Strange Arrivals: Ten Tiny, Twisty Fantasy Tales

YOU’VE TAKEN UP WITH DISTURBING COMPANIONSThere’s a fairy in the garden,A monster in the closet,An alien in the back yard,And a ghost by the refrigerator…One mirror lies,One dragon makes an ally,One ring bites…And they don’t make genies like they used to,Or gorgeous models…Or even princesses. Ten short, startling fantasy tales from Holly Lisle, author of Talyn, Hunting the Corrigan’s Blood, Warpaint, Fire in the Mist, and much more.

From the Inside Flap

So here's the story of how this little book came to be. I offer a free three-week class called How To Write Flash Fiction That Doesn't Suck on my How To Think Sideways website. While I was writing that course, I simultaneously wrote Shimmer and Women Are Like Chocolates, using the process I teach to demonstrate how it's done. While writing those two stories, however, I had such fun I decided to write eight more, all fantasy, and to publish them as a little book. Which, unless you skipped straight to the Afterword, you've just finished. Flash fiction is to writing novels what the sonnet is to writing Hamlet; it's the way you teach your mind to be twisty in tight spaces. Which comes in handy in all sorts of situations. Flash fiction is also ridiculously fun to write. It's quick, it's tricky, it's challenging, and it's a bit like really good cookies. You just can't stop at one. I find myself tempted to play the same game with other genres in which I also do full-length work. Science fiction. Suspense. Romance. Now, though, before this afterword becomes longer than the stories it's about, I'll thank you for reading about this batch of my mind's strange arrivals, and go cheerfully on my way.

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