I'll Be Here All the Week! » flash fiction

I Did Not Win

Nick Faber — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:54:07 +0000

We were driving from Maine to Brooklyn, playing a game called “Find the NPR Station.” It was a Saturday, after all, and even the smaller markets have Weekend Edition. Somewhere in Massachusetts or Connecticut, we found This American Life and stayed tuned in for as long as we could. New York Times book critic James Wood came on Weekend All Things Considered to announce a fiction writing contest and my ears perked up. I know who this guy is, I thought, I’m reading his book (more on that in a second)! It turned out that this was Round 2 of NPR’s Three-Minute Fiction contest, to which they invite listeners to submit their own works of flash fiction.

Wood talked about the power of specifics in a first sentence. You know, the hook. He gave some example that he also references in his book about a marquis eating lunch, but I’ve already forgotten. And, oh yeah, I only ended up reading half of the book, so…

So the rule for Round 2 was that all stories should begin with the bland, generic sentence, “The nurse left work at five o’clock.” The trick would be to write a killer second line.

I wrote a little story in the next week or so and sent it off a day early. I’d been checking back at the site every few days to see if I was a contender or not, but alas, today I saw that a winner was chosen, and it was not I.

Here is my entry: “A Fern in the Rose Garden.” Please to enjoy.
A Fern in the Rose Garden by Nick Faber

Seventy Two Words

Nick Faber — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:47:13 +0000

One of my favorite contemporary writers is a guy from Tennessee named Kevin Wilson. I admire his ability to make the surreal feel so familiar. I saw on his web site that he wrote a tiny story for a web site called “Seventy Two Words,” so I thought I might try and write my own 72-word story. I realized too late that the site may not be publishing new work anymore. I liked my story enough to share it, so here you go:

My Tiny Family

We come across a miniature village, set up on the lot between the antiques store and the used bookstore. Tyler, running around the model village, looks so gigantic and surprised that I have to laugh. My wife touches my back and I tense up again. “I’m big!” Tyler says, bending over to peer into the miniature ice cream shop. He is big. I wonder if the tiny villagers ever feel so bored.

Published: Flying the Co-Op

Nick Faber — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:27:44 +0000

I’m very happy to announce that my short story, “Flying the Co-Op” has been published by the cool little press from Lawrence, KS, Johnny America.

Check it out, as well as the other stories Johnny America has in their archives. I think it’s safe to say I’m in good company there.

Introducing Name Your Tale (dot com)

Nick Faber — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:27:07 +0000

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been donning a web producer hat on top of my writer hat. Which works out, because my web producer hat is one of those big three-pointed colonial deals, and my writer hat is more like a beanie, but all one color and without the propeller. So I guess you could say it’s more of a writer yarmulke.

What’s the point of all of this hat wearing? Glad you asked, and good pun, by the way. The point is I started a new web site that I would like you to visit, and it’s called Name Your Tale.

The way it works is this: You think of a story title, we write the story. Now, before you get ahead of yourself, I’m not talking in the Royal We here, when I say “we write the story.” No, I’m talking about me and my good pal Jeremy S. Griffin. The goal right now is to publish two brand new 100-word stories a day, five days a week.

I’ve made some back room dealings with other close friends who will be making other forms of contribution to the site, so keep an eye out for a fancy logo and a fancy podcast with fancy music, featuring our favorites stories, read by Us – I mean, me. That was the Royal We sneaking in there.

It’s so easy, one of those little nodding bird thingies could do it, although the title would probably not make sense to any of us (all-inclusive us, that is).

So check out the site, let me know what you think, and, gosh darn it, submit a title.