Sean Lovelace is running right now, far. Other times he teaches at Ball State University. HOW SOME PEOPLE LIKE THEIR EGGS is his flash fiction collection by Rose Metal Press. His works have appeared in Crazyhorse, Diagram, Sonora Review, Willow Springs, and so on.
Ok, for the “Wink Wink” contest, the 2010 results are in!
It was tough, very tough–like counting lilies in a pond or bicycling on a bowling lane tough–to reach a decision.
I want to thank everyone including the various ANONs who turned in the usual crudely sexual themes. The internet could not exist without you, ANONs of the world.
The winner is “twice, never again” by Tom.
I found it ambiguous in a satisfying way, as opposed to confusing. I found I could read off-the-page and feel personal (I’ve felt this way with drugs, diet sodas, noodle shops, certain bedroom follies, etc.) but also universal (forgiveness of_____, themes of relationships, guilt, etc.). I thought it worthy of a late-night ponder. It generated momentum. It did not teach or preach. It appealed to my deeper self.
Congratulations, Tom. Send me an email (leapsloth14@hotmail.com) with address for your book, hot sauce, and deck of cards.
Finalists include:
“spooning in church” by Ben Brooks and “Corby trouser press” by Donald.
Look out in 2011 for Wink Wink 2.
Been following Hint Fiction?
If you read HTML, yes. (Thanks, Roxane)
I glow flash, write/teach/advocate for flash. But I’m wondering. When do we do this big, when do we go all the way, I mean fucking Double Down KFC big?
I want a contest where every submission is a blank page. Everything off the page.
Who will write the next silent symphony, the 4:33? The Godot of flash?
Who is up for a blank page flash contest?
Oh that’s just silly (or smart?). Let’s go 3, 3–a holy number, words. Give me 3 words. I’ll begin.
Dolphin Nachos, Bono?
(The award is a good book [my choice–it will rock ass], hot sauce [It will kill your spleen and brain. It will be hot like donuts or making out in the bathroom at that Halloween party] and a brand new deck of kick-ass cards [literary theme])
1. For those who want to get paid sometimes you don’t get paid but you are getting paid. Think like a bulb.
2. Things she is into/not into
3. Fucking A
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98JrWm9IMMA
4. Stymie Magazine is out and all ESPN and shit.
5. Don’t ask a running dog to sit. Editor.
Sorry. I was mara-stumbling (stumbling through a marathon)
Sorry. So drunk to not realize my drunkenness
Sorry. But you must order your life for it to fall apart
Want an hour to vanish politely? Well…gin
Anyone can panhandle at night. Even the afternoon. I’d like to see you properly panhandle in the morning
Strange. All whiskey is “fairly good.”
Is that you, trembling in the bed?
I can’t seem to click my tongue with my teeth. Maybe that’s only for novels, or sober people
Disgrace will dive at you!
Drunk as a fucking postage stamp
Me? I prefer an array of siphons and a punch bowl big as a synagogue
Ceiling up your honey! My Sara!
That’s cold
So I will try a not-suck one (warning: it might suck). Begin your story/exercise this way:
Socks you wear daily (not yours), revolver, dog you love, dragged out back in the snow falling darkness, dragged behind the dumpster with gun placed to head…Go.
Now, go ahead, say that is lame. Hell, I agree. Way too many images. Crazy off-the-page-subtext. Even seems a bit forced, possibly melodramatic. Even leaning prescriptive.
That’s a prompt?
Maybe the genre of prompt is actually like swimming a true mile (anyone?), as in tougher-than-I-fucking-thought?
Well, fuck. And you. And You try. One sentence, please.
Can I get a non-cliche prompt?
I do not want 1. Which god are you? 2. You drank a milkshake and feel weird. 3. Knock, knock. What was that?
Anything else is cool.
Add your writing prompt (this might appear later in a textbook. And I’m the type of person to pay you .00002 % royalty as opposed to those bastards stealing your idea at 0001%, ha, ha [no, seriously, ha, ha]).
Uh. The point is write ONE sentence as a writing prompt. Let’s see it.
I want to explain more about what I’m thinking, but I’m afraid it will make me seem stupid. I do worry about how I appear in this poem. It is not cool for a poet to appear to be anxious for praise and attention in a poem. It is not cool for anyone to appear to be anxious for praise and attention. I’m just saying something that is true. I hope you will not hold that against me, or this poem. I would suggest that if you do not feel that you, or those you admire, are anxious for praise and attention, then you are not looking at yourself and the world realistically. Of course, I’m not interested in saying insightful, realistic things, which I wouldn’t say except for the fact that I’m interested in saying insightful, realistic things.
1. Many editors, for many reasons, are only going to read your first paragraph. So this book be wicked. Opening paragraphs from all over literature, swathed and scissored by Donald Newlove’s mind. Tough to find? So, go looking. I got mine in 4 days for $4.
2. An interview of WORDS by Andy Devine at JMWW.
3. “Microscopic explorations of buds, calyxes and resin.” Yes, yes, just relax, get some nachos, and enjoy 4/20.
4. I think we need more Oulipo.
5. Or blow the fucking shack up.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Sa2oZWbmH8
2. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q90_ZjuKgo
3. Who is the best writer to not have a book?
4. Book I could do without.
5. Think how lame it is to send/receive the new sarcasm emoticon being bandied about. “Hey I am adding this emoticon because I think you are concrete. You just can’t go abstract and also you bore me and you talk really loud to boot.”
Life. In the bleachers.
No, no, gibberish with halos.
After a month’s sobriety my faculties became unbearably acute and I found myself unhealthily clairvoyant.
Make me a lovable drink.
Make me toxified.
First, catch the tuna. Then chop the tuna!
I need a pilgrimage.
Put a cork in my lunch, please.
Why does man feel so sad today?
Me? Mirror gloss on a shoe.
Alcohol guarantees that bad news will come true.
I said please!
The neighborhood is not glow. For some reason, dandelions have swarmed the lawns of our imaginations (and also our lawns). A vexation unseen. Everyone asks, “How do you kill the dandelions?”
Here’s one: What exactly is wrong with dandelions?
Someone relate this to writing.