YouPorn Sex (A Flash Fiction Story) by Guy Hogan

Brianna Frost

It was the first hot day of the year in Pittsburgh. Students from the University of Pittsburgh sprawled in the grass sunbathing. The good-looking young man walked beyond the students and down a street to the crowded tables of a sidewalk cafe. A beautiful young woman waved at him from one of the tables. He sat at her table. A tall mixed drink was in front of her. A waitress took his order. The man and woman sat saying nothing. The waitress brought him a glass and a bottle of beer. The man poured some of the beer in the glass and drank it off. The man and woman sat looking at each other.

She said, “I fell in love with you because you were a wild man. Now you’ve become such a prude.”

“For not wanting to have sex on the Internet?”

“We won’t always be young.”

He finished the rest of his beer. He sat thinking, holding and watching his empty beer glass. He looked up at her, considering.

“All right,” he said.

“Really?”

“Maybe it’ll be fun.”

“Of course it’ll be fun. And we’ll make money. We’ll make lots of money. You know why?”

“Why?”

“Because we’re young. Because we’re beautiful. Because we’re good. I have a friend who makes a living from online videos.”

“What’s her name?”

“Brianna Frost.”

The End

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Flash Fiction eBook

It’s Official: 30,000 Hits

Good morning my brother and sister bloggers and writers.  The Old Soldier woke up on this lovely day in March in Pittsburgh to find that after 14 months The Gazette had gone over 30,000 hits.  Now that the Old Soldier is retired he puts a lot of time into this little blog.  So here’s to all of the readers who dropped in to read about writing, blogging and flash fiction.  The Old Soldier salutes you…

Congratulations to the West Virginia basketball team for making the Final Four.  It’s a job well done…

Well, the Old Soldier is looking forward to a day of blogging so check in often.

This is the Old Soldier reporting from the heart of the nitty, gritty city.

A Great Flash Fiction eBook

Blogs Are Fun

A blog can be a lot of work.  The Old Soldier is retired so he can spend hours every day on The Gazette.

Why do we blog?  Blogging is certainly one way to stay connected to the rest of the world.  Blogging allows the Old Soldier to share what he knows about flash fiction, writing and blogging.

Go to the sidebar on the right and scroll down until you come to The Pleasure Of Blogging For Fun And Profit.  You may find something you like.

This is the Old Soldier reporting from the heart of the nitty, gritty city.

A Great Flash Fiction eBook

The Dirty Little Secret About Flash Fiction

All right my brother and sister bloggers and writers.  The Old Soldier is going to give it to you straight.  The best flash fiction is about what is not on the page.  The best flash fiction is about what the writer leaves out.  If the Old Soldier doesn’t give you some tough love, who will?

Because the very short story is so short much of the story must be implied.  And since the story must be about a significant event, what happens before the story begins and what will happen after the story ends is just as important as what happens during the story.

What the Old Soldier is saying is, the words you leave out are just as important as the words you leave in.  And you know what?  This literary technique is just as valid in the writing of a regular length short story or novel as it is for the very short story.

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A Great Flash Fiction eBook

Let The Gazette Entertain You

Flash fiction can be first class entertainment.  Here at The Gazette you will find stories about love, sex, relationships, blogging, writing and college life.  You will find stories about husbands and wives.  You will find stories about boyfriends and girlfriends.

The stories on this blog try to capture life and put it on the page.  It is the life that millions of Americans live every day.  You may recognize yourself or people who you know in the characters who populate these stories.  Look around.  Read and enjoy.  Tell your friends about flash fiction as the cutting edge of the new literature on the web.

This is the Old Soldier reporting from the heart of the nitty, gritty city.

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A Great Flash Fiction eBook

Can Anyone Write Flash Fiction?

Good morning my brother and sister bloggers and writers.  This is the Old Soldier reporting from Pittsburgh.  It’s going to be a lovely day in Pittsburgh today.  Sunny with the temperature in the 50s.  You can’t ask for much more from March in Pittsburgh.

Can anyone write flash fiction?  That’s a question the Old Soldier has been thinking about a great deal lately.  First off, every writer doesn’t want to write flash fiction.  Many writers find the word limitations of the very short story too confining.  These writers need more room to express their ideas.  They want a larger canvas to project their imaginations onto.  Flash fiction is more like a locket that you keep in your pocket.

In other words, to be good at writing flash fiction a creative writer must be able to write short on long subjects.

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A Great Flash Fiction eBook

Chilli For Breakfast

Writing flash fiction and blogging can make a writer mighty hungry.  The Old Soldier does his own cooking.  Nothin’ fancy.  Just good food to keep body and soul together.

Yesterday, the Old Soldier made chilli.  First he peeled several pieces of garlic.  Then he cut up a red pepper.  And then he cut up two fat jalapeno peppers.

The garlic, red pepper and jalapenos went into a pan of slowly browning lean ground meat.  Once the ground meat was brown it was drained and dumped into a crock pot of kidney beans and tomato sauce.  Chilli powder was added and the concoction was allowed to cook.

Now, the Old Soldier can have a delicious meal any time during the next few days just by heating up a bowl of chilli.

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A Great Flash Fiction eBook

Flash Movie Review: The Misfits

A few nights ago the Old Soldier watched a tape of The Misfits starring Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift.  It’s a movie worth watching.  It was good to see how well Marilyn could handle a serious role.  Everyone did some fine acting. 

The Old Soldier watches old movies in order to learn how to write better flash fiction.  Good movies teach a writer to “show don’t tell.”  Show don’t tell allows a reader to “live” in the story.

A flash fiction writer has to keep in mind many things when writing a story and show don’t tell is one of the most difficult things to achieve.  Show don’t tell simply means the writer depends more on action than explanation to move a narrative forward.

John Houston, the director of The Misfits, understood this perfectly.  You will find the finest examples of the show don’t tell technique in Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories (E-Book).  Every young writer should have this book.  Download your copy now.

Creative Writing That Matters

All writers constantly search for things to write about.  The Old Soldier has been writing for over 45 years.  That’s a lot of content.  Did the Old Soldier ever get writer’s block?  You betcha! 

But writer’s block is an opportunity for a writer or a blogger to recharge.  Don’t dread writer’s block.  Embrace it.  Just keep living your life and eventually you’ll emerge from the darkness with new things to write about.  Or you’ll emerge with new ways to explain your favorite things.

The Old Soldier writes about his life.  Why does the Old Soldier think people will want to read about his life?  He just writes about the things he feels passionate about.

So, if you’re wondering what to write about write about your passions, the things that get you excited.  These things can be sex, relationships, sports, movies, rock ‘n’ roll, romance, love, you name it.

You can be sure that you’ll find an audience out there somewhere.

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Download the Old Soldier’s first E-Book of flash fiction now.  Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories

The E-Book Is Ready For Download

Good morning, my brother and sister bloggers and writers.  The Old Soldier is in good spirits on this overcast day in Pittsburgh.  Writing, reading and publishing flash fiction makes The Old Soldier happy.

Now the Old Soldier has an E-Book available with some of the best flash fiction in it that the Old Soldier has ever written.  You’ll meet the Old Soldier’s alter ego, Scott Delaney, and follow him from adventures in Vietnam when he’s a 19-year-old kid to when he is a 51-year-old man finally getting married and coming to terms with the love/hate relationship that he had with his deceased father.

And smack in the middle of all these great flash fiction stories is a novella about the desperate struggle of a husband and wife to reignite the passion of their love that will take you into the college bar scene around the University of Pittsburgh.

And at the end of the book is an in-depth explanation of the Old Soldier’s personal philosophy for writing great flash fiction.

So, download your copy today.

Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories (E-Book)

Can Flash Fiction Tell The Big Story?

We all know flash fiction is very short.  It deals with a slice of life.  This slice of life must be a significant event.  If your very short story is not about a significant event that also shows something is different then you’ve just written a sketch not a short story.  So, can flash fiction tell a big story?

The flash fiction story is designed to capture a narrow period of time.  It works best when there are two or maybe three characters in the story.  It works best when it presents a few minutes, hours or days in the life of a protagonist.

It just tells the pivotal moment of the big story and implies the rest.

A must read: Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories (E-Book)

An Open Letter To Young Writers

The Gazette wants to showcase your work.  Of course you could publish your own work on your own blog, but if your own blog has not been around for 14 months and it does not have over 1,000 postings with over 29,000 hits like The Gazette then maybe you might want to showcase your work here.

At the top of the page is an Open Contest/Submissions tab and a YouWrite tab.  One method of submission should fit you.  Please follow the guidelines.  That’s the first step toward publication.

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Flash fiction captures a significant moment in time.

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The flash fiction writer can render a character’s enter life in 800-word increments.

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The Gazette is more like a newspaper than it is a blog.  It reports on creative writing.

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A good very short story writer is able to give an infinite amount of attention to details.

A must read: Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories (E-Book)

Almost 30,000 Hits

Howdy, bloggers and writers.  The Old Soldier couldn’t wait to celebrate a milestone for The Gazette.  It will soon have 30,000 hits.  It already has over 1,100 postings and a personality all its own: sometimes educational and sometimes very naughty.  The Gazette is doing good work.  It’s always looking for submissions.  Now don’t read that last sentence and just hurl something this way.  Read and follow the guidelines.  Where are the guidelines?  They’re under one of the tabs at the top of the page. 

There are all kinds of articles on blogging and writing on this blog.  And there are some of the best flash fiction stories on the web in The Gazette for your reading entertainment.

Subscribe to The Gazette so that you won’t miss a posting.  This is the Old Soldier reporting from Pittsburgh.

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The well written very short story is closer to the poem than it is to the short story. Like good poetry, the best flash fiction is concentrated language that uses the particular concrete to get at the universal abstract. Red is more than just a color. Wind is more than just the weather. The Cathedral of Learning of the University of Pittsburgh is more than just a building. Pittsburgh is more than just a city. A poem is more than just the words on a computer screen. It is the Old Soldier’s firm belief that flash fiction is the cutting edge of literature today.

The Flash Fiction Bible

Turning Shit Into Gold

A writer is always working.  That is if the writer is any good.  Because a good writer is always absorbing experience like a human sponge.  Then when it comes time to write, the experience is squeezed out onto the page.  Of course the job of giving the raw data of experience form comes next.  Here the writer’s skill, talent and imagination come into play and with a little luck a new piece of creative writing is born.

It all sounds very neat and clean but usually it’s very messy.  For men and women and life are very messy.

Writing flash fiction and the very short story are for writers who like to get their hands dirty.

The Flash Fiction Bible

Where Should The Flash Fiction Story Begin?

It’s the Old Soldier here with an extra Saturday edition of The Gazette.  Now a lot of bloggers and writers write flash fiction.  The beauty of flash fiction is that it contains all the elements of a regular short story but it does so in just a few hundred words.  This conciseness may also be the greatest challenge that the writer of the very short story may face.  How do we deal with this challenge?

Well of course we eliminated every unnecessary word and get rid of the adjectives and the adverbs.  There is also a trick that the Old Soldier uses to figure out where to actually begin a flash fiction story. 

The Old Soldier starts cutting at the beginning of the story.  He gets rid of as much of the opening of the story as possible, only stopping just before the point where the story would not make sense.

That’s were the story should begin.  For more tips on writing flash fiction just search The Gazette.

The Flash Fiction Bible

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