Market Call: Flashes in the Dark--Deadline May 1, 2017

Flashes in the Dark

Any Genre

Up to 500 words

Flash fiction with a dark theme or a twist

Send to tricia3718@gmail.com

Format .rtf or google docs following standard manuscript format

Deadline: May 1, 2017

Submissions should be under 500 words and can be any genre as long as they are dark or contain an unusual or unexpected twist. Authors of the selected stories will receive a contributors copy and reduced price on additional copies.. Questions and submissions should be sent to tricia3718@gmail.com in .rtf  or google docs following standard manuscript format by May 1, 2017.

Review: "Flash, Flash Bang, Bang: 7 Flash Crime Stories" by R.J. Spears

These 7 Flash Crime Stories that were previously published at Shotgun Honey, Out of the Gutter, and Flashes in The Dark, share a common theme of desperation. Desperation makes these characters do things that they might not have done otherwise. It could also just as easily be argued that desperation drove them to do what their natural natures would have compelled them to do anyway. Desperation might just have given these characters that slightest of slight nudges by a certain middle finger to tip the precarious balance.

“Belly or the Head” opens the collection with the question that many of us first heard some variation of on the playground years ago. So did the narrator who is hearing it now in terms of a gun held by the main enforcer of the Galvaso Family, Frankie the Bull.

Jerry is just looking for “A Way Out” of a bad situation. A man has to do what he has to do for the family.

“What You Don't Know” can change everything. Supposedly this guy named Block had been a Marine at one time, but Frank is not impressed. He doesn't care either as he is there to collect the debt owed to Mr. Galvin.

Many of us have been taught in church over the years to hate the sin, not the sinner. Clearly, “Hate the Sinner” takes a different spin on that concept with fairly predictable results.

Willard hasn't made it to bed yet. The 76 year old man might be sleeping in the front of the TV in the family room, but the Remington .310 makes the point it is “The Waiting Game.”

Terry and Chuck have a major bust on their hands. Drugs, money, and the three idiots they caught. It could be their ticket off street patrol and into detective grade work in “Or What.”

Some hunters kill for the meat to fill their freezers and take care of their families. Others kill because the want to bag “Trophies.”

Despite the frequent typos throughout Flash, Flash Bang, Bang, these seven flash stories provide rapid bursts of entertainment. The desperation is all too real to the reader as are the characters themselves. Not light reading in terms of the subject matter contained inside, these stories will tend to stick with you after this quick read is finished.

Flash, Flash Bang, Bang: 7 Flash Crime Stories

R.J. Spears

http://rjspears.com/index.html

Self-Published

April 2013

ASIN: B00CB8H3V8

E-Book (estimated print length 18 Pages)

$0.99

Material was picked up during the author’s recent free book promotion.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2013