November is drawing in, a month of fireworks and decomposing pumpkins, bringing our thoughts inevitably to whether or not we can pull off a charitable moustache, and if now is too soon to break out Do They Know It’s Christmas on the iPod. Many of you will be signing up for this year’s #NaNoWriMo, and while you toil, toil in the mines of forced creativity, December House are here again to offer you respite, a distraction, or perhaps inspiration, in the form of 2013’s Flash Fiction Fest.
This year we’ve gone with the theme of the seven deadly sins, with interestingly varied results. Some of our writers went oh so dark, while others mined the depths of human frailty and weakness to discover a rich seam of humour. So whether you like to be chilled, challenged, touched, or tickled, there’s something here for you.
We’ve opened the fest out to our current December House writers this year, and we’re really pleased with what they’ve come up with. Old hands and festival originators Neil Vogler, Sean Craven, and PT Dilloway have been joined by ‘Engn’ scribe Simon Kewin, the author of ‘What Remains’, Philip Leslie, ‘Hitter’ writer Daryn Guarino, rookie wordsmith Jessica Leather (look out next year for her debut novel ‘The Escapists’), and this year’s competition winner J Freese. Between them they’ve conjured, for your delectation, ancient languages, murders, marriages, computer games, camp sites, clockwork cities, space ships, nightclubs, and car yards, feeders, eaters, lovers, cheaters, film-makers, spellcasters, waitresses, private detectives, losers, winners, heroes, villains, ninjas, dogs, snakes, and miniature heist-planners. To name but a few.
So, when All Saints’ day dawns, and you breathe a sigh of relief, climb out of the wardrobe, and put the wooden stake/shotgun/axe/silver bullets/crucifix away for another year, don’t forget to head on over to http://www.flashfictionfest.com to check out the first of over fifty fiction bites designed to both delight and destroy…
Check out nanowrimo here: http://nanowrimo.org
For an easily purchasable copy of ‘Engn’ click here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Engn-Simon-Kewin-ebook/dp/B00DW1DUQA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382801278&sr=8-1&keywords=engn+simon+kewin
For the same, but with ‘What Remains’, try this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Remains-Philip-Leslie-ebook/dp/B00FG0WQJ2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382801316&sr=8-1&keywords=what+remains+philip+leslie
And for the dark world of the ‘Hitter’ click here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitter-Daryn-Guarino-ebook/dp/B00EPFWRSO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382801353&sr=8-1&keywords=hitter+daryn+guarino
