Yesterday, I ordered an art photo of a woman's tattoos, a glass paint palette, and this vintage bowler hat, being shipped from France.
So is that level 16 or 17 of lockdown? Or have I veered off onto some side quest?
I turned to my kids to say, "It's Kes's birthday today!" as if that was the sort of information they needed to know before school, at 6 am, while the coffee brewed.
Kes is a border collie I follow on Twitter.
@Kesthecollie
I mean. YOU all are excited about Kes's bday, right?
Words fail me at the moment, but I need to share that my dad, George “Rick” Field, passed away at home yesterday. What an astounding weight to feel every memory hitting all at once. Loved my dad’s magic.
Teachers are losing $250 tax deduction for what they spend in classrooms. Think it's small potatoes? For my district alone, that's $2,750,000 in expenses paid by teachers the GOP thinks they should also be taxed on. Luckily, GOP gave us write-off for private jets.
#taxscambill
FINALLY it’s been announced!! I’ve been sitting on this news for weeks — my noir novel, Travel Red, made the
@firstpagesprize
longlist in its first outing! 🤞for the shortlist…
Sometimes when I get a rejection, I say “fuck you!” really loud just so my story will hear me and know that I would be willing to fight for it in a dark alley if it came to that, and then I file the email away, and submit again.
I just ordered a hundred miniature replicas of antique keys to give as farewells to my students - magical keys they can use to open whatever door they have in mind. Adios, school year 2021.
Ohhh, I'm actually sad to hear Jason Momoa and Lisa Bonet are divorcing. Is that just because I don't want them to lose the bro-love between him and Lenny Kravitz?
Unpopular(?) judgey thought: I hate it when people call themselves “blessed.” As much as it’s meant to show gratitude, the concept of a blessing implies some greater being deemed one person more deserving than another. I can’t be the only one who takes it as smug.
Ah, my heart! I've absolutely loved being part of the
@SmokeLong
workshops (you know I love you guys) & having a story there, and over the moon to be a SmokeLong Fellow. Congrats to Sharon, Jenny & Dawn, too!
#flashfiction
#litmag
#writing
@JoyAnnReid
Yes. The election doesn’t erase white terrorists. Scary the number of people still wanting it to continue. Lots of work to do, and a portion of people are real enemies to safety, to democracy.
If I say my character is reaching for the Leatherman on his belt, how many of you would know what that is? Would you all understand if I said he was cutting the laces of his Doc Martens (to drop the weight while drowning) - you know what Docs are?
Ok, not a subtweet. But. What’s up with tweeting screenshots of acceptance emails? Is it just me? It seems so gauche to post a picture of an essentially private communication. I mean, I’ll gush about how excited I am & share the the pub... but a picture of the email?? Just me??
Thrilled to see my savage little garden shark , “If We’d Only…Well, We Might Have” on the
@Wigleaf
Top 50 longlist. Thanks to
@thecitronreview
(&
@SmokeLong
where it started),
@laughingyeti
& all the readers. Congrats to everyone else on the list & ❤️ to whole flash community!
The
@Wigleaf
Top 50 2024 & the Longlist are up! Thank you to our Guest Selecting Editor
@MauriceRuffin
& to our Readers & Associate Series Editors! Let’s celebrate writers, readers, & journals—all for very short fictions. All for the love: ! ❤️🌻✨
Y'all! I am SO excited that my chapbook has made the longlist! A bunch of you know my work and guess the title, don't say it. And congrats to at least one of my friends who I know is also on this list. Flash writers rock!! Fingers crossed for the short list!
Can I comment on the genius of the Becoming Duchess Goldblatt cover? Because you just know
@duchessgoldblat
would be peeking out from between the spines.
@kylegriffin1
Why would someone (let alone a "leader") lie about even this? Oh, yeah. Indictments by Mueller. He'd tweet abt toast if it wld distract us.
Why do I SO value staying on Twitter as a
#writer
? In 12 yrs, I've all contact-media. Twitter is the one that made the most meaningful discoveries and connections. These last 3 acceptances all started with something I learned on Twitter.
Thank you to Palm Beach School Board for reflecting the demands of educators and voters, as supported by research, to do what is best to keep our schools safe.
@FLGovScott
citizens & teachers are not here to increase gun industry profits.
#NeverAgain
@MomsDemand
@clhubes
I had no childcare the whole time raising kids. Then again, i also had the kind of family who would not have been part of their care anyway (literally said, I won’t babysit). People who have that kind of support - and their kids - are really lucky.
Thank you to all who cheered me on through a shitty birthday week, especially my
@SmokeLong
buddies and the twitter exchange that got this story going in my head. Thanks to
@JamesTateHill
@monkeybicycle
for running it so quickly.
HERE is that little 💔📷
SO excited this story just got accepted by
@monkeybicycle
Still can't read it aloud w-out crying, but hmm:
-wrote it on 6/14
- it's coincidentally 614 words
- 6/14 is my birthday
So apparently that's the magic number for fast story acceptance. (Also, crying = 💔🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥)
@ingram_wallace
They think they’ve found broken worms and - you’re so helpful with the peanuts - they’re bringing these broken worms to see if you can fix them
Writer friends—what are your favorite places to read and submit flash? Journals, mags, contests…I’m loving my first
@SmokeLong
summer fitness and am becoming obsessed with the genre.
#writers
#flashfiction
I think, "Fuck, Elissa, I'm so glad you sent this," might be the way all acceptance letters should start from now on. HUGE ❤️ to Flash Pack,
@SmokeLong
&
@Christopher_All
where my Kill Devil Hills story started, &
@thedrevlow
@MISTERBULLBULL
where this tiny 🔥 will land. 🦈
Every time Facebook sends me an annual reminder of this picture, I’m reminded it was the day I became a single mom. 12 years on, I can say: these 2 were worth everything I went through, and we made it through. Hugs to anyone in it now. (Do not RT, pls)
Best part about Christmas with teens: I’ve had time to sleep in, make coffee, wrap a couple last minute gifts, go for a walk, set up brunch, light the room, and go back to bed to read, and they’re still sleeping. It’s like having double Christmas morning 🌲 🌲
@NicoleBlades
More than anything: collectively, I wish writers would stop writing age as “oldness.” 40s and 50s are hot adventurous, fit, w insight & mobility to really explore a story.
I submitted to 5 mags this afternoon. So I go check Submittable now, right? {...no matter how many years, how many publications, never grow up about this part...}
SO excited this story just got accepted by
@monkeybicycle
Still can't read it aloud w-out crying, but hmm:
-wrote it on 6/14
- it's coincidentally 614 words
- 6/14 is my birthday
So apparently that's the magic number for fast story acceptance. (Also, crying = 💔🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥)
Alright... posted earlier that I was having a shitty start to the day.
- awesome chat w
@Smokelong
buddies buoyed me
- tweeted abt true love
- looked at draft abt hot sex in this failed relationship
...
& just wrote a flash that makes up for the whole shitty morning xoxoxo
Really excited for
@FracturedLit
’s announcement today that my “Could Die for Just a Lie Down” was a winner in the Vol 4 Anthology contest. I’ll share a link when it’s available online. Thanks to FL & all of you who cheered this story along the way, esp my SL crew!
@legroff
2020 truth. My teens have completely flipped the clock, and my god I get a lot written/read in those few hrs - no, let's be honest: I wake them if they're not alive by late-lunch.
Remember that acceptance that got me crying back in Dec? So excited to see my story coming up this month with the fabulous
@ReckonReview
. It's dear to heart. Plus love seeing friends' names on Feb's TOC - in great company!! ❤️❤️
So thrilled that
@thecitronreview
has requested to publish one of my favorite flash pieces, my crazy shark story that got its start in a
@SmokeLong
workshop. Thanks to my SL buddies who always cheer me on.
Wow, very appreciative for this
#Pushcart
nom (& Best American Essay nom) for my essay in
@HypertextMag
-- thanks so much to the generous support of EIC Christine Rice!
Y'all. It's temporary.
Those who keep panicking and fleeing? He changes it back.
I'll just say I've gone from 5k to 5.6k followers in the time folks fleeing, with vibrant interaction. Valuing the people here, I stay.
Ok... ready. I was literally crying in traffic after glancing down and spotting an acceptance email from
@mgnlcs
at
@ReckonReview
. I've been in ❤️ w RR, know from friends just how lovely Meagan is as an editor... and my god, y'all, this story is my heart. Could not be happier.
I just had one of those crying-in-traffic over amazing news moments. I am SO SO SO excited about an acceptance on a story that many of you have loved along its journey. I can't wait to share the news with you!
#writing
#fiction
#shortstory
#novel
I’ve had this reaction each time an award list posts. Yes, it’s great to see composite lists and discover new writers & stories, or see friends. But I’m aware, each time, of knockout brilliant writers & stories they missed. So take them for what they are, but run w your own ❤️🔥.
This was my favorite story I wrote last year (“Procession” in Swamp Pink, too) Neither received any post-publication recognition or awards. My point is, keep writing what you want to write. Be happy & grateful re: awards, but the REAL kick, always, is in creating what you love.
@BCDreyer
{I find the tricky step is remembering you can also delete it later. My phone is full of photos of a student paragraph, a Costco product sign, a list of ingredients, a product label... Strange family photos, months later.}
2024 Anthology winner by
@elissafield
"Beatriz had been insisting since waking that we go to the house at the top of our road, on the rise above the sea. I was barely moving—even a four-year-old should sense something amiss..."
Ooohh!! Someone just reminded me that my ❤️ story is coming out on
@ReckonReview
Monday — 1st piece out related to my novel. We’ve got a bunch of Reckon love going on over here — my boys got Reckon tees in support awww. Love all the great work in this lit journal!!
#fiction
I dreamt there was somewhere I could go and hug my dad. Woke with just how real that felt, to have him again. Mourning never really leaves you, does it.
Hahaha... my youngest came in and told me about this HS senior prank. Someone released 4 goats into the (for PETA: safe, animal-loving) courtyard... only they had numbered the goats 1, 2, 3 & 5... so a lengthy search was triggered
Lol, all these massive reading lists. I read like 4 books this year, plus reread a lifelong favorite & read one I hate but had to teach… But every effing day I was reading litmags, incl 430 flash in one mag’s submission queue. Cheers to all the ways we support ea others’ lit! xo
If you were in a
@SmokeLong
Summer workshop with me, do NOT reply with any identifying info on the stories I submitted... But I am over the moon excited to hear one of them is a semi-finalist in the summer fiction contest. LOVE ALL OF YOU who gave such great feedback. ❤️❤️❤️
First, it’s my birthday. Second, last year on 6/14, somebody made me cry about love & I wrote this 614 word story about the certainty & frailty of real love, & it got accepted & published by monkeybicycle a week later. So quick: somebody make me cry.
My dad's been in the hospital since right before Thanksgiving. I went to see him today. I kissed him on the forehead.
That's pretty much the whole tweet {but any of you who've been in this boat know there's a whole story behind every letter of it}.
xo
@realDonaldTrump
"Hard work and commitment"? 6000 lobbyists wrote the tax bill, with pressure from your multimillion$ campaign donors. Senators weren't even allowed time to read it. We SEE you for what you are & you're fired.
“‘Ah, fuck ‘em.’
Whisper it whenever you’re told: You can’t say that. You can’t write that. You can’t sell that.”
Alice McDermott’s Writing Mantra: “Ah, Fuck Em.” ‹ Literary Hub
Knuckling down into the story revision that's been in 6 docs on my desktop since Monday. I love this story and have been happily surprised to see I've written its 'fix' in various parts...But assembly is the moment for finesse.
#writing
Congratulations to our Grand Prize Winner
@lumchanmfa
with BITTER OVER SWEET, & our two runner ups, Erica Kent with BLACK DOG, & Mathew Goldberg with NIGHT WATCH!
Thank you everyone who entered, & thank you
@deeshaphilyaw
for returning as our guest judge!
My mom asked, "What are you doing this weekend?" & I told her, "My little sharky love story is publishing with
@FictiveDream
on Sunday," like I had a kid in a tournament or recital or something, some big event to go to. Tracks, right? Love to see this one going live tomorrow.🦈❤️🔥
It's a huge pleasure to welcome Elissa Field with Love Story Waiting for the Last Flight Leaving Galway after the Conservation Consortium, out tomorrow
@elissafield
#flashfiction
If y'all hadn't noticed, I've fallen a little in ❤️ w
@SmokeLong
this year -- the editors, their workshops & my god the friends I've made in workshops. And all that amazing
#flash
.
So could NOT be more ecstatic that they're publishing my story in Sept.❤️
It should be biannual sabbatical time. Use it got a vacation, use it to become ranked in your fav video game, use it for research or writing or learning to paint, use it for medical care, for education, for sleep... but yeah. Two months a year to be healthy humans.
Just, fwiw. I'm not going anywhere, and I really hope you all are not either. Twitter has been the single best medium for connecting with writers, agents, publishers, litmags, artists, film... Not giving that up.
So...I'm in the middle of reading a story
@SmokeLong
open mic -- minding my own business -- and I start crying. Is it the death of the char that got me? Nope. It was reading out the names of my sons' childhood toys. Obi Wan Capt Rex Kylo Ren Han Solo...
#flash
, man ❤️💀🔥
I wondered if I hit “random” on
@havehadhavehad
, what’s the chance my 💔noir would come up? No, Vegas, it wasn’t a single random roll — I read a dozen of y’all’s before sure enough…Come Down Off My Throne, Don’t Leave Your Body Alone
Lest you ever think I’m bullshitting about the lunches my teens pack me out of dinners they cooked the night before, I give you today’s. Son even bought the groceries for it. Love my little wild ones.
Congratulations to our Citron contributors on their Wigleaf Top 50 2024 Longlist announcement: “Mother Tongue”by
@KikLodge
, “If We’d Only…Well, We Might Have” by
@elissafield
, “Fall Colors” by
@StephenTuttle10
, and “What the Tides Reveal” by
@EricScotTryon
.