Between Heartbeats: Flash Fiction and Other Tales

by Kim M. Russell

Flash Fiction and Short Stories

82 pages, Paperback

Published October 16, 2019

About the author

I live with my husband and two cats in a cottage in Norfolk, close to the Broads and the coast. I've been writing almost every day since 2014, when I retired from teaching English, drama and media studies at a Norfolk high school, where I was also editor of the school magazine. I continue to work as a GCSE moderator/examiner and am an active volunteer at two local primary schools, listening to children read, and at local libraries, leading Bounce and Rhyme sessions for parents, babies and toddlers.

I started writing poetry as a teenager, as well as the occasional short story, but my retirement gave me the opportunity to develop an old idea for a children’s story into my first (unpublished) novel, while studying on the first of two creative writing courses with the Penguin Random House Writers’ Academy. The Haunted Tide is my second (half-finished) novel, which I started writing during the second course. I also attended a ten week creative writing course with the Writers’ Centre Norwich, tutored by Ian Nettleton, which encouraged me to write more flash fiction and short stories..

One of my short stories won The Word Hut’s 19th Short Story Writing Competition and another was included in an anthology entitled River Writes, published by Bure Navigation Conservation Trust. A piece of flash fiction was featured in Flash, I love you! from Paper Swans Press.

I post my poetry on a blog and regularly host and participate in prompts and challenges at the dVerse Poets Pub, the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Carpe Diem Haiku Kai and Poets United.

Reviews

[Janebartels3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kim is a good and careful writer. I have enjoyed her poetry for years. This book has a lot of wonderful stories, some haunting and startling. I bought it (two copies...) and am enjoying it mightily. The objection I have is it could be formatted better, but as Kim has said, it is more an experimental book and that improvement in format will come with her next book. But that shouldn't put anyone off from buying and reading this book. She is a writer to watch.

Jane Kohut-Bartels, author of "The Kimono" and "Bull's Blood".

[Andie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of beautifully written flash fiction stories and vignettes with insight and feeling and a blend of contemporary, historical, paranormal, and futuristic elements.