Flash Fiction - Roach Motel

I am sucking up dead roaches with an industrial vacuum cleaner. I can hear the armor of their bodies clinking against the metal tube as they disappear from the floor. Every night, in every unoccupied room, I sprinkle white powder around the scarred baseboards and the next day I come to vacuum. Usually there’s just a smattering of insects to be sucked up, but sometimes, like now, there are piles of them. It never ends; there are always more.
I flip the switch and the roaring dwindles to silence filled by the slap of tennis shoes on concrete. A flurry of skinny children scuttle past the open door. I roll up the cord, preparing to lug the bulky contraption to the next room. I step out under the awning and spy Randy’s long white Cadillac pulling into the lot. I roll the vacuum along on its little pocked wheels, kicking it along to the sound of a woman yelling and a baby crying.
This next room, seventeen, has just a smattering of dead bugs, and since the beds don’t need changed, I’m back outside and on to the next one. It’s much bigger than the other rooms that families live in, and as far as I know they don’t charge much more for it. But then, I don’t handle the money, I just suck up the bugs.

Flash Fiction

Wikipedia says, "Flash fiction is fiction characterized by its extreme brevity, as measured by its length in words...." and, "This principle, taken to the extreme, is illustrated by Ernest Hemingway's six-word flash, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn.""
Go here for the Wiki entry on flash fiction.

I like flashing. Not the trench coat kind, but the brain-storming kind. Every piece of fiction starts with a flash. Uncle Hop is a flash, Vultures (or click here if that link isn't working) started that way, and I have a forty-eleventeen-hundred other examples in my 'old writing' file boxes. A flash is like seeing a small piece of someone's life and setting it to paper. You get to look at it a little closer and see if it's something worth exploring (the hard part is sticking to it and fleshing it out, but that's another post).

During the month of February, I was inspired by Rosie over at the Smokey Mountain Breakdown. She posted a flash every day for the entire month. Pretty impressive. However, I'm not that ambitious and I'm certainly not that prolific. I'm going to shoot for once a week. Maybe turn it into something catchy like all the better bloggers do: Flash Fiction Friday or whatever. But, today's not Friday and I have something to post. Maybe next week I'll try for Friday.

This is something that I dug out of an old pile of yellowing papers. It was printed from my first computer and has moved around with us for about 10 years. I think it's a great flash to start this off with. I'll post it in a fresh and spiffy post here in just a few minutes.....

Uncle Hop

I posted a flash entitled 'Uncle Hop' over at the Appalachian Writers Blog.
Here's the link: Uncle Hop

Alligator Attack

An unexpected alligator attack occurred at the paint counter of the home improvement store today.

Thanks to the heroic efforts of this green-shirted bystander, tragedy was averted and the young lady in orange walked away with nothing but superficial injuries.

***Check out this post over at The 123 to find out what we're doing with the paint.

Storytelling Institute at FSU

This past weekend I went to Fairmont State University for the Mountain State Storytelling Institute. The event was co-sponsored by the WV Storytelling Guild. Because I'm already acquainted with several intriguing members of this guild, I knew I wasn't going to be disappointed in spending my time and money on this gathering.
I am happy to report that I was right; I was not disappointed. In fact, I joined the WV Storytelling Guild, bought their book (and several others), and have been enjoying the group emails since they added me to the list on Sunday (it might be worth it to join just to read some of this stuff!).

I won't do well to try and report all that I encountered, but I would like to touch on a few things:

• The first workshop I attended - "From the Porch to the Page: Using the Oral Tradition in Crafting Personal Narrative" - was with storytelling duo 'Mountain Echoes' (June Riffle & JoAnn Dadisman). I've had the pleasure of meeting these women on a couple of other occasions, so knowing that they're both intelligent and articulate (not to mention entertaining) was one reason for choosing this as my first stop. The real selling point, though, was the emphasis on writing. [June flattered me by asking about my book. That made me feel good and I was able to report that I now have an agent - that's news I haven't announced yet. I suppose this small mention means that I will have to post an update on Vultures.] As we settled into our seats, the two women began to spin a tale with the high weeds of summer heat. I saw the glint of sun on the blade of the scythe and was pretty close to smelling the old hunting dog when...they stopped. !. Ack! Nothing like an abrupt interruption to reveal the depth of interest; everyone in the room was disappointed. However, the interruption was for good reason; the start-and-stop of the hunting dog tale was used to breakdown the story and get a good look at it. This was a perfect illustration of the of the mouth-to-page flow of a good story. I like the point that JoAnn made: it flows both ways. She's absolutely right and I will do well to keep that in mind.
• I got to meet Granny Sue in person! I'm just sorry that I didn't get to spend more time with her.
• I enjoyed (maybe a little too much, considering my age) Rich Knoblich's wolf puppet 'Growler' and the story of the "Boy Who Cried" so much that I bought his new book Talking 'bout The Relatives.
• It's women like Dr. Judy Byers who make me want to go back to school. Her workshop was way too short.
• Andy Fraenkel's workshop convinced us (and proved it, too) that we all have worthwhile stories to tell. It was almost shocking to be led into various story elements with seemingly no effort. And then to share the wonder of those tiny bits of awe with another person produced a palpable warmth.
• Bil Lepp summarized about 400 books on the art and techniques of writing using ridiculously simple line drawings and humor. It took him an hour and we laughed all the way through it. Amazing. Someone needs to publish his novels so I can read them (Okay? Do you hear that?).

Finally:

Do you know how hard it is to find appropriate entertainment (not to mention entertaining entertainment) for our entire family? If you don't, I'll tell you: It's impossible. Find something that the 15 year old thinks is funny and the 11 & 8 year olds shouldn't be hearing it. Find something that the 8 year old likes and the 11 and 15 year olds are groaning.

We took the entire family to Friday night's Telling. It was wonderful AND everyone had fun!

(Maybe I'll tell you about the dead baby at another time....)

I wasn't able to attend all the workshops (and that would be my only complaint), but I'm planning for next year....