The Good News About Flash Fiction

What’s short and satisfying?  Well, sure, orgasms are short and satisfying but this commentary is about reading and writing flash fiction.  Flash fiction is short and satisfying.  Here on this blog you will find dozens of stories about life, love, lust, sex, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, veterans and college students and every one of these stories is short and satisfying.

So, kick back and enjoy yourself.  Tell all your blogging and writing friends about the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette.

And the good news is, flash fiction is here to stay.  This is the Old Soldier reporting from the heart of the nitty, gritty city.

Download your copy of Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories today.

“Oh, oh, oh, oh yes I’m coming,” she moaned.

Good afternoon, my brother and sister bloggers and writers.  Let’s get straight down to business.

Are you having trouble writing flash fiction erotica?  Tired of just having two sweaty bodies undulating in the dark?  You can do better than that.  The secret to writing first-class erotic flash fiction is to write about the relationship.  Just have the reader catch your characters in a sex act.  In this way the sex act is more than just a sex act.  It becomes a metaphor for what’s going on in the relationship.  And what your characters say and do will have as much to do with the relationship as it does with whatever sex act they are performing.  You know.  Just like real life.  Pretty neat, huh?

Remember, in a well written flash fiction story an orgasm is always more than just an orgasm.

You want examples of this technique?  Check out the Sexy Stories tab at the top of the page.

Creative Writing: Sex Does Not Have To Be Dirty

You will find a lot of  flash fiction stories on this blog.  Some of the stories deal with sexuality.  The sexuality is presented realistically but the Old Soldier doesn’t think anyone would call the sex pornography.  Body parts are not referred to with vulgarities.  Profanities are not used to describe sex acts.  The Old Soldier is proud of this.  Making realistic sex enjoyable without making it dirty is what the Old Soldier calls being creative.  Being creative is what creative writing is all about…

Check out the YouWrite tab at the top of the page.  Besides serious comments, YouWrite is the easiest way to become part of the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette community…

Each flash fiction story captures a small part of the world in around 1,000 words or less.  The better a writer can describe this world the more intense will be the reader’s journey through this world; but the writer must always remember to begin the journey as close to the end of the journey as possible.  Many of the points of interest before the end of the journey will have to be implied.  They will be implied by the locale, the action and the dialogue.

That is why the words left out are just as important as the words left in.

Download your copy of Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories now.

Blogging: The Mysteries Of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh is the home base of The Gazette.  Pittsburgh is a great city to blog about.  The Gazette is about creative writing but it also tries to keep an ear to the ground here in the Steel City, commenting on life in this city at the intersection of three rivers.

If you live in the Pittsburgh area and you like fiction, you are in for a treat.  Just look around.  Most of the flash fiction on this blog takes place in Pittsburgh.  Have some fun.  Read some of the stories.  See if the locales and characters seem familiar.

And don’t forget to tell your friends about The Gazette.  Let The Gazette be your flash fiction home away from home. 

Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories.

What Does Your Protagonist Want?

You can’t have a flash fiction story without a protagonist.  You know this and I know it.  You can’t have a play or a novel without a protagonist.  A flash fiction story must answer two questions.  What does the protagonist want?  Does he or she get it? 

A flash fiction story will begin within a few hundred words of answering, does the protagonist get what he or she wants?

Writing a flash fiction story is a short journey for the writer.  It takes all the writer’s talent and skill to make the story a successful journey for the reader.

Click this link Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories to download your copy now.

New: A Flash Fiction Novel

Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories is made up of 31 flash fiction stories and one 14,000-word novella, all of them connected together to read like a fast-paced novel.  The flash fiction stories are collected from stories I wrote and re-wrote from about 1985 to about 2004.  I wrote the novella around 2000 about things that were going on in the late 80s in Pittsburgh.

The reason the dates are not more exact is because I was very much involved in the life I was living.  I was living it up in order to write it down.

Writing is a tough profession.  But if a writer has nothing to write about that writer is in the wrong profession.  A writer can only write about what he or she knows even if much of what he or she writes is made up.  That’s what makes it fiction.

In Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories you will find the best fiction I have to offer.

Against the backdrop of a far away jungle war, the college bar scene around the main campus of the University of Pittsburgh and the neighborhoods of Pittsburgh uncoils the story of men and women struggling to find love in this postmodern, apocalyptic world we all live in.  Click this link Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories  to download your copy now.

Guy Hogan
Editor/Publisher
Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette.

Do You Have An Alter Ego?

I’m a flash fiction writer.  My name is Guy Hogan.  This is my blog.  Scott Delaney is my alter ego.  Nick Adams was Ernest Hemingway’s alter ego.  There is nothing new about alter egos.

Alter egos are very valuable.  They allow writers to project themselves onto the page with less guilt and inhibition.  Everything a writer has ever done in his or her life becomes content no matter how good or bad the writer has been.  It certainly releases me from guilt and inhibition.

Maybe an alter ego could work for you.  Try it.  What do you have to lose?

You can read all about my alter ego Scott Delaney in Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories.  Download your copy now.

The Education Of A Flash Fiction Writer

The very short story writer must think big.  That’s right.  Big.  See, many writers and readers have the idea that flash fiction deals with the small, significant event.  And it does.  But when a writer is writing a flash fiction story the worst thing the writer can do is to think that the story has limitations.

A successful flash fiction story presents a significant event within the context of a greater story.  It is only within the context of this greater story that the flash fiction writer can achieve the true long reach of the flash fiction story.  This is the only way that a few hundred words can imply several thousand words.

The flash fiction writer must be able to write short on long subjects.

Download your copy of Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories now.

Lady GaGa Coming To Pittsburgh

Not since Madonna has a performer caught the attention of the music buying public and the entertainment media like Lady GaGa.  The Old Soldier loves Lady GaGa.  He loves her outrageous costumes.  He’s loves her videos and he loves the Euro-trash disco beat of her music.  Will Lady GaGa be around in ten years?  Will she make the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame?  Who knows.  Who cares.  All that matters now is she’s it.  She’s hot.  And she’s coming to the Consol Energy Center.

Lady GaGa is bringing her Monster Ball Tour to the Consol Energy Center on September 5, 2010.  Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 AM.  Tickets can be bought at all Ticketmaster outlets and the Mellon Arena box office.  You can charge by phone at 1.800.745.3000.

Download your copy of Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories now.

Flash Fiction Forever

Trying to master the writing of flash fiction is not easy.  I do not believe the full potential of the very short story has been reached yet.  Other writers from all over the Internet are working in this demanding genre.  If you write flash fiction or are a reader of flash fiction, you are part of an art form that is as old as all of the holy books of humankind.

This blog is dedicated to the art of flash fiction, the kind of flash fiction that adheres to the admonishment to show don’t tell.

You will find no better examples of show don’t tell flash fiction then the stories in Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories.

Vietnam War Veteran Saved By Writing Flash Fiction

Just came back from my walk.  It’s another warm and sunny day in Pittsburgh.  I walked through the campus of the University of Pittsburgh and through Schenley Park.  Joggers were jogging and students were sunbathing.

From Schenley Park I ended up in South Oakland and back on campus.  So, for the hell of it I decided to walk through Wesley W. Posvar Hall.  I wore a Pitt baseball cap and a Pitt t-shirt but for good measure I checked my wallet to see if I still had my Pitt I.D.  Yes I did.  If security stopped me I could at least claim that I was an alumnus, graduating class 2006 of the MFA fiction writing program.

Walking through campus really brought back memories.  My memories of Vietnam and my memories of being an undergrad and then a graduate student at Pitt from 1999 to 2006 all went into my ebook.  Writing the stories about Vietnam was mainly therapy.  The stories based on being at Pitt were about fun.  Download your copy of Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories now.

The iPad Is The Future For Flash Fiction

Hello, bloggers and writers.  What an invention the new Apple iPad is.  The Old Soldier can’t afford one but it sure looks like a winner with a large screen and a purely touch interface.  It’s not a device for creation.  It’s a device for consumption, the consumption of content.  This may be a shot in the arm for newspapers.  The screen of the iPad is large enough to allow newspapers to fit comfortably on the screen.  The Apple iPad is just the beginning of these new large screen, touch interface devices.  Other companies are rushing to put out their own devices.  The device is also perfect for reading books and watching videos.

  Speaking about the consumption of content, download Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories and help the Old Soldier get his own iPad…

The Fiction Writer As Missionary

Fiction writers are like missionaries.  They forge their short stories in their imaginations and they send their stories out into the world.  They try to convince readers of the validity of their stories, of the validity of their characters.

Flash fiction writers try to gain the trust of readers in a few hundred words.  The words are about men and women, life and struggle.

Good and evil hang in the balance of the stories.  The stories end in some sort of damnation or redemption.

If you are a flash fiction writer, be proud of your trade.  This blog is for you.

Download your copy of Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories now.

Walking

One thing about being a retired baby boomer is that you have time to enjoy long walks about the city.

After checking my email, commenting on several articles in my online writing community, picking my article for the ghostwriting site that I write for and posting on this blog, I took a long walk earlier today in the bright, warm sunlight.

There is plenty of greenery around the University of Pittsburgh.  Students were sunbathing in the grass.  I returned my tapes of old movies to the Carnegie Library and then walked through Schenley Park.

As every blogger and writer knows, a large part of blogging and writing is just the ability to enjoy something as simple as a long walk through the park.  The walking helps you to regenerate.

Download your copy of Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories now.

10 Reasons Why I Love Living In Oakland

I live in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh.  Oakland is the home of the University of Pittsburgh.  From my apartment I can walk to the neighborhoods of Bloomfield, Lawrenceville, Shadyside, Point Breeze and East Liberty.  Oakland is the cultural center of the city.  I’m right in the middle of everything.  There are a lot of things I like about this city.  Here are just 10 of them.

1.  Steelers

2.  Pitt football

3.  Pitt basketball

4.  Penguins

5.  Carnegie Library and Museum

6.  WQED

7.  Del’s Italian Restaurant

8.  Kiln ‘N’ Time Pottery Shop

9.  Schenley Park

10.Iron City Beer

Experience the city as you have never experienced it before.  Download your copy of Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories now.

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