of demons is the most enervating method of transportation imaginable'
From 2020, 'First Man on the Moon' by @rosiegarlandwriter.bsky.social flashfloodjournal.blogspot.com/2020/06/firs...
@smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge (3/5)
'the young women shared snippets about their trousseau: sweet perfumes, shimmering frocks, and lace ribbons'
From 2018, 'Dark Horse' by @downith.bsky.social flashfloodjournal.blogspot.com/2018/06/dark...
@smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge (2/5)
@smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge
(Bonus) Day 15! I only posted one story per day and per year of the FlashFlood, so here are a few more that caught my attention as I was reading though but didn't end up being the one I actually shared! (1/5)
@smokelong.bsky.social - Since we've been talking about titles! #archivechallenge
This title drew me in, and the story has a surprising emotional arc. I also love the use of "invulnerable" in the first sentence. Fantastic word choice!
newflashfiction.com/used-hearse-...
@smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge
Love this from @sarahillswrites.bsky.social and @nffr.bsky.social and all its specific details. Man, you can smell that diaper air!
newflashfiction.com/trip-trappin...
This great sentence will haunt me: "a swirling mist of urine and meatballs."
One last #ArchiveChallenge post because Kathryn McMahon's "It Would Not Have Our Bones" in @thecitronreview.bsky.social is SO GOOD. We've talked about tension in @smokelong.bsky.social Summer. This is a great example. I love the slow build and the final release. citronreview.com/2017/04/17/i...
"Jesus’ English was the kind that caught looks in white neighborhoods"
Love the insistent anaphora repetition of this piece, another one that does so much to explore society, culture & truth:
www.smokelong.com/stories/we-h...
@smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge
"There’s a dog curled up, sleeping. There are crows, screaming. Behind the dog, below the crows, there is a wall"
The use of insistent repetition in this piece from last year is so startling. Brilliant, intense writing:
www.smokelong.com/stories/a-ca...
@smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge
"Heatwave crabs into her portholes. The sun rises hotter every day. As water levels drop, life clings sharp into claw."
Anything by Liz Ingram Wallace is worth reading, but this is a real favourite:
www.smokelong.com/stories/liqu...
@smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge
"Once we lived like locals. Rented a single-story cape in Brigantine with a peeling front porch and a hammock and a doormat of fake grass"
Brilliant piece that shifts so effortlessly between time periods:
www.smokelong.com/stories/wolf...
@smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge
"Boy, on the night your mother brought you into this noisy, miserable world, at exactly 11:18 pm, on a rainy Thursday"
Another breathless paragraph. I love the tone of voice in this one:
www.smokelong.com/stories/boy/
@smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge
"I got this DNA test for my dog because he looks like a cloud and he looks like a luckdragon"
A stunning, breathless paragraph full of impact and truth; so much for a reader to ponder here:
www.smokelong.com/stories/all-...
@smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge
It feels only fitting for the final day of the #ArchiveChallenge to celebrate the wonderful @smokelong.bsky.social themselves.
So much originality and emotional power in this piece from 2018:
www.smokelong.com/stories/alli...
A firm favourite!
@smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge
Oh and I love the rhythm of this next story...
"We live in the forest because the trees are gone. All of our shade comes from elsewhere, and it cannot stay. We build our houses out of stumps, on stumps."
www.identitytheory.com/sisters-jess...
@smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge
"Erosion here is constant, and people often need rescuing from the collapsing edges."
This story by Rebecca Winterer in @identitytheory.bsky.social tenderly combs through memories washed up on the shores.
Last day of @smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge
www.identitytheory.com/toy-collector/
Day 15 @smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge from @nffr.bsky.social this amazing piece so full of that teenage hubris by @yasminadinmadden.bsky.social
"We don’t know grown men who don’t come in a pair and we are suspicious. "
newflashfiction.com/we-wonder-by...
'She has jars filled with spices and small-town secrets.'
Day 14: We're up to date - from just last month, I love the voice in 'A Diner Full of Nothin'' by @kathyhoyle.bsky.social flashfloodjournal.blogspot.com/2025/06/a-di...
@smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge
@smokelong.bsky.social #archivechallenge
Prose poetry is tough for me, but this story resonates with my personal experience abroad.
"Understanding the book was like trying to touch a whitecap on an ocean wave as it washed back out to sea."
newflashfiction.com/kathleen-mcg... @nffr.bsky.social
Day 14 @smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge
THE BIG FINALE!!!
Wrapping up the challenge at @nffr.bsky.social with Elisabeth Ingram Wallace. I love this deliciously dark story written in fragments & how perfectly the form suits the subject matter.
newflashfiction.com/special-feat...
"Hi, Natalie," I said. "Where's Janine?"
"I ate her," Natalie said without looking in my direction.
Last day of @smokelong.bsky.social's #ArchiveChallenge
Taking it back to year one at @wigleaf.bsky.social with this agile, intricate character study by Tai Dong Huai.
wigleaf.com/200810natali...
I love what Abigail Hancher does in "The Water Boils" from Summer 2017 in @thecitronreview.bsky.social. The cadence and imagery of swimming and strokes and overlaying that to tell a larger story about rape is haunting. citronreview.com/2017/06/22/t... @smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge
