Author Archives: Jude

More on the 4th Flash Festival Anthology

Three books, red, orange and yello with Flash Fiction Festival written on the cover We making a rainbow of Festival Anthology books! The first three contain stories prompted by workshops at the face-to-face festivals in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Red, orange and yellow covers, pictured here. We had to cancel our festival in 2020 and our plans for another anthology but we’re publishing the fourth anthology, sponsored by Ad Hoc Fiction later this year. And it will be green, the next colour in the order of the rainbow. Read in Full

Hermit-Crab Hangouts

picture of a red crab in the yellow shell of another creature

picture by David Clode, Unsplash

A Hermit crab, lives in the empty shells of other sea creatures. A hermit crab flash fiction story finds a home in the form of some other kind of prose. Recipes are used quite commonly to create fictions. For example, stories about relationships, romance, break ups. Just think of those recipe verbs, fold, mix, sprinkle, whisk, bake, simmer, stew, beat…

We’re running The Great Festival Cup Cake Contest through May, June, July and August for a Hermit-crab style 150 word max micro in the form of a cup-cake recipe. £5.00 an entry with half the proceeds (minus paypal charges) going to the winner and half to the Huntington’s Disease Association charity. Book bundle donated by Ad Hoc Fiction for the runner up. Closing date 31st August. Diane Simmons, one of our festival directors, who was also a judge for the flash-off challenges on the first festival day in March, is judging this competition.

Woman with chin length greay hair smiling. Sparkly necklace.

Jude Higgins

Our other Flash Festival Director, Jude Higgins is now running a FREE hour-long hermit-crab hangout every Thursday 5.00 pm – 6.00 pm BST, Beginning Thursday 6th May for those who want to try out their hermit-crab recipe flash fictions. We’ll cover ideas for light and fluffy, dense, funny, sweet, salty, surreal, speculative, dark and historical cup cake micros using a variety of cup-cake recipes. We’ll also try out other styles of hermit-crab shells, which could be combined with a recipe. For eg. a multiple-choice recipe story or other types of instructions and lists. Bring your ideas and your recipes. Contact Jude {at} flashfictionfestival {dot} com for a recurring zoom link. Hope to see you there for some flashy fun!

The Great Festival Cupcake Contest

abhishek-hajare on unsplash

The whole Great Festival Flash-Off six day series was inspired by the Great British Bake Off and writer, teacher and editor, Nancy Stohlman’s fun definition of flash fiction; in her interview with April Bradley in Smokelong Literary. There, Nancy said flash was the cupcake of literature
On each of six days there are three writing challenges set by our different wonderful Flash-Off judge duos, but for those who can’t make the festival days for whatever reasons, we also have The Great Festival Cupcake Contest open to all. Read in Full

Our First Flash-Off Winners!

Photo by tuva-mathilde-loland, Unsplash

Diane Simmons and Robert Barrett were our Great Festival Flash-Off judges on the first festival day, March 27th. They set three writing challenges: The Signature Challenge which Diane judged, The Technical Challenge which Robert judged and The Showstopper which they judged jointly. Writers had one week to complete their stories and we had a substantial amount of entries for each category. Thanks so much to everyone who gave it a go. And thank you very much to our judges for their great prompts and for taking on their own challenge of cloning Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith from The Great British Bake Off (which inspired the three writing tasks). Many congratulations to the winners! Virtual celebratory cake and fireworks for all!
Read in Full

Great Festival Flash Off Anthology!

Great news for all Festival Flashers! Ad Hoc Fiction, our award winning short-short press will be publishing an anthology of flash fictions from the Great Festival Flash Off. It will be available to buy from the adhocfiction bookshop and on Amazon worldwide in kindle and paperback. And as with all our competition anthologies, all contributors will receive a free copy of the book, posted worldwide.

To be included:

the winning and short listed stories from the three Flash Off challenges each month, selected by the wonderful monthly judge-duos;
stories submitted that were started by participants in any of the workshops on the six festival days;
the winners and shortlisted from the ‘Cupcake’ micro contest.

The ‘Cupcake micro’ contest is undergoing an exciting re-vamp currently and more details will be posted about that shortly.

This anthology will join three others from our face-to-face festivals. Jude is pictured in festive attire with them here.

Do book to be in with a chance of winning a prize and being published in our anthology.

If cost is a barrier to participating in any of the days, contact us. We have some free places for each month of the series.

The Great Festival Flash Off

Instead of a face-to-face festival, this year, we give you The Great Festival Flash Off!
Six days of festive fun and flash hosted by festival director, Jude Higgins, on Zoom.

£30 a day, 11.00 am GMT to 8.00 pm GMT

Saturdays: March 27th; April 24th; May 29th; June 26th; July 31st; August 28th.
All details and booking open now via PayPal at flashfictionfestival.com
Read in Full

Flash Fiction Festival Micro Contest, winner and runners up!

photograph by Royston Hunt www.earthnotes.co.uk

Thank you to everyone from around the world who entered our Festival Micro competition. The challenge was to write a 150 word micro fiction prompted by the photograph above, ‘Prickly Chairs’ taken by photographer Royston Hunt.

We received 111 entries. Our judges, Festival Directors Diane Simmons and Jude Higgins, found out a lot of new information about cacti and there were so many inventive stories. We really enjoyed reading them this week, eventually whittling down our choices to the following brilliant micros:

Winner:

‘Eye, Aye, I’, by Kathryn Clark.
Kathryn wins ‘The Arizona Collection’ a set of 12 notelets of gardens in Arizona, including two cards of the prompt photograph, generously donated by Royston Hunt and her micro is now published on his website alongside the photograph. She also wins a copy of one of the three Flash Fiction Festival Anthologies.

Runners up, in alphabetical order:

‘Green Gardens’, by Amy Barnes.

‘A Brief History of My Family’s Recent Encounters with Cacti/Cactuses’, by Francis McCrickard.

‘Survival Skills’, by Lucy Zhang.

All runners up win a copy of one of the three Flash Fiction Festival Anthologies.

Congratulations to all! And thank you to everyone who entered.

Festival Micro Contest Open Now!

At each of the Flash Fiction Festivals (2017, 2018 and 2019) we’ve run a festival-long micro contest. This year, because the Festival was cancelled, it’s online and free for all flash enthusiasts whether you have been to the festival or not. Open for entries now and closing on Thursday 18th June at midnight BST. .

Your challenge Write a micro 150 words maximum prompted by the images in the photograph of the cacti garden in Arizona below.

The Rules: A previously unpublished piece pasted into the body of an email (no attachments) sent to
jude at flashfictionfestival dot com Up to 150 words. Subject line ‘Festival Micro’. No communication with the judge about the story. No author names on the stories, no stories accepted after the deadline of midnight BST, 18th June.

Your judge: Jude Higgins, Festival Director, pictured above holding the three festival anthologies.

The Prizes:
The first prize winner will receive ‘The Arizona Garden Collection’ a box of 12 beautiful notelets (including a card of the image reproduced here) generously donated by photographer Royston Hunt and the winning micro published on his blog to accompany the picture.(Check out his website to see this collection and all the cards he has for sale). In addition s the winner will receive one copy of any of the three flash fiction festival anthologies published by Ad Hoc Fiction

Two runners up will receive one copy of any of the three festival anthologies.

Results announced on Saturday morning, 20th June.
(Other festival events you might be interested in include Summer Solstice Stories, a workshop with Jude 20th June.
Flash Fiction Festival Friday, 19th June. Readings from festival presenters
Novella-in-Flash readings with authors from Ad Hoc Fiction, V, Press and Truth Serum Press, Sunday 21st June).

photograph by Royston Hunt www.earthnotes.co.uk

Summer Solstice Stories with Jude Higgins

photograph by Royston Hunt www.earthnotes.co.uk

Last minute opportunity! Join an extended version of the workshop I was going to offer at our cancelled festival, on Zoom on the day of the Summer Solstice, Saturday 20th June 3.30 pm – 6.00 pm BST. I like writing flash fictions inspired by myths, dreams and fairy tales and have had several published. Most recently my micro ‘Persephone Holds a Q & A on Zoom’ on NFFD 2020 Flash Flood. I’d love to enthuse you all to tap into this rich vein and write fiction on the longest day of the year, when myth abounds.
Booking for this workshop now closed. Contact Jude (jude at judehiggins dot com) if you want information about other workshops she might run

During the time we’ll take a brief look at summer solstice stories and the ways mythological stories are structured and I’ll give you four exercises and ideas to create your own contemporary summer solstice flash fiction myths.

You’ll have writing time in the main group, followed by time in small break-out groups after each writing exercise to meet other flash fiction writers from around the world to chat and share or discuss your drafts. You’ll come away with four new drafts and also, within the price of the ticket, you’ll have an opportunity to get feedback from me on one draft after the workshop if you send me your piece.

It will be a fast, fun and friendly session.50 places maximum. Beginners and experienced writers welcome. All proceeds go to funds for next year’s festival which we plan to organise for June 2021. £30.

Find out more about the three other things happening during the festival weekend. Flash Fiction Festival Friday Readings with presenters who would have run workshops at the cancelled festival. June 19th.
Novella in Flash readings, Sunday June 21st
Free micro contest with lovely prizes. Open now. Closed June 18th. Announced June 20th.
Find out more about me and my other workshops at judehiggins.com

Novella-in-flash Readings! Sunday 21st June

We’d planned several sessions on the popular Novella-in-Flash form at the 2020 Flash Fiction Festival which we had to cancel earlier in this year. But now we’re very excited to offer a free evening of readings on Zoom on Sunday 21st June 7.00 pm – 9.30 pm BST hosted by Festival Director, Jude Higgins,to celebrate novella-in-flash authors published or soon to be published by Ad Hoc Fiction and V.Press in the UK and Truth Serum Press in Australia. The authors are pictured in the gallery below with their names and titles of their novellas. To get a Zoom invite email Jude at flashfictionfestival dot com
We think this might be the first reading event of its kind totally dedicated to the novella-in-flash! Each writer will read one short piece to give a flavour of their novellas and we will have break-out groups in between each group of four readers so guests can chat with flash fiction friends from around the world. We’d love to see you at the event.

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Readers from novellas-in-flash published by Ad Hoc Fiction in 2019 include:
Johanna Robinson, shortlisted in the Saboteur Awards 2020 and runner up in the 2019 Bath Flash NIF Award and Dan Crawley, Debra A Daniel and Francine Witte, highly commended in the 2019 Bath Flash NIF Award. All these novellas are available from the online Ad Hoc Fiction Bookshop.

We also have readings by Mary-Jane Holmes winner of the 2020 Bath Flash NIF Award and the two runners up, Erica Plouffe Lazure and Tracey Slaughter, plus highly commended authors, Alison Woodhouse, Louise Watts, Karen Jones and Nicholas Cook. Their novellas will be published by Ad Hoc Fiction later this year.
It’s a pleasure too that Michelle Elvy, is reading from her ‘small novel in small forms’ published by Ad Hoc Fiction in June 2019.

Representing novellas-in-flash from V.Press, we have readings from:
Diane Simmons shortlisted in the 2020 Saboteur Awards Novella category, Damhnait Monaghan who won the 2020 Saboteur Award Novella category and Michael Loveday who was shortlisted in the 2019 Saboteur Award for his novella in flash and who has also judged the Bath Flash NIF Awards in 2019 and 2020.

Representing novellas-in-flash from Truth Serum Press
We’re delighted to welcome Nod Ghosh.