15 Great Flash Fiction Stories To Read

November 17, 2008 — pittsburghflashfictiongazette

There are 15 short stories on this blog for your reading pleasure.  Just go to the sidebar and under Categories click on “Flash Fiction Stories.”  Once you read to the bottom of a page of stories just click on the link you find at the bottom to read more stories.  You can do this until you’ve read all the stories on the site.  The stories are:

Boobs

Pittsburgh Confidential

The Hemingway Hero

When I Was A Young Man

La Dolce Vita

The Cathedral Of Learning

The End Of Innocence

The Twenty Dollar Suit

In The Shadow Of The Cathedral Of Learning

Life Is Art

Pittsburgh Snow

California Dreamin’

Oakland Nights

Uptown

Schenley Park

Posted in Writing Flash Fiction. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Snow Day

November 17, 2008 — pittsburghflashfictiongazette

The snow is falling on Braddock Avenue but it’s not sticking.  I’ve just come from the break room at the Braddock Employment And Training Center.  I’m sitting at my computer in the classroom trying to concentrate on my typing drills even though the radiators in my apartment banging all last night long kept me from sleeping more than an hour at a time.  I like typing.  I type over 40 wpm with no mistakes.  I find typing relaxing.

I’m trying to decide whether or not to return the call of this temp agency that left me a voicemail Friday.  To leave school for a couple of weeks’ employment is not worth it.  If the agency can guarantee employment for a couple of months or more that’s one thing.  I’ll start getting my social security in December; but it wouldn’t make sense to leave school just for a couple of weeks and then to come back.

GHH

Posted in Life In Pittsburgh. Tags: , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Snow

November 17, 2008 — pittsburghflashfictiongazette

Yesterday, the first real snow of the year fell in the city.  This morning the radio announcer said the high would be 36 degrees with a wind chill factor in the twenties.  It’s time to break out my winter coat, cloth hat and golves.

I haven’t been to the Braddock Employment And Training Center since Wednesday when I called off and went downtown to scope out the building my job interview was held in.  Thursday was the interview and Friday I went to the VA Hospital to see why my right arm is always bothering me.  The hospital is going to schedule me to see a neurologist.  Well, at least now I know I didn’t have a stroke.

I’m beginning to feel like a failure at BEATC.  Several students have gotten jobs since I’ve been there and I’ve been there since January.  The course is only suppose to be six months, learning MS Office and data entry.

Of course, the economy is not helping and now a possible bus drivers strike on December 1st just makes looking for a job that much tougher.

GHH

Posted in Life In Pittsburgh. Tags: , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

The Power And Beauty Of Flash Fiction

November 17, 2008 — pittsburghflashfictiongazette

While I was in graduate school my instructors and classmates were generally supportive of my efforts to master the very short story.  The best compliment I got usually went something like, “This is so good.  It would really make a great long story or even a novel.”

It wasn’t until after I graduated that I realized that the flash fiction story gets its impact not in spite of its length but because of it.  It is the drama on the page, where nothing is wasted, where each word must be the right word in the right place that allows flash fiction to do so much in such a small space.

This is the power and the beauty of flash fiction.

GHH

Posted in Writing Flash Fiction. Tags: , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Sunday Night

November 17, 2008 — pittsburghflashfictiongazette

It’s 8:00pm.  I thought the Steelers were going to lose that game.  11-10.  What kind of a football score is that?

I did run the sweeper and cleaned the bathroom floor plus did two loads of laundry so I didn’t just drink beer, read the Sunday paper and watch football all day today.  I have to watch the beer drinking.  I don’t want another gout attack.  Tomorrow it’s back to the Braddock Employment Training Center and job hunting.  One of the temp agencies left me a voicemail.  I’ll give the agency a call tomorrow; but if the bus drivers go on strike December 1st I and a lot of other people will be screwed.

GHH

Posted in Life In Pittsburgh. Tags: , , , , , . Leave a Comment »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 831 other followers