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It Happened in a Flash: An Anthology of 64 Bite-Sized Stories
Solve a mermaid’s problem …
Step off the edge of a roof …
Dig up a grave at midnight …
Take advice from a fortune cookie …
Visit the last library …
Meet a bridge troll …
And more …
In one instant, like a bolt of lightning, a single impossible event changes a person’s life. And like the trace of lighting in the sky, each is unique and interesting.
These wildly different flash stories delight, astonish, scare, and inspire. Enjoy 64 delightfully eclectic tales. Like your flash fiction intriguing with a twist? Discover the diversity and check out “It Happened in a Flash”.
These stories are included:
Don’t Stop Believing – Joyce Sully
A Fresh Start – Troy Pennie
Nonsense – Katharina Gerlach
Fist-bump – Tuff Gartin
The Dare – Lexy Stanton
Unicorn – Ruth Sard
Queen of Swords – Moira K. Brennan
Liar, Liar – Barbara Lund
0—The Fool – Raven O’Fiernan
And Music Will Set You Free – Marya Miller
The Wisteria Princess – Nika Cantabile
Fair Folk – Hannetjie Joubert
D-A-V-E – Ken Bristow
Desperate Times – Rebecca W. Hansen
Nothing New – Alex F. Fayle
Art for the Cure – Connie Cockrell
Meltdown at Markin Four – Elizabeth McCleary
Touching the Edge – Ava Fairhall
Cowboy Heroes – Sallie Olson
Knighthood – Rachel Kovaciny
The Book Thief – Angela Wooldridge
Vengeance Never Undone – Dwayne Allemao
Home – Storm Weaver
Stronger – Oren Litwin
The Trouble With Aunt Flo … – Nina Hobson
Boxcar Revolution – Laura Wilson-Anderson
The Touch – Chaitali Gawade
The Last Library – Ky Moffet
Corrected Vision – Devlyn Dunne
Weather Report – Sylvie Granville
Awakening – Annais Ryder
Tacky – Timothy Couch
The Long, Concrete Ditch – R.C. Blatter
Write & Wrong – Charles Hoge
Magic Trick – Amberlyn Pryor
A Clean Home is a Happy Home – Dana Fischer
Waystation – Samantha Hulatt
Bad Day – Sarah Neuen
Reaching Consensus – VS Stark
The Hunted – J.L. Perry
The Wyrm Turns – Peg Fisher
Saveyour – Mike Lucas
Hunted – Eileen Mueller
The Rescue – Nicky Penttila
The Magic Threads – Kirsten Bolda
Girls Can’t be Knights – Ernesto I. Ramirez
Stilettos – Charlotte Henley Babb
The Proud Aide – Elaine S.
Step off the edge of a roof …
Dig up a grave at midnight …
Take advice from a fortune cookie …
Visit the last library …
Meet a bridge troll …
And more …
In one instant, like a bolt of lightning, a single impossible event changes a person’s life. And like the trace of lighting in the sky, each is unique and interesting.
These wildly different flash stories delight, astonish, scare, and inspire. Enjoy 64 delightfully eclectic tales. Like your flash fiction intriguing with a twist? Discover the diversity and check out “It Happened in a Flash”.
These stories are included:
Don’t Stop Believing – Joyce Sully
A Fresh Start – Troy Pennie
Nonsense – Katharina Gerlach
Fist-bump – Tuff Gartin
The Dare – Lexy Stanton
Unicorn – Ruth Sard
Queen of Swords – Moira K. Brennan
Liar, Liar – Barbara Lund
0—The Fool – Raven O’Fiernan
And Music Will Set You Free – Marya Miller
The Wisteria Princess – Nika Cantabile
Fair Folk – Hannetjie Joubert
D-A-V-E – Ken Bristow
Desperate Times – Rebecca W. Hansen
Nothing New – Alex F. Fayle
Art for the Cure – Connie Cockrell
Meltdown at Markin Four – Elizabeth McCleary
Touching the Edge – Ava Fairhall
Cowboy Heroes – Sallie Olson
Knighthood – Rachel Kovaciny
The Book Thief – Angela Wooldridge
Vengeance Never Undone – Dwayne Allemao
Home – Storm Weaver
Stronger – Oren Litwin
The Trouble With Aunt Flo … – Nina Hobson
Boxcar Revolution – Laura Wilson-Anderson
The Touch – Chaitali Gawade
The Last Library – Ky Moffet
Corrected Vision – Devlyn Dunne
Weather Report – Sylvie Granville
Awakening – Annais Ryder
Tacky – Timothy Couch
The Long, Concrete Ditch – R.C. Blatter
Write & Wrong – Charles Hoge
Magic Trick – Amberlyn Pryor
A Clean Home is a Happy Home – Dana Fischer
Waystation – Samantha Hulatt
Bad Day – Sarah Neuen
Reaching Consensus – VS Stark
The Hunted – J.L. Perry
The Wyrm Turns – Peg Fisher
Saveyour – Mike Lucas
Hunted – Eileen Mueller
The Rescue – Nicky Penttila
The Magic Threads – Kirsten Bolda
Girls Can’t be Knights – Ernesto I. Ramirez
Stilettos – Charlotte Henley Babb
The Proud Aide – Elaine S.
230 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 4, 2018
67 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Holly Lisle
108 books449 followersHolly Lisle has been writing fiction professionally since 1991, when she sold FIRE IN THE MIST, the novel that won her the Compton Crook Award for best first novel. She has to date published more than thirty novels and several comprehensive writing courses. She has just published WARPAINT, the second stand-alone novel in her Cadence Drake series.
Holly had an ideal childhood for a writer…which is to say, it was filled with foreign countries and exotic terrains, alien cultures, new languages, the occasional earthquake, flood, or civil war, and one story about a bear, which follows:
“So. Back when I was ten years old, my father and I had finished hunting ducks for our dinner and were walking across the tundra in Alaska toward the spot on the river where we’d tied our boat. We had a couple miles to go by boat to get back to the Moravian Children’s Home, where we lived.
“My father was carrying the big bag of decoys and the shotgun; I was carrying the small bag of ducks.
“It was getting dark, we could hear the thud, thud, thud of the generator across the tundra, and suddenly he stopped, pointed down to a pie-pan sized indentation in the tundra that was rapidly filling with water, and said, in a calm and steady voice, “That’s a bear footprint. From the size of it, it’s a grizzly. The fact that the track is filling with water right now means the bear’s still around.”
“Which got my attention, but not as much as what he said next.
” ‘I don’t have the gun with me that will kill a bear,’ he told me. ‘I just have the one that will make him angry. So if we see the bear, I’m going to shoot him so he’ll attack me. I want you to run to the river, follow it to the boat, get the boat back home, and tell everyone what happened.’
“The rest of our walk was very quiet. He was, I’m sure, listening for the bear. I was doing my damnedest to make sure that I remembered where the boat was, how to get to it, how to start the pull-cord engine, and how to drive it back home, because I did not want to let him down.
“We were not eaten by a bear that night…but neither is that walk back from our hunt for supper a part of my life I’ll ever forget.
“I keep that story in mind as I write. If what I’m putting on paper isn’t at least as memorable as having a grizzly stalking my father and me across the tundra while I was carrying a bag of delicious-smelling ducks, it doesn’t make my cut.”
You can find Holly on her personal site:
Hollylisle.com
You can find Cadence Drake, Holly's currently in-progress series, on her site:
CadenceDrake.com
You can find Holly's books, courses, writing workshops, and so on here:
The HowToThinkSideways.com Shop, as well as on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and in a number of bookstores in the US and around the world.
Holly had an ideal childhood for a writer…which is to say, it was filled with foreign countries and exotic terrains, alien cultures, new languages, the occasional earthquake, flood, or civil war, and one story about a bear, which follows:
“So. Back when I was ten years old, my father and I had finished hunting ducks for our dinner and were walking across the tundra in Alaska toward the spot on the river where we’d tied our boat. We had a couple miles to go by boat to get back to the Moravian Children’s Home, where we lived.
“My father was carrying the big bag of decoys and the shotgun; I was carrying the small bag of ducks.
“It was getting dark, we could hear the thud, thud, thud of the generator across the tundra, and suddenly he stopped, pointed down to a pie-pan sized indentation in the tundra that was rapidly filling with water, and said, in a calm and steady voice, “That’s a bear footprint. From the size of it, it’s a grizzly. The fact that the track is filling with water right now means the bear’s still around.”
“Which got my attention, but not as much as what he said next.
” ‘I don’t have the gun with me that will kill a bear,’ he told me. ‘I just have the one that will make him angry. So if we see the bear, I’m going to shoot him so he’ll attack me. I want you to run to the river, follow it to the boat, get the boat back home, and tell everyone what happened.’
“The rest of our walk was very quiet. He was, I’m sure, listening for the bear. I was doing my damnedest to make sure that I remembered where the boat was, how to get to it, how to start the pull-cord engine, and how to drive it back home, because I did not want to let him down.
“We were not eaten by a bear that night…but neither is that walk back from our hunt for supper a part of my life I’ll ever forget.
“I keep that story in mind as I write. If what I’m putting on paper isn’t at least as memorable as having a grizzly stalking my father and me across the tundra while I was carrying a bag of delicious-smelling ducks, it doesn’t make my cut.”
You can find Holly on her personal site:
Hollylisle.com
You can find Cadence Drake, Holly's currently in-progress series, on her site:
CadenceDrake.com
You can find Holly's books, courses, writing workshops, and so on here:
The HowToThinkSideways.com Shop, as well as on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and in a number of bookstores in the US and around the world.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 9, 2019
A great anthology of tiny bite-sized stories.
Unique because each and every one of them is different. They all talk about a single impossible event that changes a person’s life but they are all delightfully eclectic, original and very entertaining. Filled with twists and turns, these stories make a great fun read, perfect for anyone looking for short lightning-flash tales. My personal favourite was The Book Thief.
Unique because each and every one of them is different. They all talk about a single impossible event that changes a person’s life but they are all delightfully eclectic, original and very entertaining. Filled with twists and turns, these stories make a great fun read, perfect for anyone looking for short lightning-flash tales. My personal favourite was The Book Thief.
December 29, 2018
A great book of flash fiction, all stemming from the same trigger - and all so incredibly different. It just goes to show how diverse the minds of writers can be. I enjoyed all the stories, especially The Book Thief, Corrected Vision, and Tacky. Great for dipping in to - or reading in one go, as I did.
December 16, 2018
Great fun!
The stories in this anthology are tiny, unexpected, and fun. Some of the twists you see coming; many jump at you in the last paragraph. It's a great little romp to fill in a spare minute here or there.
The stories in this anthology are tiny, unexpected, and fun. Some of the twists you see coming; many jump at you in the last paragraph. It's a great little romp to fill in a spare minute here or there.
February 22, 2019
64 bite-sized stories for the busy reader. Of course, I didn't read it in tiny portions. I inhaled it . It was delicious. ;)
September 22, 2019
Taking on a monster collection at the last few hours but just getting in as much as I can.
A love of music and mermaids, hope in the face of grief, a kingdom of words that confused the heck out of me, domestic abuse, a fortuitous solution to bullying, a tale based on a T-shirt ( how clever!), precognition, a reunion mystery, a portal or a dream?, and failed music lessons.
A lost muse, missing half of yourself, maintenance trickery, visions of death, ask and ye shall receive, shady medical practices and contracts, skimming, loss of gravity, surprising heroes, and keeping imagination alive.
As invisible as a librarian, the wrath of a woman wronged, survival, define what living means, a visiting relative or something entirely different, one day on the train, blameless, a new perspective, protecting loved ones, and strange partnerships.
The cross over, cat vocabulary, a child taken, literary justice, saved by magic, the smartest of homes, a cats purpose, ascouts motto, party of one, and an unexpected gift.
A kingly meal, reset me please, hidden purpose, going home, and so the world was born, defend yourself, an odd shoe tale, a teaching assistant, shades of Igor, and a child’s superhero.
A moment captured then lost, a lesson for a caregiver, appreciating the green of your own lawn, the right place at the right time, art appreciation, after party clean up, never judge with your eyes only, regaining ones spirit, till we meet again, and regaining consciousness.
Birthing a parent, psychotic revenge,coming full circle, and peace after great loss.
This collection of little glimpses is truly entertaining and perfect for quick reads between life’s mundane chores. Above are my first thoughts after reading each. All my reviews are always voluntarily written.
A love of music and mermaids, hope in the face of grief, a kingdom of words that confused the heck out of me, domestic abuse, a fortuitous solution to bullying, a tale based on a T-shirt ( how clever!), precognition, a reunion mystery, a portal or a dream?, and failed music lessons.
A lost muse, missing half of yourself, maintenance trickery, visions of death, ask and ye shall receive, shady medical practices and contracts, skimming, loss of gravity, surprising heroes, and keeping imagination alive.
As invisible as a librarian, the wrath of a woman wronged, survival, define what living means, a visiting relative or something entirely different, one day on the train, blameless, a new perspective, protecting loved ones, and strange partnerships.
The cross over, cat vocabulary, a child taken, literary justice, saved by magic, the smartest of homes, a cats purpose, ascouts motto, party of one, and an unexpected gift.
A kingly meal, reset me please, hidden purpose, going home, and so the world was born, defend yourself, an odd shoe tale, a teaching assistant, shades of Igor, and a child’s superhero.
A moment captured then lost, a lesson for a caregiver, appreciating the green of your own lawn, the right place at the right time, art appreciation, after party clean up, never judge with your eyes only, regaining ones spirit, till we meet again, and regaining consciousness.
Birthing a parent, psychotic revenge,coming full circle, and peace after great loss.
This collection of little glimpses is truly entertaining and perfect for quick reads between life’s mundane chores. Above are my first thoughts after reading each. All my reviews are always voluntarily written.
January 9, 2019
Hope, horror, fantasy, despair, but mostly the incredible and impossible fills the pages of this book, 64 ways of thinking an impossible event changing a character's life, only for that, to go into so many minds in bite-sized the book is already worth it, to see how great are so many of the stories is a delight.
It's an honor to be part of it.
It's an honor to be part of it.
April 7, 2019
This was a nice way for the teacher ...
...to showcase her students’ work. Each author had a unique story to tell. Some had me wishing for more after the 500 words, a couple confused me, and a few more had me wondering why they were included. BUT kudos to all of them for achieving a dream.
...to showcase her students’ work. Each author had a unique story to tell. Some had me wishing for more after the 500 words, a couple confused me, and a few more had me wondering why they were included. BUT kudos to all of them for achieving a dream.
March 19, 2019
I gave 5 stars based solely on the stories I enjoyed.
October 31, 2019
I've never read flash fiction before other than the occasional piece of fanfiction here and there. Knowing that I often struggle with shorts, finding they have to be pretty near perfect due to the format, I was wary but thought it worth a gander. I was surprised therefore by just how much I enjoy this. Each story is 500 words or under and that's challenging to write, but as a show case of Holly Lisle's writing classes this is quite impressive. I enjoyed near all of these stories, some obviously more than others, but the breadth of ideas here is interesting.
Due to the nature of the writing here, this would be an ideal read for train journeys or work breaks. You can obviously dip into and out of this without needing to sit for a long time. The writing styles are obviously very different, as indeed are the themes, characters and to a point genre. But there is something to be found in all of these little stories and I found the way everyone took a vague story prompt so very differently makes the premise of this really interesting.
So this is certainly an interesting premise and it is well executed. Will I be reading more flash fiction? Not as my main type of fiction as I enjoy the depth that can be found in epics... but I wouldn't be adverse to reading more if I find it.
Due to the nature of the writing here, this would be an ideal read for train journeys or work breaks. You can obviously dip into and out of this without needing to sit for a long time. The writing styles are obviously very different, as indeed are the themes, characters and to a point genre. But there is something to be found in all of these little stories and I found the way everyone took a vague story prompt so very differently makes the premise of this really interesting.
So this is certainly an interesting premise and it is well executed. Will I be reading more flash fiction? Not as my main type of fiction as I enjoy the depth that can be found in epics... but I wouldn't be adverse to reading more if I find it.
September 22, 2019
64 amazing stories all from different author's who all take you down a different road . Flash stories are not my normal reads because in most your left kinda wondering about this or that in the story . All of the stories do a fantastic job of drawing you in and not leaving you to wonder what you missed when it's over .
If your looks for a book that you can finish the stories quickly then this is a book for you , and with 64 stories there is no doubt you will find most to your liking . So go ahead and pick this up and kick back and relax and enjoy some fantastic although short stories because that's what this book is about . Enjoy .
If your looks for a book that you can finish the stories quickly then this is a book for you , and with 64 stories there is no doubt you will find most to your liking . So go ahead and pick this up and kick back and relax and enjoy some fantastic although short stories because that's what this book is about . Enjoy .
May 30, 2019
Great mix of stories
It’s a great mix of stories that were enjoyable to read
I recommend this to everyone who loves short stories
It’s a great mix of stories that were enjoyable to read
I recommend this to everyone who loves short stories
September 22, 2019
Interesting
Having not read any flash fiction before,I didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and variety of stories in this collection.
Having not read any flash fiction before,I didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and variety of stories in this collection.
September 23, 2019
Loved this collection of flash fics! A nice mix of sci-fi and fantasy with a few nice twists.
September 20, 2019
Don't Stop Believing – Joyce Sully
A Fresh Start – Troy Pennie
Nonsense – Katharina Gerlach
Fist-bump – Tuff Gartin
The Dare – Lexy Stanton
Unicorn – Ruth Sard
Queen of Swords – Moira K. Brennan
Liar, Liar – Barbara Lund
0—The Fool – Raven O'Fiernan
And Music Will Set You Free – Marya Miller
The Wisteria Princess – Nika Cantabile
Fair Folk – Hannetjie Joubert
D-A-V-E – Ken Bristow
Desperate Times – Rebecca W. Hansen
Nothing New – Alex F. Fayle
Art for the Cure – Connie Cockrell
Meltdown at Markin Four – Elizabeth McCleary
Touching the Edge – Ava Fairhall
Cowboy Heroes – Sallie Olson
Knighthood – Rachel Kovaciny
The Book Thief – Angela Wooldridge
Vengeance Never Undone – Dwayne Allemao
Home – Storm Weaver
Stronger – Oren Litwin
The Trouble With Aunt Flo … – Nina Hobson
Boxcar Revolution – Laura Wilson-Anderson
The Touch – Chaitali Gawade
The Last Library – Ky Moffet
Corrected Vision – Devlyn Dunne
Weather Report – Sylvie Granville
Awakening – Annais Ryder
Tacky – Timothy Couch
The Long, Concrete Ditch – R.C. Blatter
Write & Wrong – Charles Hoge
Magic Trick – Amberlyn Pryor
A Clean Home is a Happy Home – Dana Fischer
Waystation – Samantha Hulatt
Bad Day – Sarah Neuen
Reaching Consensus – VS Stark
The Hunted – J.L. Perry
The Wyrm Turns – Peg Fisher
Saveyour – Mike Lucas
Hunted – Eileen Mueller
The Rescue – Nicky Penttila
The Magic Threads – Kirsten Bolda
Girls Can’t be Knights – Ernesto I. Ramirez
Stilettos – Charlotte Henley Babb
The Proud Aide – Elaine S. Milner
Bloody Lucky – James Roecourt
Will the Real Captain Amazo Please Stand Up? – James Husum
Frozen in Time – Kent Pollard
Homebound – Heidi Ferguson
The One that Got Away – Lauren M. Catherine
A New Adventure – Janna Willard
Shattered – Kami Bataya
Twin Opportunities – Marie Dowd
Aimee Meets the Bridge Troll – Julia Mozingo
11th Hour – Eliza K. Gillham
The Return – Arlo Sharp
Into the Light – Rachel Hobbs
Spacebullies – Shana Bloom
Confucius Say – Michael Eldridge
Freebie – Holly Lisle
Now What? – Tom Vetter
First sorry about Troy Pennie
I enjoyed all of the stories in this
Some was kind of cute
and some left you with a bunch of feels
December 5, 2019
I used it as a learning tool.
I decided to read this book when I tackled Holly’s course, How to Write Flash Fiction that Doesn’t Suck, because I learn best through observation and hoped that reading these stories would help me see what the aim of the game was.
Through these stories I’ve found a few that I enjoyed, but most of them didn’t excite me, and a good few of them I didn’t understand. Granted, this has been my first foray into the world of flash fiction, and with any new thing it takes some getting used to, but overall I liked it.
I decided to read this book when I tackled Holly’s course, How to Write Flash Fiction that Doesn’t Suck, because I learn best through observation and hoped that reading these stories would help me see what the aim of the game was.
Through these stories I’ve found a few that I enjoyed, but most of them didn’t excite me, and a good few of them I didn’t understand. Granted, this has been my first foray into the world of flash fiction, and with any new thing it takes some getting used to, but overall I liked it.
September 22, 2019
Something for everyone!
The stories are by students of Holly Lisle's writing course and what a fun way to find new authors to check out. From mermaids, unicorns, portals, instantaneous travel, shifters, even dragons. Oh, and even sweet revenge, there is a little something for everyone.
The stories are by students of Holly Lisle's writing course and what a fun way to find new authors to check out. From mermaids, unicorns, portals, instantaneous travel, shifters, even dragons. Oh, and even sweet revenge, there is a little something for everyone.
September 22, 2019
Steady anthology
Although the stories are a little short for my personal preference there is variety and you can pass an afternoon comfortably entertained. The Dare was probably my favourite
Although the stories are a little short for my personal preference there is variety and you can pass an afternoon comfortably entertained. The Dare was probably my favourite
February 13, 2020
Neat
Wow i enjoyed most of these stories and loved how they were written.
Each one had their own little world and excitment. Some of them excited me to check out the author.
They were all neat.
Wow i enjoyed most of these stories and loved how they were written.
Each one had their own little world and excitment. Some of them excited me to check out the author.
They were all neat.
October 22, 2022
Fun to read flash fictions!
November 12, 2022
I loved how the stories were bitesize! A really good read.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews