This is the second post in my getting-caught-up for #FridayFlash Favorites.

Each Friday, writers post on twitter a link to a short-short story they’ve written, marked with the tag #FridayFlash. On July 16, I didn’t post anything for #FridayFlash, because my life was in the midst of blowing apart.

Of the #FridayFlash stories that were posted, here are my…

#FridayFlash Favorites for July 16

There were more stories posted on July 16 than on most weeks, 112 stories (including the 88 that made it onto the official #FridayFlash Report for July 16). Of all those, here are my 8 favorites, listed in no particular order.

• “Lars Rehnquist Is Always Wrong” by David Garrett — This humorous tale reminds me, in a serious way, of the Native American philosophy that we are all a part of the living world around us. Maybe we should all give thanks to the living things who die to give us nourishment.

• “Shiny Snail Trails” by Estrella Azul — A little unusual for my #FridayFlash Favorites: Beautiful imagery and powerful metaphor in this short poem. To quote a song I loved back in the ’90’s, “You can’t really take it back.”

• “Return to Titan” by Kevin Mackey — “… a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done…”

• “Shelter” by Lydia Ondrusek — Never alone? (Astounding piece, one to study. Not sure what it is about it that I love. But I do love it.)

• “Politiks” by Jessica Rosen — In government, even when you win, the innocent lose.

• “Things Disney Didn’t Tell You” by Lynncee Faulk — Just remember, there’s another side to every story.

• “Mr. Luck on a Job” by Katherine Nabity — I’ve been enjoying these “Luck for Hire” vignettes. We think there’s no such thing as luck, but maybe it’s just a matter of perspective.

• “Aunt Agnes” by Kim Batchelor — Well, I for one am sorry i didn’t believe Chicken Little, or Aunt Agnes.

Note: To be selected as one of my #FridayFlash Favorites, the post must be a genuine flash story, not a chapter in a longer piece, a series of one-paragraph vignettes, or anything else. It should have a beginning (conflict), a middle (thickening), and an end (resolution). Not necessarily a happy ending (though I do enjoy happy endings), but whatever conflict the story introduces at the beginning, it must resolve at the end. No fair building up suspense and then stopping in the middle of the story, just so you don’t have to figure out how to save the hero in 1,000 words or less; that’s cheating. The story should also be a single scene, because multi-scene flash usually does too much “telling” and doesn’t “show” enough to engage me in the story. (And scene divisions stop the flow, which is usually a bad idea in flash.) While I do browse Twitter for #FridayFlash posts, the best way to get me to read yours is to put it on the #FridayFlash Collector. I judge posted stories according to my own preferences; your mileage may vary.

Till next week, and…

Keep writing!
-TimK