Interview With Published Writer, Amy Katherine Black, on Odyssey Online Writing Classes

 

As we get closer to the end of the year, it's never too late to pursue your writing goals. Odyssey Writing Workshops provides countless online courses. Their classes combine deep focus, directed study, intensive practice, and detailed feedback. They'll help you learn how to best use the concepts, tools, and techniques covered to make major improvements in your writing.

Today, we're chatting with Amy Katherine Black about her experience taking four online courses at Odyssey Writing Workshops: Crafting Compelling Scenes in 2026 and Mix-Up, Mash-Up, Hybrid, Fusion: How to Write a Blended-Genre Story in 2025.

Amy writes weird and cozy sci-fi, fantasy, and horror and is an editor and publisher of bobandspotmagazine.com. A graduate of the Odyssey and Your Personal Odyssey Writing Workshops, her stories are upcoming or have appeared in Cast of Wonders, The Orange & Bee, The Dark, Fractured Reveries: A Storied Imaginarium Salon ed. by Carina Bissett, Familiars by Zombies Need Brains, Cosmic Horror Monthly, and other publications. A. Katherine lives in Minnesota with her family, cats, and several teapots and coffee machines. She loves snowstorms, board games, and all kinds of creature flicks, but especially the ones where the creature is the good guy. Find her at flywithpigs.com or on bluesky @akatherineblack.bsky.social. 

--- Interview by Nicole Pyles

WOW: Thanks for taking the time to chat with me, Amy! So, you attended four different Odyssey Online Classes. What made you sign up for these courses in the first place?

Amy: Always happy to discuss writing and Odyssey! I took my first Odyssey Online Class in 2022. This was a few years after I’d attended the Odyssey six-week in-person workshop, and, honestly, at that point Writer Me was flailing a little. 

I’d been trying to continue my growth through studying craft books and joining online meet-ups with fellow writers, but I was all over the place, unfocused. Too many projects were floating around my brain and clogging my to-do list, and while I was better at recognizing weaknesses in my stories, I still didn’t feel confident in my revision skills. 

Fortunately for me, Greg Ashe was teaching a Scene and Sequel class that Winter. A big issue with my work was pacing. Some scenes dragged, others gave my beta readers whiplash. It turned out that Greg’s class was exactly what I needed! I learned so much about structuring a scene based on what the story needed at each moment along the plotline, and when my scenes were finally doing the work required for the plot and character arcs, my stories flowed much more comfortably. 

WOW: I love that you found a course for exactly what you were struggling with. What inspired you to return to take additional courses?

Amy: I’ve started to notice a pattern each year, of losing focus and momentum on my projects as Winter looms and the busy holiday season takes over.  Greg Ashe’s 2022 class not only gave me a shiny new set of writing tools, it was a refreshing and much-needed jumpstart for a new writing year. 

In the year after taking that class, I not only wrote more short stories than I had in the previous two years, I more than tripled my short story submission rate! I realized that I got much more than expected from that first Odyssey online class. 

Not only did I build my skills in a much-needed area, the encouragement and camaraderie served as a great motivator, and I left the class wanting to dig in and plow ahead! Since then, when I’ve needed another jump in skills and motivation, I’ve applied for another Odyssey class.

WOW: What a transformation! You took such a great variety of classes. How did you know which was right for your writing goals?

Amy: Every Odyssey Online class I’ve taken has given me a great boost in motivation and productivity, but I’ve always been careful to apply for classes that were focusing on a specific area in which I needed growth. When it came to Barbara Ashford’s One Brick at a Time class, I wanted to be better at critiquing and redrafting my work on my own, before sending it to a critique group or beta readers. From her class I developed an invaluable checklist for pre-planning and revising scenes, which I’m still using today.

Likewise, Greg Ashe’s Genre Mash-up class offered something I wanted to master but struggled to learn from craft books, which was how to effectively blend genres. It’s more complicated than one might think to blend sci-fi and romance, for example, or horror and cozy, which is what I’ve been focused on more recently. Thanks to Greg’s class, I’m able to recognize which story elements are key in each genre and then figure out how to merge the genres more effectively in one story. 

WOW: That's a great approach. What made these courses different than others you may have taken?

Amy: I took several online writing classes from other organizations prior to discovering Odyssey. First were a couple of literary online writing classes, which while great classes, didn’t help me learn about how I might make stylistic and plot choices based on genre. I then took a few genre-focused online writing classes, but these classes were geared more toward beginners, and at some point I’d passed that beginner stage. I’m so glad an instructor from one of those courses suggested I check out Odyssey! 

The Odyssey online classes have been a great fit for me for a few reasons: the instruction materials are well-organized, with concrete examples and detailed solutions. For example, I know I want to improve the pacing in my scene, but how, exactly? What can I do stylistically and with dialogue? When can I add exposition and when should I stay in the action? What moments should be dilated? All of those story elements and more were addressed in my Odyssey classes, and with very specific, clear examples I could definitely work with.

WOW: The specific examples sound great. How did these courses prepare you for publishing stories and eventually working on your novel?

Amy: With each Odyssey online class I feel more confident in both the initial drafting and the revising of scenes and stories.  Through the combination of pre-reading, lectures, assignments, and critiquing that we do in each class, every concept and technique covered ends up nicely nestled into my brain. 

When the classes are over, then, and I settle in to a new story or redraft an existing story or chapter, my mind is already cued in to apply all the tools learned in these classes. For example, it’s been many months since I took Barbara Ashford’s class, One Brick at a Time: Crafting Compelling Scenes, and I’m still very aware of the beats and emotional turns in each scene I write. The increased awareness of this aspect of my scenes has been super satisfying.

WOW: I'll bet! What hesitations did you have before joining the classes that were resolved when you got started?

Amy: It can be nerve-wracking, sharing your work with people you don’t know, and especially work that isn’t as good as you know it could be. When it’s time to upload that first writing excerpt, a draft of my story that’ll be read by the instructor and several classmates, I always feel super self-conscious, suddenly questioning whether the draft will make any sense at all to these people who don’t know me. But the Odyssey instructors always create a safe and encouraging space, and I remind myself that everyone else is as nervous about sharing as I am. 

And it can be very helpful to get feedback from people I haven’t worked with before. Everyone approaches a work of art, written or other, from a unique angle. The more feedback I consider on revision, the stronger my stories and scenes will hopefully be. As classes go on, of course, I get to know my classmates and the instructor better, and I’m not only more comfortable sharing my work, I don’t want the classes to end! 

WOW: What a great feeling. What advice would you share for someone uncertain about investing in their writing career with online courses?

Amy: I’d encourage writers out there to consider their own unique learning style.  Of course, I think we all benefit from reading craft books and from studying other writers’ work, but the experience of a live, interactive learning environment has benefits beyond studying published works. Personally, I learn more easily when I’m participating in active discussion on a topic, and when I get feedback on my early attempts focusing on new techniques. That’s what we get from writing courses, and I find that after every Odyssey Online class, my writing skills take a leap forward. 

WOW: Great tips. How did you know Odyssey Online was right for you?

Amy: I tried a few other online writing courses before I found Odyssey, and while I definitely learned from each of those earlier courses, I knew right away that Odyssey was exactly what I needed. One big plus was the focus on genre writing, which is what I do. I love to write horror, sci-fi, fantasy, weird, fabulist, slipstream, and cozy, each of which relies on specific craft elements and provides readers with a specific reading experience. Other Odyssey Online classmates I’ve had write mystery, historical fic, thrillers, young adult and middle grade. I

 love that the Odyssey instructors are very familiar with the different genres and can take into account my individual writing goals when helping me improve my craft. The individual meeting we get with the Odyssey instructor has been a great opportunity to dive into questions and concerns I’ve had related to my own work and my specific goals.

WOW: That's awesome. Who is right for Odyssey Online courses?

Amy: Writers who are not only eager to up their skill set, but who are ready to examine the weaknesses in their own writing, are a great fit for Odyssey Online classes. Writing can be a vulnerable experience – it’s not a surprise that people refer to their works as their babies. We often put our hearts on the page, our fears and fantasies, our dreams and ambitions, and then we offer the whole thing up to others and wait with clenched teeth for their feedback. It’s tough! 

But I fully believe that the only way to become a better writer is to take on the critiques and try new methods and techniques. Thankfully, the Odyssey instructors are all rooting for us to succeed, and along with their critiques comes kindness and encouragement. 

WOW: I think so too! How has your writing improved or changed since taking these classes?

Amy: I honestly don’t know where I’d be as a writer or an editor without Odyssey! After each Odyssey class, my productivity was boosted, and over time I realized that much of what I learned in each class had become an integral part of my initial drafting. While ten years ago it took me twenty-plus drafts to get a story right, now I can now complete a story in just a few drafts, which is awesome. I’m also much more comfortable getting feedback from others and figuring out how to strengthen my work as a result. 

Not only has my Odyssey learning boosted my short story writing skills, I’m now venturing into longer form projects, with two novellas and a novel in progress. On top of that, I started a small press earlier this year, Spiderbot Press, and will be launching an online magazine in 2027, Bob and Spot’s Featured Creatures! My Odyssey experiences have given me the skills and confidence to step beyond what I’d ever imagined a decade ago, and I’m so grateful! 

WOW: How exciting! What should people expect when taking these courses?

Amy: Writers taking their first Odyssey class should expect to have some aha moments (I love the aha moments!), as insights and techniques are laid out before them and explained clearly by excellent instructors. They should also expect to be humbled, as inevitably someone will point out unexpected areas in their writing that need improvement, but at the same time writers should inspect to be inspired, by spot-on insights presented in lectures, by reading the creative works of classmates, and by diving into examples from published works and realizing that they, too, could master these techniques. I always come away from an Odyssey Online class with new goals and fresh motivation!

WOW: I love it! Thanks so much for your time and telling us about your experience.

Writers, make sure to check out https://www.odysseyworkshop.org/odyssey-online/Odyssey Writing Workshop online courses and find out which one is right for you.

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Interview with Emily Freeborn: Spring 2026 Flash Fiction Contest Runner Up

 

Emily’s Bio: Emily Freeborn is an author currently on submission with her debut NA heist novel (Sinners or Saints) and an entertainment law student at Chapman University in Southern California. She loves writing stories that explore the minds of complicated, morally grey women. When she's not busy plotting fictional crimes and racking up a search history that would probably get her put on an FBI watchlist, she enjoys hanging out with her chaotic husky and hunting down rare books. You can find her on social media at @authoremilywrites and contact her agent, Lauren Galit of LKG Agency, for inquiries. 

Take a moment to read "Unclean" (CLICK HERE) and then come back to learn about how Emily shaped this story.

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

WOW:  What was the inspiration for “Unclean”? 

Emily:  I was drawn to the specific aspect of coming of age in which you start to see the distance between your expectations and reality. One area I've noticed that this often appears in for young women is sex. You spend your teenage years growing attached to a theoretical version of the act, informed by romance books filled with orgasmic, idealized lovemaking. However, for many, early explorations of intimacy can be deeply unsatisfying. You not only find yourself coming down from a flood of hormones, but also from the intoxicating rush of that failed fantasy. I wanted to write a story about a young woman's first time that was less about a loss of "innocence" and more about this concept of the death of a dream. 

WOW:   I think you've written something that will definitely resonate with female readers. Revision is such an important part of the writing process. How did this story change during revision? 

Emily: Since "Unclean" is about a young woman grappling with complicated feelings about her first sexual experience, I wanted to make sure I communicated her emotional state in a way the reader could easily connect with. While editing, I tried to be precise with the imagery that I used so that even while the character jumps between her memories and the present, readers can feel immersed in her perspective and hopefully connect with the underlying emotions tying these moments together. 

WOW: Your bio says that you like working with morally grey characters. How is this character morally grey? What is it that makes these characters interesting to you? 

Emily: I've always been drawn to morally grey characters because I feel like they are often the most honest. Dig around long enough in any person's psyche and you are certain to uncover something ugly. For the young woman in "Unclean," this is her naïve and flawed belief that because there are boundaries that should keep her from the man she sleeps with -- those being the fact that he is married and her teacher -- her attraction and attempts to pursue him are safe and acceptable. I wanted her perspective to represent how overindulging in fantasy can limit your perception of reality and lead to a self-indulgent and ultimately damaging way of viewing the world. 

WOW: You definitely showed how her beliefs led to this situation. In addition to writing flash, you have a novel on submission. How does working on one form of literature inform the other? 

Emily: I actually have always found flash fiction much harder to write than novels. It challenges you to do everything that a good book should do -- immerse you in a new perspective, foster a connection with a character, and draw readers into the world you've created -- in a fraction of a fraction of the time a novel gets to accomplish that. 

But if you are a writer looking to work on your craft, I think writing short fiction is one of the best ways you can accomplish that. After my debut went out on submission, I challenged myself to write a piece of short fiction every morning while I tried to figure out what project I want to work on next. I've noticed that since getting into that habit, my writing has gotten much tighter, so I would especially recommend any writers who struggle to cut down their word count try it out. 

WOW: That's an excellent recommendation! What advice do you have for our readers who may be trying to decide if they should focus on one type of writing (novels) or write multiple forms (novels, nonfiction, flash, etc.)? 

Emily: Whether you are a new writer or someone who's made a career of it, I highly recommend trying out as many types of writing as you can. Play around with poetry, write a narrative non-fiction essay, try out flash fiction if you've been primarily writing long-form or vice versa. Regardless of whether you stick with any of those forms or not, you will probably be able to implement something from that experience into the form you do want to stick with long term. The more you experiment and explore, the better your understanding of the kind of work you want to create will be.

WOW:  Thank you for sharing with our readers not only how you create your own work but also how our readers can explore various forms and shape their own writing!  

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Interview With Jennie Bricker: Spring 2026 Flash Fiction Contest Runner-Up

 

I'm honored to interview Jennie Bricker, one of our Spring 2026 Flash Fiction Runner-Up winners. We'll be chatting about what inspired her flash fiction story, "The Sailboat," her revision process, and more.

Before you read our discussion, be sure to read her story, "The Sailboat," then come on back. First, here's more about Jennie:

Jennie Bricker practices natural resources law in Portland, Oregon, with a side gig as a freelance editor and writer. She has previously worked as a bookstore clerk, a college writing instructor, a magazine editor, a comic book editor, a pizza delivery driver, and the brown furry mascot for a southern Oregon pizza joint formerly known as Grizzly Bear Pizza.

Jennie has published around 40 nonfiction articles, both magazine features and academic pieces, one of which received an award. Her short stories and microfiction have appeared in 100 Word Story, Third Wednesday Magazine, and a Writer’s Digest prizewinners anthology. Her first novel, Thirsty Creek (Unsolicited Press, 2025), is an ecological murder mystery set in the Wallowa Mountains of eastern Oregon. Her second novel, The Metabolic Adventures of Two-Bit Gilkey, comes out in spring 2028 from Type Eighteen Books.

--- Interview by Nicole Pyles

WOW: Congrats on winning runner-up for your story, "The Sailboat." What inspired this story? 

Jennie: This story began as a poem, during a period about 15 years ago when I wrote a lot of poetry, mostly bad. This poem was based on an actual relationship that ended, and an actual sailboat. I’ve taken several poems from that period and converted them into microfiction. I think it’s the imagery that makes the conversion effective. Very little of the poem remains, but some of the images are still there.

WOW: I love that you turned poetry into microfiction. That's something I want to remember! What was your revision process like?

Jennie: First, I converted the poem into prose, which required a narrative arc. Then, usually, a story is obese — too long, with pointless scenes and characters. So my main process is to winnow it down to something I consider its essence. With “The Sailboat,” I also fiddled endlessly with the language. I wanted the syntax to reflect the sound and the mood of the ocean, which in the story becomes the symbol  of emotion, memory, and nostalgia. So, for example, I wrote “salty sad lapping and murmur” because to me it sounded like the sea against the shore, or against the hull of a boat.

WOW: Great insights on the weight of a story. Does your career practicing natural resources law help or influence your writing in any way? 

Jennie: My law job gives me ideas for stories. My novel, Thirsty Creek, is based on an actual ecological disaster that I learned about as I was helping organize a conference for the Oregon Lakes Association. Usually my work is more of an impediment to writing. I write in the early morning, when it’s quiet, my favorite time. I start work when the hubbub of the day takes hold.

WOW: I love how your work inspires you. You have some incredible publications you’ve achieved! What advice can you share about creating publishable writing that you can share with our readers?

Jennie: Thirsty Creek took me 14 years to get into publishable shape and then find a publisher. I hope that’s not typical. So my advice is that persistence is at least as important as talent. Be patient. Laugh at rejection and never take it personally. Read constantly. And unless someone else is paying the mortgage, don’t quit your day job.

WOW: Great advice! What are you working on that you can tell us about?

Jennie: My second novel — The Metabolic Adventures of Two-Bit Gilkey — is a YA novel that comes out in 2028. It only took 2 years!! Apparently I have learned something. I’m also getting better at short stories, especially microfiction, which I adore. I’m writing short stories but haven’t settled in on my next big project. It’s between three ideas for novels. All of them, like Two-Bit Gilkey, have time travel, because I love time travel.

WOW: Time travel is really a great theme. Thank you so much for your time. We look forward to seeing more from you!

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Interview with Sumi Watters, Runner Up in the Winter 2026 Flash Fiction Contest

 Sumi’s Bio:

I was raised in a bicultural household in the U.S., but have lived most of my adult life in Japan, South Africa, and the U.K. After spending several years as a presenter and news/copywriter for a Tokyo radio station, I took on a less glamorous, but deeply rewarding role in 2010 creating and writing English educational materials for Tokyo-based primary and secondary international schools. I’ve been writing creative fiction for about five years, and have been long and short listed in several flash fiction competitions, including the WestWord Prize and Wild Atlantic Writing Awards. I have two completed (but unpublished) novels under my belt and am currently working on a third—(women's) literary fiction set in war-time Japan. (X: @WattersSk)

If you haven't taken the time to read "Out of Character," take a moment to read Sumi's excellent story.  Then come back here to learn about her writing process.

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

WOW:  What inspired you to write “Out of Character?” 

Sumi:  My writing group's monthly prompt for February was 'music lyrics,' and I happened to hear Dolly's "9 to 5" on my way home from a meeting. So, I took the lyrics--'I tumble out of bed and stumble to the kitchen,' and thought of all the possible scenarios where one might tumble and stumble. 

My first (in-my-head draft) involved characters performing in a play, and the main characters (Jaykob and Sherbet) having a go at the director for not having a clue how to direct his/her actors. I'd recently seen "A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong," and realized there was nothing original about my story idea. Idea scrapped. 

But what if, I thought, J & S were characters in an in-progress novel? What if they were unhappy with the author's choices and her writing progress? And so, "Out of Character" was born. 

WOW:  You made so many changes before committing a word to the page or the computer file.  Revision is an important part of the writing process. How did this story change during the revision process? 

Sumi: To be honest, once I got the 'right' idea in my head, the story pretty much wrote itself. My word count was a little over the limit when I finished the first draft, so all I really had to do was tweak here, tighten there, and change a few bits around.

WOW: You write both flash and novel-length work. What do our readers need to know about transitioning between the two forms? 

Sumi: Not to toot my horn, but I think Flash Fiction is my thing. I have an idea, then I work all the details out in my head before I physically write the first word. I do this whether it's a 250- or 1000-word story or anything in between. When it comes to FF, I rarely write a true second draft. It's usually just the first with a few minor changes. I've written close to a hundred FF pieces in the few years since I started writing creative fiction. I LOVE flash fiction. 

WOW:  That's amazing!  I'm more than a little jealous. Can you tell readers about the novel you are working on? 

Sumi: As for novel writing.... Well. I enjoy telling a longer story, but I don't always love how long it takes. I start by writing a treatment of sorts--a chapter by chapter outline for the entire novel. I treat every 'scene' as flash fiction just to get the story down. (That means I do it all in my head, then write it down, one scene at a time. The chapter outline for my most recent WIP is nearly 30,000 words long and took me three weeks to complete. I've been working on the actual novel for about six months. As of today, I'm at 14,000 words. Laughable, right? This isn't my first novel, I've completed two others, but for some reason, I haven't had the 'long-term' attention span needed for stringing all those scenes together. Partially this is because of my day-job workload--writing/creating English, History, and Science textbooks for international schools. But it is also because the world has felt like it's burning these past few months. I'll keep plugging away--one word at a time. 

My novel-in-progress is titled Akita Beauty. Akita Beauty is a story about Shino, a (fictional) luxury-brand beauty consultant and celebrated performer, who is summoned home under the pretense her widowed father is gravely ill. When she returns to her hometown in Akita prefecture, she is forced to marry the son of a wealthy, but morally corrupt merchant, only to be sent back to her family a year later for failing to produce an heir. At age twenty-one and no longer a virgin, Shino is branded spent goods—disgraced, discarded, but most damning of all… barren. Set in wartime Japan, Akita Beauty is a story of sacrifice, duty, survival, and hope told through the eyes of a plucky, young woman determined to reclaim her identity and independence, despite Showa-era patriarchal societal expectations and norms. 

My mother was Japanese, so I spent a lot of my childhood in Japan. Growing up, I'd heard so many stories about life during wartime Japan and the years that followed from my mother and maternal grandmother. Shino's story is very loosely based on my grandmother's experiences. Spoiler alert: My grandmother wasn't barren! 

WOW: What do you wish all of our readers knew about writing flash?

Sumi: For me, writing flash fiction has allowed me the opportunity to explore different genres, POVs, and writing styles. My longer pieces tend to be contemporary stories told in the first person, but through flash fiction, I have attempted pretty much everything, even genres I'd never thought I'd write. 

What I love most about flash fiction is that you can tell your story from start to finish in a few hundred words. It's a short-term commitment. An hour of your time. An afternoon or evening. I'm not gonna lie. Writing "The End" at the bottom of Page 1 is super gratifying. A mini-accomplishment, but I count it! 

So, if you're pretty new to writing creative fiction or perhaps still trying to find your 'voice,' try writing a 500-word piece in a style that might be a little out of your comfort zone. You may surprise yourself.

WOW: I love that idea of writing an untried style in flash just to try things out.  Please keep working on Akita Beauty.  I think I speak for the group when I say that we need to see it! 

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Interview With Saiyara Khanom, Winter '26 Flash Fiction Contest Runner Up

Saiyara's bio:

Raised in Queens, New York, in a Bangladeshi American household, Saiyara Khanom developed a love for storytelling at a young age, shaped by the rich blend of cultures, traditions, and stories surrounding her upbringing. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in English from St. John's University, where she further cultivated her passion for literature and creative writing.

Saiyara is especially drawn to romance, horror, and fantasy, genres that allow her to explore emotion, atmosphere, and the complexities of human connection through imaginative worlds and haunting narratives. Her work is often inspired by gothic aesthetics, folklore, and the emotional depth found in both everyday life and the supernatural. Through her writing, she hopes to create stories that linger with readers long after the final page.

You can find Saiyara online at Reedsy and Substack. 

----------interview by Sue Bradford Edwards----------

WOW: What was your motivation for “The Plant that Doesn’t Die?”

Saiyara: I've always been interested in the way grief and love can coexist with resentment. We often expect stories about parent-child relationships to end with forgiveness or reconciliation, but real life isn't always that simple. Sometimes someone can hurt you deeply and still leave behind evidence that they loved you in ways you couldn't see at the time. 

The image of a houseplant that simply refuses to die came to me first. It felt like the perfect metaphor for a relationship that continues to exist after someone is gone. No matter how much the narrator tries to distance herself from her mother, even through neglect, the fern keeps surviving. It becomes an unavoidable reminder that some relationships don't disappear just because we wish they would. I wanted to explore the quiet space between anger and forgiveness. The story doesn't ask the narrator to absolve her mother. Instead, it asks whether she can acknowledge that love may have existed alongside hurt. To me, that's a more honest ending. 

WOW:  And that honesty is vital in hooking our readers.  Flash fiction is all about choosing what deserves space in the story. We don’t know the POV character’s name, but we know the plant is a fern. How did you decide what to include and what to omit?

Saiyara: When you're writing flash fiction, every sentence has to do more than one job. I knew early on that the emotional center of the story wasn't the narrator's identity, but it was her relationship with the fern and what it represented. Giving her a name wouldn't deepen that relationship, so I chose to leave it out. I wanted readers to focus on the emotional distance between mother and daughter rather than on biographical details. 

The fern, on the other hand, deserved specificity. Calling it "a plant" felt too generic. Ferns have this reputation for being resilient and quietly persistent, which mirrors the role the plant plays in the story. Naming it made it feel like a real object instead of a symbol. Throughout revision, I kept asking myself whether each detail revealed character, moved the story forward, or strengthened the emotional impact. If it didn't, it probably didn't belong. 

WOW: That's a fascinating way to consider each detail. Who will your character leave the fern to when she passes? Why this person? 

Saiyara: I'd like to think she leaves it to someone who doesn't carry the same emotional history she does; perhaps a niece, a neighbor's child, or even a close friend. Someone who would simply see it as a beautiful fern instead of a complicated inheritance. I imagine she'd tell them only that it's important to keep it alive. By then, the fern would no longer represent unresolved grief. It would represent endurance. The idea that care can outlast the people who first offered it. In that sense, she'd be passing along not just a plant, but a story that has finally become lighter to carry. 

WOW: What a good answer! What piece of writing are you working on now? 

Saiyara: Lately, I've been drawn to stories and poetry that blend the emotional with the uncanny. I'm currently working on fiction that leans into psychological horror and gothic atmosphere, exploring how memory, identity, and fear can shape the way people experience ordinary places. I love writing stories where the supernatural isn't just there to frighten the reader, but to reveal something true about the characters. I've been mostly working on short stories and novellas, but I hope to complete some novels in the near future. But no matter the genre, I hope readers always have something to take away from my writing. 

WOW: What question do you wish I had asked? How would you answer it? 

Saiyara: Question: What do you hope readers take away from the story? 

Answer: I don't necessarily hope readers walk away with a particular message. Instead, I hope they recognize a feeling. Most people have a relationship that doesn't fit neatly into categories like "good" or "bad." We carry love, disappointment, gratitude, anger, and grief all at once. If the story encourages someone to sit with those contradictions instead of trying to resolve them, then I feel it has done its job. I think some of the most meaningful stories don't provide answers, but they simply make us feel understood. 

WOW:  That's a great insight!  Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to share all of this with our readers.  Reminder:  You can find Saiyara on Reedsy and Substack. 

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Interview with Deborah Thompson: Fall 2025 Flash Fiction Runner-Up

 

Deborah’s Bio:

Deborah Thompson is a short/flash story writer, Pilates teacher and Graphic designer. Her writing has appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine, Fairfield Scribes, The Remington Review and the To Hull and Back Anthology,and recently won an Off Topic short story competition.

She has an MA in Creative Writing from Kingston University, lives in London UK with husband and two adopted children. and spends far too much playing online Bridge with robots.

If you haven't read her story, "Big Eye," take a moment to do so and then come back here to learn more about her writing process.

WOW: What was the inspiration for “Big Eye”?

Deborah: I sometimes use competitions to kickstart a story. This story was originally inspired by a Globe Soup flash competition, with a list of paranormal subjects to write about. When I saw the word ‘Kraken’, an image floated into my mind of two young things playing together, human and non-human. A Kraken in popular folklore is a giant, octopus-like creature, and when I did some research into octopi, their intelligence, their reproductive cycles, I wondered what the friendship between two such different species would look like as they grew. Would it even be possible? That’s when my imagination fired up!

WOW:  And that imagination comes through loud and clear in this story!  How did “Big Eye” change during the revision process?

Deborah: The story and its themes were pretty much there in the first draft. I enjoyed subverting the idea of the Kraken as a terrible, man-eating male, turning her into a creature who, like any powerful female, is both misunderstood and feared (by men). This particular story seemed to write itself – the non-verbal bond, the simple fun they had as children, their separation through the undeniable fact of growing up, the understanding that females endure, and sometimes sacrifice, for their children—a powerful bond which replaces the simple one of their childhood. In subsequent revisions, I tightened the writing, choosing words that reinforced the themes of connection, loss, and grief, and the final reconciliation of these three things. Final lines are important in short stories, and I tried various words and sentence structures, opting in the end for simplicity to try to suggest joy, endurance and love.

WOW: There are so many details that are left out of flash fiction. How do you decide what to include and what to omit?  

Deborah: As a writer, I need to be clear what the story is really about – what it is I’m trying to say, what the themes are, and then choose words that most effectively illustrate this. Evocation is key – what words will evoke, or infer, rather than explain? Generally, I look at a paragraph I’ve written, and then ask myself how I can say (or infer) exactly the same thing, only with fewer, more evocative words.

WOW:  That's an excellent way to do it, and a great lesson for us all.  You identify yourself as a flash/short story writer.  What do our readers need to understand before attempting to write flash?

Deborah: With flash, you don’t have time for lengthy descriptions, backstories, explanations. It’s very possible for a flash story to roam through time, as "Big Eye" does, but generally it’s best to stay in one moment of time and write about what is happening as vividly, and viscerally, as possible. Replace explanation with inference, and use descriptions and backstories sparingly, trusting the reader to read between the lines, to fill in the blank spaces with their own imagination and experiences. It’s quite an interactive process between writer and reader. I love writing short fiction for that reason. Hemingway’s famous 6-word story—‘For sale: Baby shoes, never worn’—is a perfect example of this interaction.

WOW: Keeping the reader in mind as an interactive partner works so well for you.  How has your MA in Creative Writing helped you compose flash fiction?

Deborah: In the MA, I learned about the 3- (and 4- and 5-) act structure, about the classic story arc which consists of establishing a status quo quickly followed by some sort of conflict that changes the status quo, then the quest by the protagonist to find a way to return to the status quo, and the final resolution and/or epiphany that leads to a different, (better or wiser) status quo. The MA gave me a chance to play around with this, in both flash and with longer short stories, and to have lots of feedback from tutors and fellow students. The poetry module was particularly valuable. I’d never written poetry before, and found the practice of using simile and metaphor very useful when it came to writing flash stories.

The MA was great fun, and I enjoyed every minute of it, but really, it was a springboard. I’ve learned so much more since graduating, through reading other’s stories, writing in as many different genres (and story lengths) as possible, attending online courses, entering competitions as well as sending stories to online magazines, using rejections as a stimulus to rewrite stories (rather than curl up in a ditch, which I sometimes want to do.)

Above all, I can’t recommend enough belonging to a writers’ group. Mine is a small one, made up of people from the MA, and there’s nothing better than having them critique my stories, and me theirs, to help me improve my writing.
 

WOW: Thank you for sharing so much of what you have learned and how it shapes your writing.  And, most of all, good luck with your current projects.

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Leave a Comment Deborah Thompson, Fall 2025 Flash Fiction Contest, interview, Runner-up, Sue Bradford Edwards

Interview with Elizabeth Cooke: Fall 2025 Flash Fiction Runner Up

 

Elizabeth’s Bio: 

Elizabeth Cooke is a London-based writer whose short fiction has been shortlisted for the Fish Publishing Prize, longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, and featured in Litro Magazine. She trained as an actor before taking a practical detour into the corporate world, and now writes fiction in the margins of everyday life. 

If you haven't done so already, check out Elizabeth's award-winning story "Margaretisms" and then return here for a chat with the author. 

WOW: What inspired Margaretisms? 

Elizabeth: The first line of Margaretisms - “The clouds are near and very moist” - came from a prompt exercise with a writing group. It struck me as such an odd, unsettling sentence. It brought to mind something close, damp, and a little claustrophobic, and so the drizzly British seaside setting was. It draws quite heavily on the kinds of places I visited as a child. 

In terms of the characters, the three generations (the protagonist, her mother, and her daughter who lives abroad) was loosely inspired by Alice Munro’s The Moons of Jupiter. I love the way she captures "the sandwich generation" - that sense of being caught between caring for children and aging parents. It made me reflect on my own family, and on what that responsibility might look like in my own life one day - something I've been thinking about even more lately, as my father's been unwell. What amazes me most about Munro is how she conveys entire family dynamics - all the love and resentment and grief and hope - with such precision and restraint. She's a master of showing rather than telling, and if I could summon a drop of what she does then I'd be incredibly proud indeed. 

WOW: I bet a lot of our readers will be requesting their own copies of The Moon's of Jupiter after that recommendation. Flash is such a concise form of writing. How did you decide what details to include and what details to leave out? I noticed the only name we get is Margaret’s. 

Elizabeth: That’s a great observation! And honestly, something I hadn't consciously considered while writing. 

I recently came across a description of fiction as a kind of secret garden. In a novel, the writer builds the entire garden for the reader. But in short fiction - particularly flash - the writer creates the keyhole. The reader only glimpses part of the world, and the rest is implicit. 

So when it came to Margaretisms, I wasn’t trying to create the protagonist’s whole world. Instead, I was thinking about shaping a very specific viewpoint - a single afternoon, a particular feeling - and every detail served that viewpoint. 

It actually feels fitting that Margaret is the only named character. Even if it was unintentional, it reflects how central she has become to the narrator’s life. The absence of other names kind of mirrors that narrowing of focus - how caregiving can reshape someone's entire sense of self and attention. 

WOW:  That one answer gives us so much to unpack and consider.  How did this story evolve through revision? 

Elizabeth: The opening paragraphs for Margeritisms came out of a writing group exercise, then sat untouched in a notebook for months. I work like this quite often - I'll write something, or the start of something, then leave it alone for ages until I've got some distance from it. When I came back to those lines, I didn’t fully remember what I’d originally intended, which was actually helpful. It allowed me to approach the piece more instinctively and build something new from it. 

I can be quite an impatient (and emotional!) editor, and I sometimes struggle to see my own work clearly when I’m too close to it. So giving it time creates some clarity and revision can feel more like I'm evolving a piece rather than refining it. 

I wouldn’t be surprised if I revisit Margaretisms in the future and it shifts into something else yet again.

WOW:  That's so helpful, to think of revision as evolution. What else are you writing? 

Elizabeth: Lots of short stories and flash fiction! I love the room for experimentation with these forms. I’d love to write something longer someday, but I’m still working up the courage. 

WOW:  Growing into a new form definitely takes courage and often time. What question do you wish I had asked? How would you respond to it? 

Elizabeth: Ooh, that’s a great question. I think it would be: How has your relationship with this piece changed over time? 

When I first wrote Margaretisms, it felt more like a thought exercise - but since then, my father has been ill, and what once felt observational now feels much more immediate and real. I’m younger than my protagonist, and I don’t have children - let alone grownup children - but my understanding of what it means to watch your parents age has deepened, or at least become more complex. And alongside that, I’ve gained a greater appreciation for what my parents’ went through in caring for their own parents. 

It’s made the story feel strangely prescient, in a way. 

I also feel a new kind of responsibility toward the character. There are nuances I can see now - emotional textures I didn’t anticipate during my dad's illness - and part of me wonders if I’ve done her a slight disservice by not capturing those. But I suppose that’s part of writing: you can only write from the understanding you have at that moment. And sometimes, returning to a piece later reveals just how much that understanding has grown.

WOW:  Elizabeth, thank you for taking the time from your busy schedule to help us grow as writers.  You've definitely given us a lot to consider.  Healing thoughts to your father and good luck on your future writing projects.

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Leave a Comment Elizabeth Cooke, Fall 2025 Flash Fiction Contest, interview, Runner-up, Sue Bradford Edwards

Interview with Tara Sobel, Runner-Up in the WOW! Summer 2025 Flash Fiction Competition

 

Tara Sobel lives in Goshen, New York, with her husband and four fabulous felines. As a nurse in the medical device industry, she’s passionate about making a difference in the lives of the patients she serves. Her love of writing began in grade school when she signed her dad up for a parent-child fiction workshop. Tara enjoys bringing real and imagined experiences to life on the page, often drawing inspiration from her love of reading cozy mysteries, sci-fi, and fantasy. Most of her stories have only been shared with friends and family, but this may be the start of something new. 

-----interview by Sue Bradford Edwards -----

WOW: What was the inspiration for “Purple Flames?” 

Tara: As a nurse, I have seen time and again that a patient’s story runs far deeper than what appears in an admission diagnosis. What brings someone in for medical care is often just the tip of the iceberg. I wanted to tell that larger, unseen story and offer readers a glimpse behind the curtain at the humanity that is such an essential part of healthcare work. 

WOW: Such a big part of a writer’s work is revision. How did this story change through the revision process? 

Tara:  As someone without formal creative writing training, feedback has been essential to my revision process. I initially submitted this piece to a previous quarterly contest for critique and took that feedback seriously, especially suggestions to remove filtering language and clarify Bridget’s motivation for leaving. 

I also wanted the reader to feel what Bridget was experiencing, so I leaned into shorter, punchier sentences to heighten the visceral impact. That choice reduced the word count more than I anticipated, but it ultimately strengthened the story. 

Stepping away from the piece and returning with fresh eyes, more than once, was also crucial in reaching the final polished version. 

WOW: Flash is such a tight form of writing that details have to be carefully selected. How did you decide which details would have space in the story and which wouldn’t? For example, Bridget is the only named character. 

Tara: I wanted the opening scene to immerse the reader fully in Bridget’s physical trauma, so every detail had to serve that goal. I chose specific sensory details and similes to place the reader inside the car with her, making her strength and determination more impactful as she pushes through both the crash and her abuse. 

Bridget is the only named character because the story is meant to stay tightly focused on her experience. The other characters did not need names, as they function more as representations of roles rather than individuals. Naming the EMTs risked pulling attention away from Bridget in a moment where her perspective mattered most, and naming her abuser would have given him a presence and power in the story that I did not want him to have. 

Names carry a great deal of meaning, especially in flash fiction. Bridget is associated with strength, power, and the Celtic goddess of healing, which made it a perfect fit for this character. 

WOW: There is so much meaning in your choice of that name! Your bio says that generally you only let those close to you read your work. What moved you to enter this piece in the competition? 

Tara: That’s a great question. I received encouraging feedback from a couple of close friends who had read another piece I was working on, and I wanted to know whether they were simply being kind or if the response would be the same from someone with no personal investment. 

I chose this competition specifically because it offered critique and focused on women writers. I’ve really enjoyed reading the work of the other winners, and I found their bios especially inspiring. There were many non-professional writers like me. 

WOW:  We always say that you are a writer if you are someone who writes! What advice do you have for our readers who have never entered one of our flash competitions? 

Tara: Just do it! I would strongly recommend opting for the critique on your first submission(s). The feedback boosted my confidence. When I first submitted this story, the editor noted that I had a lot of raw talent, which encouraged me to revise and resubmit. The critique helped me refine both my content and technique. That process directly contributed to this runner-up win and made me a stronger writer overall.

WOW: I feel like I am speaking for all of our readers when I say that I'm glad you stuck with this story and worked with the feedback you received.  I hope your words encourage someone else to keep working on their writing.  Thank you so much for sharing with us all!

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Leave a Comment flash fiction, interview, Runner-up, Summer 2025 Flash Fiction Contest, Tara Sobel

Interview with Annalisa McMorrow, Runner-Up in the Summer 2025 Flash Fiction Contest

Annalisa McMorrow is a writer and editor living in the wilds of Northern California, even though she prefers streetlights and 24-hour diners.

The daughter of a screenplay and a poem, words have been in her blood since birth. She grew up in the basement art department of a California magazine, and she’s had a favorite typeface since she was six. (It’s not Helvetica.)

A fangirl of flash fiction, she has been published in venues including The New York Times, Women’s Health, and Romantic Times, and once she got paid $1,000 for a paragraph. (It was a good paragraph.) She has written film, book, and restaurant reviews since high school. Her music reviews date back to the halcyon days of vinyl.

She likes to drink coffee black, like her heart.

If you haven't read her story, "Coming Home," take a minute to experience it and then come back to learn about how Annalisa works. 

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

WOW: What was the inspiration for “Coming Home”? 

ANNALISA: I used to work at a second-hand store, and the women who would come in were a lot like the “influencers” in my story. They all wanted to look alike. A specific type of jeans cut in a specific way. A boxy, caramel-colored sweater. An ecru boot. There was a drawing I saw once online that replicated this look precisely, and I started to realize that they were almost clones. Generally, long straight blonde hair. An IG page that featured fallen leaves. Twisted candles. Frost. 

One of my friends works at farmer’s markets, and I was struck by the difference between the vendors and the consumers. Which is when Margo showed up. 

For reference, I do not look like these influencers. And one of the funniest interactions I had was when I was dressed head-to-toe in polka dots—my husband used to say I made him dizzy—and a customer asked me to match a beige with another beige. 

WOW: Details are a vital part of flash fiction. Why did you decide to name Margo but not her lover? 

ANNALISA: My writing style tends to be sparse with a few key details tossed in. I once wrote a 1,000 word short piece and reviewers mentioned the lemon-yellow bra held together with a safety pin. I give just enough to paint a scene, but not so much that a reader can’t fill in the blanks. I love to write in small spaces. 50 words. 100 words. Give me a box, and I’ll climb inside. 

Why was Margo a Margo? I hate to sound as if I believe I’m a conduit, but I’m a conduit. The characters tell me their names when they want to. She did. He didn’t. 

WOW: Your bio says that while you live in a rural area, you are more at home among the streetlights. Yet much of your story takes place at a farmer’s market and a rural cabin. How did your setting shape the story? 

ANNALISA: I spent many years in LA, and cities illuminate me. Accidentally, I’ve ended up living for the past nearly 25 years at the end of a road. Somehow the bay leaves and pine needles have crept into my consciousness. But, if I had my druthers, I’d take neon over a mountain sunrise and a fire escape overlooking a gritty city instead of a clear lake or snow-capped mountains. 

WOW: Your story has such a gothic twist at the end. Can you explain to our readers who you set this up? 

ANNALISA: Many of my stories deal with the veils between the here and the now and some other area (back in time or in another realm). One of my best friends died when I was 26 and he was 37, and I think I am always subconsciously trying to reach him. 

I don’t know if my words will help any writers because I am literally obsessed with writing. I start my day writing/end my day writing, pull the car over to jot notes, scribble on my arm with eyeliner, repeat words to memorize the cadence if I don’t have utensils with me. 

Writing is right up there for me with Maslow’s needs for survival. I have no fear of a blank page, and I don’t worry if I can’t finish a story. I move between many projects simultaneously. This is also how I crochet. I am making a blanket right now, but blankets take too long. So I will whip up a scarf or two just to have completion. Currently, looking down my screen at my documents, I see that I have nine stories open in various states and four articles in pieces. 

WOW: This is the second time that you’ve placed in a WOW! Flash Fiction competition (first was Naysayers and Skeptics). What advice do you have for our readers about entering contests and getting their work out into the world? 

ANNALISA: If I had to give advice, I’d say: Write. Edit. Revise. Leave the piece alone. Return. Revise. Read it aloud. Read it to a friend. Then find a place to submit, send it off, and start again. Do not wait for a response before working on something new. If you get rejected, dust off your words and try to home them somewhere else. But always be moving forward.

WOW: This is such powerful final advice - always be moving forwards.  It is so easy to trap ourselves by looking back.  Thank you so much for sharing your writing and your passion for writing!   

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2 comments Annalisa McMorrow, flash fiction, interview, Runner-up, Sue Bradford Edwards, Summer 2025 Flash Fiction Contest

Interview With Spring 2025 Flash Fiction Runner Up, Jennifer Theoret

 

Jennifer’s Bio: 

Jennifer’s interests are many and varied. She especially likes geology and history, and has been studying the American Civil War for over thirty years. 

Her psychological Western horror short story, “The Killer,” was published in House of Long Shadows magazine in March of 2025. She has been named a finalist in several Globe Soup competitions, and was awarded second prize in the Parsec 2025 short story contest with “Blood and Stone,” a historical fiction/fantasy tale. 

Jennifer lives in northern Vermont not far from beautiful Lake Champlain. 

If you haven't read her story, "Scars," take a few moments to do so and then come back here for her perspective on writing flash.

-----interview by Sue Bradford Edwards-----

WOW: What was your inspiration for "Scars?"

Jennifer: My writing is often historical fiction fantasy, or a combination of the two. I’m a big history buff and have toured many battlefields, especially from the US Civil War. I find myself drawn to the ordinary people thrown into extraordinary circumstances – the minor characters, if you will. The ones who don’t usually get a speaking role. 

In the Franklin, Tennessee battlefield, a brick house was in the center of what became one of the most horrific battles of the war. On those grounds I heard a story of a Union soldier caught between the lines while the battle raged. In desperation, he smashed out a panel of the door and crawled through. He spent the rest of the battle in the cellar with some civilians who were also taking shelter. In the account I heard, he left his rifle… and eventually returned for it. From there I let my imagination run. What was the battle like for the soldier? For the civilians who were trapped in the cellar with one of the enemy? Why did he go back for the rifle, and why had they kept it all that time? 

WOW:  You did a great job in spinning this from so little actual information. In flash fiction, so much is left unsaid. How did you decide what details to include, and which details were unnecessary? 

Jennifer: I wrote the first version of this story about six years ago. It was one of the earliest pieces I wrote when I returned to fiction writing after many years. That first version, which I titled “Enemy at the Door,” was based off the same Civil War incident as “Scars,” but was quite different than this one; it took place in the cellar during the battle, and there were several other people in it. I entered the story in WOW and also purchased the feedback option. It didn’t score well and the feedback stung a bit. 

I let it sit for a while, and when I went back to the story and the feedback I realized I was trying to tell too much story in too short of a space. In fact, I wasn’t even telling the right story! The story I was most interested in was the one that took place later, when the soldier returned. 

With that in mind, I wrote the first version of “Scars.” And then another, and another. I sent it into WOW and scored better, but the story was still lacking something. Again, the feedback was very helpful to see what was coming through and what was falling short. I let it sit for a while. 

WOW: Your bio says that you also write short stories in addition to flash. How do you determine whether a story should be flash or a short story? 

Jennifer:  This spring I decided to play a game I call, “What Is Wrong with This Thing?” “Scars” was one of the stories I worked on. I wrote it again, this time without any regard for word limits. It was about 1,200 words. Then I trimmed it back to 750, and that’s the version I sent in. Those last 30 words were a trial! 

Is it the story I wanted to tell? It’s close. I don’t know which is better, the flash fiction version or the short story version. I think ‘Scars” works as either. Some stories, though, have to be longer, or you end up with just the shadow of the story rather than the thing itself. 

WOW: Do you have a writing routine? How and when do you write? 

Jennifer:  As for a writing routine, I don’t really have one at this time. I’ve got several projects somewhere in the middle; some need revising, some need writing. I do think about my stories a great deal, even when I can’t write down what I’m working on. I might be in a grocery store or on my way to an appointment, and suddenly it comes to me, “Oh, of course! That’s why he has the tattoo!” People look at you funny if you say those things aloud in public. 

And the real brick house that inspired the story? It’s still there. So is the copper repair in the door. But the rifle is long gone. 

WOW: It is obvious that a lot of careful consideration went into tis story. What are you working on now? 

Jennifer: One of the many projects I'm working on is a genre-defying series of short stories about a Civil War soldier who has, shall we say, unusual experiences. It's part historical fiction, part fantasy, with a dash of horror to spice things up.

WOW:  Historic horror is one of my favorites!  Thank you so much for taking time to share how you work with our readers.  I know I won't be the only one looking for more of your work. 

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Leave a Comment flash fiction, interview, Jennifer Theoret, runner up , Spring 2025 Flash Fiction Contest