Meet Amy, Runner Up in the Spring 2020 Flash Fiction Contest

 Amy’s Bio: 

Amy currently lives in the US but after twelve years of living internationally in Asia, the world feels more like her home. Vocationally she is many things; currently, the roles of mother, expressive arts trauma therapist, and writer fill her days. 

The latter thus far has mostly been a vocation of the heart, and a really good way to stay sane. Writing seems to be the only way to make sense of the deep shadows that fill our world. It allows our felt senses, emotions, and knowings to bleed out into an alchemy that can transform what can feel like a dense forest into a well-lit path. It’s also so much fun. 

Take the time to read her story, "Silver Linings," and then come back to learn about her writing process.

-----interview with Sue Bradford Edwards-----

WOW: Every story starts in a unique way. What, in the midst of the pandemic, made you write “Silver Linings?” 

Amy: The story actually began as a simple writing prompt, write a story that contains the words silver lining amoung a few other details. 

WOW: That certainly worked well for you. With the tight word count of flash fiction, every detail counts. How did you decide on the details that Mary sees in the homes of her students? 

Amy: For me the writing process is organic, it flows rather than is planned, everything in the story came in this way. I guess it is more why these details remained rather than the others that got cut. 

I liked the details that tell the deeper story without having to write the suffering and loss we are experiencing. For example, I love the picture of Timothy hugging his mother that contrast the current reality that she is not home and he can't touch her because she is a nurse. 

The final big detail the door over Mary’s shoulder, as a therapist I know people walk around carrying so much suffering, usually it's right there just below the surface if we were curious we might offer care. 

WOW: Your details definitely take the story to a deeper place. What advice do you have for readers who are tempted to try flash fiction but may need a bit of a nudge? 

Amy: Don’t think, have fun, be curious about the story that wants to be told, go for a long walk. 

WOW: Walking?  I'll have to try that. What silver linings has the virus brought do your writing life? 

Amy: Time to write.    

WOW: You have definitely used your time well! Can you tell us a bit about your current writing project? Where can our readers find more of your work? 

Amy: I’m working on a YA novel that has been so much fun because it's driving theme is the initiation process of adolescence. My own daughters are the same age as my protagonist making it feel really alive!

WOW: It sounds like you have a lot of inspritation on hand.  Good luck with this project.  I know our readers look forward to seeing more of your writing in the future. 

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Interview with Kelley Hicken, Spring 2020 Flash Fiction Contest Runner Up

Kelley Hicken is passionate about sharing engaging and uplifting stories with a hint of the supernatural. She is the author of Under the Foster Freak Tree, a middle-grade novella inspired by her own experience as a foster mom. Kelley resides in Idaho with her husband and their two children. Learn about her latest projects at www.kelleyhicken.com.

Read Kelley's story, "I Decided to Jump Off a Bridge," and then return here to learn more about this talented author and illustrator. 

----------Interview by Renee Roberson
WOW: Congratulations, Kelly, and welcome! "I Decided to Jump Off a Bridge" is such a poignant tale full of "what ifs?" What was the process of creating it like—did any of the characters change or transform as you worked through the revision process?

Kelley: I came up with the idea for this story and wrote a two-sentence prompt that sat in my "flash fiction ideas" file for several years collecting digital dust. Every once in a while, I will grab a random idea out of the folder and complete it. I believe it took less than two hours from start to finish, and I didn't vary from my original idea of who the characters should be. The story was easy to write because I am passionate about the fact that every life has value and purpose. It came from a place of love, which makes all the difference in whether or not my writing "works."

WOW: I love it when a story flows so easily out of a writer and the message behind this one. You are also the author of a middle-grade novella inspired by your experience as a foster mother. What are some books from your childhood that helped guide you through those pre-teen and teen years?

Kelley: This question makes me laugh because the books that meant the most to me as a teen were the books I hesitated to read because I considered them "old lady" stories. My grandma recommended The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, and it was a life-altering experience, pulling me out of teenage entitlement and forcing me to question women's rights and my value as a girl. A family friend gifted me a stack of books one summer, including Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, and The Diary of Anne Frank. Both of these books fostered sincere gratitude for the freedom and security I had previously taken for granted.
Then, there was Eric by Doris Lund, a book that you only have to read once to feel it's power for the rest of your life. It's a story of a boy with Leukemia as told by his mother. I remember falling in love with Eric, hoping against all hope that he would overcome the disease, and then feeling devastated when he didn't. I hated the book because it hurt my heart in ways I'd never experienced before. Nine years later, I met my future husband, who is a cancer survivor. The scenes from Eric flooded back to me as if I'd just read it. For the first time, I fully recognized the power books have to develop empathy and human connection. It's why I choose to write, even if it is a painful effort at times.

WOW: It sounds like the book "Eric" made its way into your life for a reason! Based on what I've seen on your blog, in addition to being a writer, you are also a talented illustrator. What are some ways you prioritize which projects you are working on and when?

Kelley: My formula for prioritization is quite simple. When I make time for creative endeavors, I ask myself two questions: 
1. Are my kids awake? 
2. Am I stressed out? 
If the answer to either of those questions is yes, I will opt for illustration. Drawing is a stress relief for me, and if interruptions happen, it's not difficult to pick up where I left off. On the other hand, writing takes a significant amount of focus, and I often feel the very emotions I am writing. When I have just plotted the untimely death of a beloved character, and my kids walk in to see me bawling, it doesn't feel like the best mothering moment.

WOW: I can understand that. I'm glad drawing can provide you with such a stress relief in the times you need it. Having written a novella and award-winning flash fiction, which form do you prefer the most and why?

Kelley: In my heart, I want to say I prefer to write novels. I love nothing more than to delve into a fantasy world and create meaning and emotion where there was none before. In practicality, flash fiction is my favorite because it's so much easier to finish a project. I also love the challenge of making someone laugh or cry with the fewest words possible.
 
WOW: What are you working on now?
Kelley: Besides endless illustration classes? I am currently working on a fantasy novel about a selfish quarry prisoner on the verge of losing her job as the royal tomb engraver. When she develops a dangerous and illegal gift of visions and foresees the unborn prince's murder, she must decide to either hide her gift or risk her own life to save him. 

I am always writing flash fiction pieces, too. I love this contest because I always receive valuable advice from the critiques. Thanks again for a great experience. I feel honored to see my work among such talented writers. 

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Interview with Rochelle Williams : First Place Winner - Spring 2020 Flash Fiction Contest

Rochelle Williams lives in southern New Mexico. Her fiction, poetry and visual art have appeared in Lunarosity, Chokecherries, Desert Exposure, Lifeboat: A Journal of Memoir, Earthships: A New Mecca Poetry Collection, and Menacing Hedge. Her fiction has won a number of awards, including two Southwest Writers Workshop competitions and Recursos de Santa Fe’s Discovery Reading Series. She holds an MFA in fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is working on a novel about the French early modernist painter, Pierre Bonnard.

interview by Marcia Peterson 

WOW: Congratulations your first place win in our Spring 2020 competition! What inspired you to enter the contest?

Rochelle: I was looking at a friend's blog. She posts writing opportunities weekly. Her name is Jeanne Gassman and we were classmates in the low-residency MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. I saw the WOW listing and decided to give it a shot. As I read around on the Women on Writing site, I saw that Jeanne was a first-place winner in 2012. So, thank you, Jeanne, and thank you, Women on Writing for such a providing such a great platform for women to publish and share their writing.

WOW:  Can you tell us the inspiration for your story, "That Day?" 

Rochelle: This story really began as a backstory or character sketch for a character in some writing I did on a first novel. I was musing about the impact over time of losing a child, and what Maggie might be feeling years after the accident that killed Jacob. After a long hiatus, I've recently returned to writing and unearthed this piece from my files. It felt powerful to me, so I worked to shape it into a cogent short narrative, a process I very much enjoyed.

WOW: What do you enjoy about flash fiction writing versus the other kinds of writing that you do?

Rochelle: This was my first flash fiction piece. It was challenging in such a stimulating way it made me want to work in this form a lot more. I've written short stories and worked on two novels. To convey what you want to say in so few words really concentrates everything--language, rhythm, structure--and it also mysteriously concentrates the pleasure of the writing. This was a big surprise to me.

WOW: Well done on your first flash piece! What can you tell us about the novel you’re working on, and how the process is going?

Rochelle: The novel I'm working on now is called Eye of Desire: Letters to a Dead Painter. In it, a woman art historian and conservator finds herself writing letters to Pierre Bonnard because she is so moved by his art. She uses this "conversation" with the dead painter to come to terms with a tragedy in her life and recover her own artistic journey, which she abandoned out of grief. I am about mid-way through and hope to complete a first draft in the next six months.

WOW:  Good luck with the draft! Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Rochelle. Before you go, do you have any advice for beginning flash fiction writers?

Rochelle: Since I'm new to flash fiction, I don't really have any resources to recommend specifically about fiction. However, I've found Dinty Moore's Rose Metal Press A Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction really helpful in terms of understanding short forms in general.

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For more information about our quarterly Flash Fiction and Creative Nonfiction Essay contests, visit our contest page here.

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