I have decided to start the Fabulous Flash Award to spotlight some folks I feel deserve recognition for their, well… fabulous flash fiction. I read a lot of flash fiction every month, and some of it is simply outstanding. Humor that really makes me laugh. Stories about the human condition so poignant they bring tears to my eyes. Horror so disturbing it haunts me for days on end. Flash like that is hard to write. Authors who take the time and effort to create well crafted stories deserve a little recognition beyond the, “That was great,” comment at the bottom of their post.
Therefore I am rolling out the Fabulous Flash Award. It doesn’t come with any money (alas, I am not wealthy), but with plenty of heartfelt thanks and admiration, as well as a cool little blog badge.
As we all know, web awards always come with strings attached. This one is no exception (though none of the following is mandatory). So here’s the drill. Recipients of the Fabulous Flash Award should:
- acknowledge receiving the award in a blog post
- link back to the person who awarded it
- select four other fabulous flashers to receive the award to keep spreading the joy
- write one or two short lines explaining why you’ve chosen each recipient
- optionally (I know not everyone is on Twitter) tweet, “I just gave the Fabulous Flash Award to (name). They’re worth reading.” Include a shortened URL back to your post in the tweet.
While I am heavily involved in #fridayflash, it is not necessary for the person receiving the award to be a #fridayflash participant. The writer just needs to be posting fabulous flash fiction on the web. With a little additional recognition it just may help drive another reader or two their way.
The Envelope, Please
So, with no further ado, I would like to give the following writers the first four Fabulous Flash Awards:
- Shannon Esposito writes across a wide variety genres on her blog, Murder in Paradise. No matter if it’s literary, horror, or slice of life, the quality of writing is always terrific and the story always worth the read. Follow @soesposito on Twitter.
- Clive Martyn posts flash on his blog, A Writer’s Story. Clive has a unique voice and is not afraid to experiment. I liked one of his pieces so much, I selected it as the Editor’s Choice in the upcoming Best of #fridayflash Anthology. You can follow him as @CliveM on Twitter.
- Maria Protopapadaki-Smith posts on her blog Mazz In Leeds. She is quite versatile, ranging from outrageous humor, to disturbing horror, to quite moving slice of life. Maria is consistently good, and always a joy to read. Follow @mass_in_Leeds on Twitter to keep up with her exploits.
- John Wiswell is flat out funny. While his flash is not always humor, the preponderance of it is. Humorous or not, it is always well written, and can be found on his blog, The Bathroom Monologs. Follow @Wiswell on Twitter. You won’t be disappointed.
Well, there you have it. Four excellent purveyors of flash fiction. Read them. Follow them. Support them. Next month I’ll highlight four more flashers I think deserve a good shout out. There is a lot of great flash fiction out there, just waiting to be read.
~jon
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What a fabulous idea! (no pun intended);)
It’s nice to have an award that focuses particularly on the flash, rather than on the blog.
Wow Jon – I’m absolutely overwhelmed. Thank you so much.
It’s an honour to be on this list, amid such illustrious company to boot!
Ack, now how to choose four from such a long list of favourites..? *turns thinking cap on to overdrive mode*
Oh dear, now the pressure is on for me to produce something decent for next week, and I haven’t had a smidgen of an idea yet
Yes, choosing four from all the folks doing fabulous flash was very hard for me too. That’s why I’m going to do it again next month (and most likely monthly). There are so many writers out there that deserve this award.
~jon
Well done, Jon
Super idea, John. I seem to have writer’s block toward the short pieces lately. So glad there are people out there excelling with very hard flash fiction!
What a wonderful idea! This is another great way of spreading the word about the community and highlighting the excellent work we see around there.
I could not agree more with your first choices. The ones I know, alas. I’ve missed Shannon’s and Clive’s work in the plethora of amazing stories posted every week. Of course I’m checking their work out at once!
Oh, what a nice surprise, Jon! This gives me such warm fuzzies. Thanks…going to go spread the admiration right now.
(Only 4??? yikes 
I love love love Shannon’s work. So tickled to see her first on the list…but how can you not love John’s and Maria’s and Clive’s work as well? Great choices to kick this off jon.
:0)
note: Mazz’s twitter handle has zzz’s not sss’s [that's fun to say]
Thank you for honoring the Bathroom Monologues, Jon! I’m flattered. I’ll pass this on either tomorrow or Tuesday.
Thank you Jon – was a fantastic surpise to recieve this. I will get thinking about the next four
Super idea Jon! And congrats to the vanguard of 4 — all super flashers indeed! Peace…
Nice idea, Jon, and excellent choices.
Alright Jon, I passed it on:
http://johnwiswell.blogspot.com/2010/07/awards.html
Remixed it with a One Lovely Blog award. Hope you enjoy my revelations as well as my recipients.
If everyone honors the the award conditions, and happens to pass to exclusive four others, then 256 flash writers will receive one within a month. Many might consider searching for new recruits to pass to.
That is one of the reasons I said it was not necessary for the recipient to be a #fridayflash writer. I think pointing out terrific flash on the web, no matter who it is from, will elevate the buzz.
It’s also why, as hard as it was for me to do it, I limited to four. I could easily have listed a couple of dozen without even having to think about it. Maybe it should have been just one or two?
But the cat’s out of the bag now, and there’s no stuffing it back in the bottle, to mix my metaphors.
~jon
I passed mine on today Jon. http://bit.ly/bts7bc
It was hard to narrow it down to just four.
*shudders at the idea of narrowing it down to just two*
:0)
Sorry I’m so late in reading this Jon, (been away this past week).
This certainly is a fabulous idea, and I couldn’t agree more with your choices, and your reasons for them. Shannon, Clive, Maria and John’s stories always leave me cracking up, crying, or downright scared out of my wits! And always thinking, which, in my humble opinion, is what flash should be all about. Congratulations to you all!
Thanks so much Jon for all you do for our community!