IN-NO-VA-TION (Noun)
1) A new idea, method, or device.
2) The introduction of something new.
3) The application of better solutions to meet unarticulated needs.
Three definitions to inspire writers around the world and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell. Here are 120 of our favorites.
Innovation features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.
Each year, we ask authors to write a 300 word story on a single word theme. For the Queer Sci Fi flash fiction contest. It seems deceptively easy, right? I mean, how hard can it be for a seasoned writer to knock out three-hundred words? I write 1000-2000 a day when I’m working on a new novel.
And then you get to the nitty gritty details.
When I write a novel, I have anywhere between 50,000 and 130,000 words as my playground. I can wax poetic about the scenery, taking you on a romp through an asteroid field as space rocks crash into one another and scatter debris across your path. I can delve deep into Jim’s difficult past with his father, serving up a flashback to illustrate why he’s so crap about his adult relationships. I can even throw in three or five (or nine – yes, I’ve gone there) viewpoint characters to give you an epic look at the tale I am spinning from every angle.
In flash fiction, none of that works.
Every. Word. Counts.
There’s appealing economy of language that you’ll find in any half decent flash fiction story. Instead of
“She wept tears of joy to see Ghiselda returning, dragging her sword behind her, silhouetted against the green of Tarsis’s rising sun,”
you write
“The green sun rose. She wept—Ghiselda had returned, broken but alive.”
We’ve run these contests for seven years now. I’ve seen a lot of story intros, bunches of vignettes, and a few exceedingly well-told, complete stories written with just 300 words.
Many of our writers tell me they spend weeks retooling their tale, ratcheting it down from 500 words, 700 words, 1000 words until it has maximum impact with minimum word count. It’s like fine vanilla extract, where a single drop releases a revelation of taste across your tongue, and it takes an impressive amount of writing skill so do it well.
So yeah, it’s all about the length. And that’s a good thing. 🙂
Queer Sci Fi is giving away your choice of a $20 Amazon gift card OR a print copy of four of the other five flash fiction books in the series – Flight, Renewal, Impact, and Migration (US only unless you are willing to pay the shipping outside the US) with this tour. Enter via Rafflecopter:
“No one in the village knew what the Change would bring. They never saw it happen. They only knew what they had been promised: the Change would bestow three gifts.” —A New Way, by Rory Ni Coileain
“The girl kissed her, hard. Then backed away, grinning, teasing, drawing her to the end of the hallway and a flight of stairs leading downward. She took two steps and gazed back up at Lilian, one hand outstretched. Her brilliant red lipstick wasn’t even smudged. Her skin glowed in the harsh white torchlight.” —The Thing With the Bats, by Mary Francis
“Interspecies sex is outlawed on the Freespec Interplanetary Space Station. Politicians call it a safety measure. But I’ve been in the Medical Corps for half my lifecycle, and I call it criminally negligent prudery. Leaders would rather let innocents die needlessly—punctured by sperm darts and dissolved in sacks of voltaic pleasure mucus—than give them the knowledge to express their feelings safely.” — Are My Underwater Sperm Darts Normal?, Brenna Harvey
“The bell’s brassy gong echoes through the flat; the walls blush crimson. See, see! He’s at my door. The live feed shows him sniff his armpit; cup his breath. He wants to impress, but I’m impressed already. His lips softly part; he brushes them with stubby fingers, as he waits. Ugly fingers. Ugly hands. Scrawny neck. Milky eyes. But those lips, see, they’re perfect, just perfect. Plump n’ pale, a slither of my future.” —Just perfect, by Redfern Jon Barrett
“Lekke looked down over the valley, First People’s home for as long as any tales or dreams could tell. Now only Spirit Dreamer Manoot, neither he nor she but both, and Lekke, elder healer, were left. Lifetimes of Long-legs’ raids had driven First People to their deaths—or, some few, to the Way. If there truly was a Way.” —Going Back,” by Sacchi Green
“Savinna limped into her lover’s workshop, her hip still sore from tangling with the marabbecca which had knocked her into its well before she managed to kill it. Such was the life of a monster hunter. Not at all surprised to see Larissa hunched over her bench, hard at work tinkering with something, Savinna ghosted her hand over Larissa’s back.” —Those Who Hunt Monsters, by Jana Denardo
“The baby cried as Freya lowered the bartering bucket into the wishing well. Many had come to the tree-shrouded clearing to make exchanges—a bushel of azure apples for a sword, a woven blanket for a day of rain. The well had been the final creation of a thousand-year-old inventor. But dead wizards often don’t anticipate how their gifts birth consequences.” —The Bartering Bucket, by Diane Callahan
120 authors contributed stories for this volume:
- Adrik Kemp
- Alex Silver
- Alex Stargazer
- Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Andi Deacon
- Andrea Speed
- Andrew Vaillencourt
- Ava Kelly
- Barbara Johnson-Haddad
- Barbara Krasnoff
- Beáta Fülöp
- Benoit Lafortune
- Blaine D. Arden
- Bob Milne
- Brenna Harvey
- Brooke K. Bell
- L. McCartney
- Cassidy Frazee
- Chet Gottfried
- Chloe Spencer
- Chris Bannor
- Christine Wright
- Christopher Koehler
- Clare London
- J. Clarke
- M. Rasch
- David Gerrold
- Devon Widmer
- Diane Callahan
- L. Harrison
- Romeis
- D.E. Bell
- M. Hamill
- Edie Montreux
- Elaine Burnes
- Eloreen Moon
- Emilia Agrafojo
- Emma Johnson-Rivard
- Eric Warren
- Evelyn Benvie
- Gareth Worthington
- Ginger Streusel
- Howard V. Hendrix
- Needham
- Zachary Pike
- S. Garner
- Jade Black
- James Alan Gardner
- Jamie Lackey
- Jana Denardo
- Jasie Gale
- Jeff Jacobson
- Jennie L. Morris
- Jet Lupin
- Jon Miller
- Jonathan Fesmire
- Joshua Ian
- Julian Maxwell
- Kitts
- L. Townsend
- S. Marsden
- KA Masters
- Katelyn Cameron
- Kellie Doherty
- Kevin Andrew Murphy
- Kevin Klehr
- Kim Fielding
- Kitt Harris
- Koji A. Dae
- S. Reinholt
- V. Lloyd
- LC Treeheart
- Lee Jordan
- Lee Soeburn
- Lou Sylvre
- X. Kelly
- Maria Zoccola
- Mary E. Lowd
- Mary Francis
- Mary Kuna
- Matt Doyle
- Mere Rain
- Milo Owen
- Minerva Cerridwen
- Naomi Tajedler
- Nathan Alling Long
- Nathaniel Taff
- Nicole Dennis
- Nina Kiriki Hoffman
- Noah K. Sturdevant
- Patricia Scott
- Paul Uebler
- E. Carr
- L. Merrill
- Raine Norman
- Ray Lidstone
- RE Andeen
- Redfern Jon Barrett
- Rory Eggleston
- Rory Ni Coileain
- Rosalie Wessel
- S S Long
- Sara Testarossa
- Sean Ian O’Meidhir
- Shannon Brady
- Shannon Yseult
- Skip J. Hanford
- Stephen B. Pearl
- Stephen J. Wolf
- Steve Carr
- Stone Franks
- Stuart Conover
- Susan James
- Sydney Blackburn
- T. Thomas
- W. Cox
- Tom Jolly
- Val Muller
- Warren Rochelle
- William Tate
