Flash Fiction – Aly Writes

How to Revise Flash Fiction

With so much packed into so few words, every word has to earn its place. Somehow the piece has to move, needs to have conflict and shape and feeling.

Love is Just One Side of a Two-Faced Coin

Midweek, we’d steal moments between classes, adjourning to his office, door bolted, to debrief each other. We came close to getting caught more times than I can count, but people didn’t want to see what they didn’t want to see and so we carried on.

The botched pursuit of a mate by adult males of the order Lepidoptera

It’s 2:00 am, and I’m bent over the sink, sucking mango off the stone, juice running down my forearms and dripping onto yesterday’s dirty dishes. Seventy-two moth carcasses fill the garbage can in their crumpled Kleenex shrouds.

2022: A Retrospective

Distraction abounded this year, and I feel the need to remind myself of some of the things I can be proud of, hiding amongst the weeds.

Bah Humbug

What I wouldn’t give for a silent holy night without that snoring in the next room rattlin’ the window panes.

A Smart Accessory to Murder

Alexa, play that song that goes, “those black-eyed peas, they tasted alright to me, Earl.”

I Am the Deafening Silence

I am the slow spurt of water, reluctant, always too hot and always too cold. I am three hairs stuck to the shower wall in different coloured shapes and lengths that are so far from home they’ll never be un-lost.

The Earth is Flat and Other Lies I Tell Myself

Morning comes the way it always does, harsh and sudden and unwelcome. I’ll just hit snooze one more time. I won’t be late again.

The Girl Who Screamed in the Night

I fear for her and I fear her and I fear what kind of person I’ll become when screams in the night won’t lift me from my chair.

10 (More) Notable Canadian Literary Magazines

I’m back again with ten more quality literary publications that are based in Canada. Most of these magazines accept submissions from all over the world, but for all my fellow Canadian writers, it’s a little bit special to find a home for your work that is close to home.