Flash Fiction and The Horror Genre - A Match Made in… Hell?

I suppose that depends on your definition of hell, and as readers and writers of the paranormal, we all know just how many variations there are. But if I start by explaining that I’m a traditionalist and my definition of hell is pretty much along the lines of the brimstone, fire, fallen angel Lucifer sort of line, you’ll get the picture. I didn’t much like the idea of combining flash fiction and my genre of choice.

I couldn’t imagine it – trying to cram all the intricacies and false turns and numerous scares into under one thousand words, or better still under five hundred? It wouldn’t work. It couldn’t work. Horror has too much to say to condense it. Even Poe’s ‘The Raven’ has 1,092 words.

So I left flash fiction + horror alone. That isn’t to say that I never wrote any flashes; I did. A lot. I fell in love with flash fiction and even started a blog about it (http://www.themoonlitdoor.blogspot.com). But I couldn’t reconcile it with my beloved horror. Until, on occasion, I found myself struggling to get enough words down when I wrote a short story. The ideas were fine, but they didn’t want or need to be five thousand, seven thousand, ten thousand word epics. They would quite happily, without cutting bits out or chopping bits off (unless the plot called for it, of course…), be an entire story with a beginning, middle and end (no matter how open those endings might be) in under one thousand words. Under five hundred. Sometimes even fewer.

Strange. Was this my subconscious telling me I was still interested in attempting horror flash fiction? Or was it simply a coincidence? I still don’t know. But I did decide to give it a shot. With a vague story in my head, I started typing. I wanted to write about a man trapped in a coma, aware of everything, unable to move, to speak, to live without machines. I wanted him to have a wife who chatted to a doctor – in front of her husband – about turning those machines off. I wanted to know what his feelings were about it. And that was it. None of the characters needed a background. It wasn’t important why the man was in hospital in the first place. It didn’t even really matter if we, the reader, ever found out if the machines were switched off or not. What mattered was that tiny fraction of time, that conversation, and the comatose man’s reaction to it.

That was the story. It comes in at 530 words. It scared the hell out of a lot of people.

And that was my first piece of flash fiction in the horror genre. It’s called ‘I Know’ and you can read it on my blog http://www.themoonlitdoor.blogspot.com/2011/03/flash-fiction-i-know.html.

I still find it difficult. I often begin what I think will be flash only to find it’s a short story in the end. But I have changed my opinion in one regard; now I think some of the best horror I’ve read in the past few months has been flash. Short, sharp shocks. It’s perfect, really.

~ * ~

Lisamarie Lamb is a 29 year old mother of one. She was five when she wrote her first short story - it involved a car going over a cliff, Jessica Fletcher and the Phantom Raspberry Blower. It didn't have much of a plot (he did it, she solved it) but it did have rather colourful (crayon) illustrations and it did make her realise that writing was for her. 

At 12 Lisamarie wrote her first novel during the school summer holidays. Loosely based on the Famous Five with a bit of James Bond thrown in, it was an adventure story and her English teacher made her read some of it out in class. And that's when she realized that she wanted people to hear her stories and read her work. 

Over the intervening years, Lisamarie has written various short stories, plays, poems and novels in different genres, including romance and children’s books. If you wish to see more examples of her writing, she has a blog in which she showcases flash fiction www.themoonlitdoor.blogspot.com and soon poetry as well.

She has recently self published her first novel, Mother’s Helper.

Lisamarie promises she’s better at plots now, and she uses her own characters, but the excitement, fun and just a little wonder are still there. Her crayon skills have not improved.

Aside from her blog, you can also connect with Lisamarie on Twitter @lisamarie20010; and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lisamarielambwriter

 

Where Did the Story Idea Come From? Guest Post with Stacy Eaton

There are a few things that police officers do that are beyond the obvious that everyday citizens see. Yeah, we right lots of tickets and we arrest people and sometimes we do have coffee and donuts. Okay more coffee then donuts these days, but you get the idea.

On long nights as we drive around we play a game with ourselves. It’s called What if/What then.  If this particular thing was to happen to me, what would I do? We run these scenarios through our minds all the time to prepare ourselves to act.

So it was in this mindset that I found myself one beautiful fall night.  I was standing outside my patrol car enjoying the fresh air of the night. It was dark and the feeling that I was being watched ran over me. Police officers have a heightened sense of this, and normally are correct in those feelings.

So I searched the area around me with my eyes, listening intently to see if I could hear anything that was not normal for the area I was in. I heard and saw nothing. Yet the feeling didn’t go away. I continued to search although by now the hairs on the back of my neck were standing at attention. That’s when I saw it.

On the other side of the parking lot from where I stood were eyes. Just a gleam in the darkness coming off of some faint light that reflected back off of the eyes as they stared at me from just inside the dark tree line. My heart was beating fast and since I have a crazy love for things unnatural the thought of, “It’s a vampire” crossed through my mind. Of course, I know that’s not true, but sometimes you just can’t control the thoughts that race through your mind.

The eyes disappeared shortly after and I finally found my will to move again. Chances were it was an animal of some kind searching for food, but the idea that a vampire could exist and be out there watching people at night had found a place in my mind. What if it had been a vampire and I was to be his food? Would I fight him? Would I die?

I spent the rest of that quiet shift driving my township and thinking about the idea of vampires in our society and how they could co-mingle easily. Even do the jobs that we do, like being a police officer.

It was not long after that, that the story line started taking form and I found myself sitting at my laptop and weaving a tale that brought vampires into the life of Officer Kristin Greene and Fawn Hollow Township.

I still find myself driving my township roads late at night, searching for eyes in the woods and wondering if they could really be true.

Bio:

Stacy Eaton is a full time police officer, crime scene investigator and business owner when she is not working on her books.  She lives in South Eastern Pennsylvania with her husband, daughter and her Shiloh Shepherd Garda.  She is also the proud mother of a US Sailor.

My Blood Runs Blue is the first in the series. Book two, Blue Blood for Life will be going through publishing soon, and is expected to be available early fall of this year. Book three whose title has not been decided is in the plot stages.

Connect with Stacy on Twitter, Facebook, FB Fan Page, Goodreads, as well as her Blog