I’m so excited to be part of the second annual Flash Fiction Festival!

I’m going to be teaching two classes that both come primarily out of my 15 years as an editor. The Sculpting Flash Fiction class is my love letter to the art of editing—for me this is where the real magic happens. My own first drafts are fast and uncensored, but the sculpting of those ideas is the real dance and my favorite part. I hope to not only give some concrete tools for editing flash fiction but also to inspire an appreciate for this part of the process, which I fondly call the “puberty” of our work, where everything changes and starts to find itself.

The Flash Fiction Books class also comes out of my work as an editor. I’ve worked with authors on all sorts of books from novels and memoirs and nonfiction books, but it wasn’t until 2007 that flash fiction appeared in my world. Over the last decade flash writers have become more sophisticated in their storytelling but are often lost when they go from the individual story to the book length concept. My intention with this class is to help writers pan out and see the big picture—and embrace the creativity involved in generating a completely different artifact.

Both of these classes are usually taught as 3 or 4-week online workshops, so we’ll be compressing a lot of information into a small space in Bristol, but I hope it will flood you (as the whole weekend will!) with new ideas and a new direction. And for those of you who want a taste of what it’s like to work with me before we meet in person, I’m running the 3-week version of my Sculpting Class from May 7-28—find out more here.

Fun fact: I spent my early childhood in both Germany and Spain as a military brat, so travelling to Europe is always very nostalgic for me. But the last time I visited the UK it was 1981 and I was a little girl—I remember the year clearly because Charles and Diana had just gotten married and Charles and Diana memorabilia was everywhere: from Christmas ornaments and t-shirts to life-sized wax figures. It’s ironic that I’m finally returning the same year as another royal wedding!

I’m really looking forward to communing with fellow flash fiction lovers this July. Feel free to contact me ahead of time for questions about my classes or even to join me on one of my upcoming Flash Fiction Retreats with writer Kathy Fish in Costa Rica and in Italy. I can’t wait to meet so many of you in person finally! It will be like a big flashy reunion!