He Owed Me
by Hannah Retallick
When he died the man owed me £35 in petty cash and that was my first thought when I heard about The Accident, a collision between a camper van and lorry on the A55 which proved fatal for both drivers, the lorry man being the one who owed me £35, a twinkly-eyed neighbour, a single forty-something-year-old called Luca who smelt of cigarettes and bacon and always told me he loved my hair like that, like however it happened to be, up down blonde curly red straight black crimped, and we were starting to know each other quite well because he had got into the habit of rushing up to my front door and saying he needed to borrow some change to give as pocket money to his niece or for carpark tickets or for slot machines, so I would do the neighbourly thing and pluck coins from the dusty dish in my hallway, saying, ‘Here, hope that helps’, not knowing if I’d ever get it back but making a mental tally as though I needed to know how grateful he should be to me, and it was the selfishness of my first thought when I heard he’d died that meant I couldn’t bear to go to his funeral, crumbling under the weight of guilt, because £35 doesn’t matter in the face of death, and as the weeks passed I purged those thoughts completely and stopped torturing myself about the petty debt and my own failings and just wished I could ask Luca whether he really did love my hair like that, like however it happened to be, or whether he meant something else
About the Author
Hannah Retallick is from Anglesey, North Wales. She was home educated and then studied with the Open University, graduating with a First-class honours degree, BA in Humanities with Creative Writing and Music, before passing her Creative Writing MA with a Distinction. Hannah has gained recognition in many international competitions, including receiving Highly Commended in the Bridport Flash Fiction Prize 2022 and winning the £2000 Edinburgh Award for Flash Fiction 2024 – the biggest flash prize in the UK. Her debut short story collection, Something Very Human, is being released by Bridge House Publishing in November 2024. https://www.hannahretallick.co.uk/about
October 2024 Short List
Congratulations to all the authors who have made our Award sHort list.
Author names are yet to be announced, so while it is fine to share that you are on the short list, we do ask that you do not identify yourself with your particular fiction at this stage.
Flash Fiction Festival Day, Sat, October 26th
There’s a bit of a lull now between the longlist announcement for the 28th award judged by Matt Kendrick and the short list and results announcements.On the day we end British Summer Time in the UK and the evenings get darker, why not come to the first of our trio of flash fiction festival days,this Saturday, 26th October. Booking is closed via paypal on this site, but anyone who wants to come, just contact me by tomorrow afternoon (Friday 25th October) at jude(at)flashfictionfestival (dot) com. Only £30 for a day packed with flashy fun from 11.00 am until 6.30 pm BSt.
More details at flashfictionfestival.com
For those affected by darker evenings and for anyone short of cash we have five more free places left. Just contact me if you would like one.
Jude, Octoher 24th
October 2024 Long List
Congratulations to all the authors who have made our Award long list and huge thanks to all who entered.
Author names are yet to be announced, so while it is fine to share that you are on the long list, we do ask that you do not identify yourself with your particular fiction at this stage.
Important
We receive many many entries, and occasionally some entries have the same title. We are in the process of sending an offer of publication email to all authors on the long list. Please do not assume you are on the long list unless you have received that publication offer. If in doubt, contact us.
Guess the October Award Last Minute Badge colour!
If you still pop in at X (formerly Twitter) and/or Facebook, we have the usually day-long mini contest tomorrow Saturday 5th October, to guess the colour of the Last Minute Club Badge. Which is usually two-tone. Check out previous colours here
Maybe you could choose a colour-combo from this photo of figurines I saw in the Open Exhibition of art at the RWA in Bristol today.
The winner of this guess the colour contest receives a Bath Flash Fiction Anthology or collection published by Ad Hoc Fiction. If two guessers are close (maybe choose one colour each) they each win a book, The Last Minute Club runs all day Sunday for final day entrants.
And another bonus. Matt Kendrick, our judge, has produced a second amazing thread on X (read a previous one this week reproduced reproduced here ) for those writers who do begin from scratch sometimes a couple of days before the end of a contest.
A few of the excellent ideas in this thread for very last minute writers plus links to a couple of his own published stories are below,and a few by others with story structures that can be used to write fast. I would also like congratulate Matt on receiving two Best of the Net Nominations this week. Fantastic news for a fabulous writer and hard-working editor and resources-person.
Matt says:
I wrote this piece in one day, edited it the next day, and submitted it
the day after. It was picked for the Wigleaf Top 50 so hopefully does a
few things okay:
This piece uses repetition. The reason this might be a quicker thing to
write is that it comes from emotion. The repetition creates resonance.
Here, I’m using epistrophe (end-of-sentece repetition), but anaphora
(start-of-sentence) is probably easier
Another technique that leans more into the emotional is the
breathless paragraph like this brilliant example from James Montgomery
HC in Bath last year: bathflashfictionaward.com/2023/06/james-…
James Montgomery June 2023 Highly Commended
bathflashfictionaward.com
If trying this, I’d suggest picking an emotion and just letting yourself
write from small emotion to big emotion, seeing what comes out. Don’t
worry about it being messy on first draft. That’s what editing is for.
Or how about a list? I wrote this FictiveDream piece in a couple
of days & it was picked for Best Microfiction:
https://fictivedream.com/2020/02/25/a-list-of-things-that-are-white/
Start with a title (“a list of things / people /
emotions) then come up with that list. Try mixing in expected &
unexpected items…(7/13)
Try contrasting concrete with abstract. Try going overboard with
language. Jo Gatford won Bath with an astounding list piece, Things Left And Found at The Side of the Road, back in 2018
You can see the rest of Matt’s thread for more suggestions if you visit him on X.
In the meantime, happy writing/editing/polishing. We love to read your stories and thanks to everyone who has submitted already. Results out at the end of October, £1460 in prizes.
Jude October 4th 2024
20 Tips from our judge, Matt Kendrick for final week writers!
With 6 days to go to the deadline of 6th October, the sun’s setting on our 28th Award judged by Matt Kendrick. I’ve copied here a marvellous thread of tips Matt posted on X a couple of days ago, useful for any competition entry or for any time you are writing. He generously agreed I could post them up here again. Also take a look at his website for all the amazing resources there.
Matt’s thread of tips posted recently on X
Book Great Festival Flash Off Days — Oct, Nov, Jan
To begin the Autumn, the fourth series of the online Great Festival Flash Off, hosted by Jude, is now open for booking!
Saturdays, October 26th, November 30th and January 11th.
Still only £30 a day (11.00 am to 6.30 pm, London time).
Book via Paypal or card at flashfictionfestival.com
Each day includes a mini writing contest with ekphrastic prompts from Jude In October, loosely following the challenges in the Great British Bake Off the nearly vintage reality TV show, you will write your ‘signature’ challenge, November there’s a technical challenge and in January a ‘showstopper’. Judged by Diane Simmons, the winner and two runners up will receive Ad Hoc Fiction books, free entries to Bath Flash Fiction Award and publication.
We also. have 2 60 minute workshops, and one ninety minute workshop each day. Workshops run by Kathy Fish, Sarah Freligh, Judy Darley, Anika Carpenter, Stephanie Carty, Audrey Niven, Alison Woodhouse, Ingrid Jendrzejewski, plus a special Novella in Flash session with NIF writers, Karen Jones and Diane Simmons discussing, reading from and answering questions on their new novellas. There is also Yoga for Writers with Sudha Balagopal, readings, and chat in break out groups. Further details on the website.
Hope you can come! And if you are in vicinity, come to a free evening of readings, this Saturday 28th September at St James. Lots of well-known flash fictioneers reading one flash each and slightly longer readings from Diane Simmons and Flemming George who will read from their recently published novellas in flash. I’ll also be reading a few stories from my new collection.
And. here’s another two reminders for you. Our 28th £1460 prize fund single flash Award for up to 300 word storiescloses Sunday October and our ninth yearly Novella in Flash Award closes in just over a month on October 31st. More details on this website.
(In case you want a writing prompt, why not let the photograph spark off an autumn spider story?
Jude, September 27th, 2024
Book Sale!
With just twelve days to go until our £1460, 28th single flash Award closes on Sunday October 6th, and just under five weeks until our ninth Novella in Flash Award closes on October 31st this year. (Results out January 2025 with £500 in prizes plus publication for the top three), here’s a little book sale for you. If you are writing a NIF, it might give you a boost to complete it ready to send.
Jude is trying to clear the Ad Hoc Fiction ‘warehouse’ (ie her very small office full of boxes of books) a bit and is selling the following novellas in flash at £5 or £4 each if you buy two or more.
Free postage for buyers from the UK. And it’s still a good deal for overseas’ buyers. If you are interested, send an email jude (at) adhocfiction (dot) com mentioning your location and she will send a payment link. You can find more details about the books at bookshop.adhocfiction.com
Here’s the list:
One for the Road by Tom 0’Brien
The Tony Bone Stories by Al Kratz
It Felt Like Everything by K. S. Dyal
The Roster, Debra A Daniel
Echoes in a Hollow Space by Ruth Skrine
Essence by Christopher Drew
The everrumble by Michelle Elvy
the other side of better by Michelle Elvy
Small Things by Hannah Sutherland
Lessons from the Water’s Edge by Caroline Greene (winner 2022)
In the Debris Field (anthology of three winniung novellas in Flash from 2018)
How To Make a Window Snake (anthology of three winning novellas from 2017)
Cheer us up!
Thanks to everyone who has entered our 28th Award so far. We’re getting busy with just two and a half weeks to go until the deadline of Sunday 6th October. Matt Kendrick our judge will read the longlist and select a short list and the top five by the end of October. £1460 in prizes. We’re looking for stories 300 words or under on any subject or theme.
A few more thoughts about themes and subject matter. We receive many very good, yet sad stories about contemporary life, fewer historical stories and fewer humourous or uplifting stories. So if you submit an entry with a great title that is humourous, historical and not trqgic it certainly might catch the attention of our initial readers and cheer them up.
Flashback Fiction, (the magazine that publishes historical fiction, which is not currently open) has an interesting historical timeline of their published stories https://flashbackfiction.com/index.php/timeline/. It’s worth reading some of the stories linked. I have a couple in there. They are tragic, however. Many of us default to tragic in our stories. But we don’t always need to. Here is picture that might prompt a last minute submission. It’s early morning on an autumn day. There’s a hot air balloon in the sky. Maybe locate the story in a different century and keep it light, like the balloon. No crash landings!
Jude
September 2024
Inspiration to Write for our Next Award
It’s not long (under one month) until our 28th Award judged by the amazing writer, editor and teacher, Matt Kendrick closes on Sunday 6th October at midnight GMT. For up to 300 word flash fiction. £1460 prize fund. The 50 stories longlisted are offered publication in our 2024 anthology. Results out, in our quick turn around, at the end of October.
To get you inspired, if you haven’t written anything for the competition and have no idea what to put on paper, do read my interview with him. I also asked Sara Hills the first prize winner from the June 2024 round of Bath Flash to give us a prompt when I interviewed her.. Here it is again:
Drop a character into a public space and have something wildly unexpected happen in the first sentence, bringing the conflict front and center. What does your character observe? What’s at risk—both externally and internally—and what do they do about it? Try to use all the senses if you can and zoom between the overall scene and smaller details that evoke emotion. Don’t get bogged down by rules; let yourself play on the page. But do think about agency and action, and make something happen. If you’re feeling stuck, throw a dog into the mix (figuratively, of course!).
If you are a subscriber to her Substack you could also read the newly published article by Kathy Fish on The Art of Flashh where she goes through the process of how she found an old story that was ‘a bit flat’ which she boldly altered in just an hour to submit to a deadline at Wigleaf. It ended up being called ‘Chicago’, was published in Wigleaf and selected for Best Small Fictions. I thoroughly recommend signing up for Kathy’s substack. It is always packed with excellent writing tips, instructions and examples.
Finally for more last minute inspiration, if you are nearby and want to attend a face to face event, do come to listen to flash writers reading their stories at St James Wine Vaults, Bath on Saturday 28th September from 7.30 pm to 10.00 pm. Free with snacks and a late bar. Diane Simmons and Flemming George will be reading a few stories from their new novellas in flash and I will be reading from my new collection. And we have lots of others reading a story each. In no particular order, Abigail Williams, Alison Powell Jupiter Jones, John Wheway, Grace Palmer, Mark Barlex, Deb Tomkins, Cole Beauchamp, Sara Hills, Kathryn Aldridge-Morris, Kevlin Henney, Andy Lavender, Anna Wang, Katja Sass and Nick Havergal These evenings are always really good fun with a fantastic variety of stories And there is a raffle and we sell books, many discounted.
Jude, September 10th 2024