The Flash Fiction Story As A Work Of Art

 

Woman As Art

Every artist has his or her medium: film, ceramics, photography, the novel, poetry, painting, sculpture, weaving and glass; the list is endless.

The Old Soldier would like to add flash fiction to the list.

You will find plenty of examples of this assertion on this blog.  The Old Soldier is not saying that every flash fiction story on this blog is a work of art.  What I am saying is that as an art form, the flash fiction story can provide the transcendent experience that every work of art contributes to our understanding of our own humanity.

*****

The Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette is an online magazine of serious writing and brazen sexuality.  Be sure to check the front page for the latest updates.

About these ads

The Coming Attractions For December 2012

A Young Woman Greeting Her Fans Online Before She Masturbates

The Old Soldier will publish another story by the Australian erotic writer Heather Kinnane.  It will be Heather’s fifth flash fiction piece, more than any other writer in the four-year history of the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette.

I always like to keep three stories by this talented writer on the front page at all times.  Check them out.  And check out the revealing interview Ms. Kinnane gave to The Gazette.  That’s on the front page, too.  (PS My computer would not allow me to format the interview the way I wanted to but it’s still an interview you do not want to miss.)

During the first week of December, I will also publish two new guest writers.  There’s the sexual awaking of a young woman who has just graduated from college by Barbara S. Gwen and a poem of sexual passion by John Grey.

Yes, the work of all three of these guest writers will appear the first week in December.  The Old Soldier is repeating himself.  I’m having a good time.

The Old Soldier will be back at Nico’s, the #1 karaoke bar in the city, the first Saturday in December which means more installments of “Karaoke As Performance Art.”

And I have an endless number of nude and semi-nude women to share with you in the “Woman As Art” series.

Add to all of these delicacies the continuous stream of insights on blogging, writing, flash fiction, the life of a writer, reports on women doing their first online adult videos and commentaries on life in general and on the world we live in and I think you will agree with the Old Soldier that this magazine is the most exciting flash fiction publication on the Internet.

This is the Old Soldier reporting from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

*****

The Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette is an online magazine of serious writing and brazen sexuality.  Be sure to check the front page for the latest updates.

*****

Can you believe it?  The Old Soldier forgot all about “The Sunday Flash Fiction Story” series.  You can’t beat this series with a stick!

Poverty, Sickness And Death: Thanksgiving 2012

The First Thanksgiving, painted by Jean Leon G...

The First Thanksgiving, painted by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863–1930). The First Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth in 1621. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s Thanksgiving Day in Pittsburgh.  It’s a sunny morning and the high for the day will be around 60 degrees.  It’s already a beautiful day.

Thanksgiving Day is a wonderful American holiday.  The Old Soldier can still remember the paintings from his childhood of that first Thanksgiving Day that had Native Americans and Pilgrims sitting down in the glorious outdoors to feast together.

It’s such a heart-warming scene.

The Old Soldier is in good health.  He has a small but cozy apartment.  He has plenty to eat and he is enjoying his retirement.

I do give thanks.

I also know my history.  I know what happened to the Native Americans.  I read the news.  I listen to the news.  I watch the news.

The Old Soldier is not a fool.

*****

The Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette is an online magazine of serious writing and brazen sexuality.  Be sure to check the front page for the latest updates.

How To Become A Happy Blogger

Woman As Art

Are you a blogger?  Maybe you should read this post.

I’ve been a blogger for over ten years now.  This blog is my most successful blog.  It’s four years old.  All the other blogs are deceased.  What have I learned about blogging?

Okay, here are a few things.

There seems to be two kinds of bloggers.  There are bloggers who blog about themselves and there are bloggers who blog about a subject.  The bloggers who blog about themselves usually don’t get too many visits every day unless they are celebrities.  The bloggers who blog about a subject can get hundreds on up to thousands of visits every day.

This blog is averaging 814 hits every day for November 2012.  This blog is a subject blog.  The subject is flash fiction.  Of course, it covers lots of things (like blogging), but its core subject is flash fiction.

Bloggers who blog about themselves usually just want to share their lives with an audience, their pain and joy, their losses and accomplishments.

Mena Grabowski Trott, American blogger

Mena Grabowski Trott, American blogger (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Subject blogs have to give useful advice, support or practical help to their core audience who are interested in the core subject of the blog.

Whatever kind of blogger you are, there are three things you need to be a happy blogger.

  1. You need to have a passion for your blog.
  2. You need to be able to express yourself clearly.
  3. You need to set aside time to blog on a relatively regular schedule.

These three things may seem simplistic and self-evident, but all three are necessary and are the bare minimum for being a happy blogger.

This is the Old Soldier blogging somewhere near the University of Pittsburgh.

*****

The Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette is a blog of serious writing and brazen sexuality.

A Terrible Mistake: Straight Talk About Being A Writer

Woman As Art

Writers, don’t make the following mistake that I made.  You will make other mistakes as a writer, but don’t make this one.

This is the Old Soldier.  I started submitting short stories by snail mail when I was in my 20s.  I’m 66 now.

The biggest mistake that I made as a young writer was to put all of my eggs into one basket.  I was absolutely convinced that I was going to make a living as a writer.  So, I had a very casual attitude toward regular employment.  I worked a lot of jobs that had no future; but I didn’t care.  And if I got layed off, I happily went on the dole until something came up.

It was not until sometime in my 40s that it dawned on me that there was a good chance that I was not going to make a living as a writer.

By the time I had this epiphany I was still a bachelor and had no real marketable skills.  (It’s not easy to keep a good woman happy if you’re a bum.)

The Old Soldier did manage to go back to school and to get a BA and an MFA in fiction writing; but by that time he was in his late 50s and could not use his degrees to get a decent job.

It is only now that I’m retired that I finally have a secure income.  (But I still don’t have a woman.)

Writer's Group Reunion

Writer’s Group Reunion (Photo credit: Earthworm)

The moral of this story is, don’t think you are going to make a living as a writing because 99.9% of all writers do not.

This is the Old Soldier reporting from somewhere near the University of Pittsburgh.

*****

The Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette is an online magazine of serious writing and brazen sexuality.  Be sure to check the front page for the latest updates.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 822 other followers