I'll be reading in the Flash Fiction Collective Reading on Thursday, September 7, 7 pm, at Alley Cat Books, 3036 24th St., in the Mission. Here's the Facebook invite:

Join us for what periodicals around the world have called the "single best flash fiction reading series in the history of the planet, and that includes Denver." 

There won't be any goats at this reading, but we will provide good swill of all sorts, and there are rumors of savory snacks. 

These fine writers will carry us to other worlds in their stories, and we'll have an open mic to boot.

Jacqueline Doyle’s fiction and flash has been published in Quarter After Eight, Vestal Review, Sweet, The Pinch, [PANK], Phoebe, and 100 Word Story, while her creative nonfiction has earned two Pushcart nominations and Notable Essay listings in Best American Essays 2013 and Best American Essays 2015. Recently she won the Black River Chapbook Competition for her flash collection The Missing Girl, forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press in October 2017.

Lucy Gray is the name of a poem written by William Wordsworth, and she's much more than that. She has performed at The Moth in San Francisco and New York City, and one of her short pieces just won a Litquake contest.

Ann Gelder’s first novel, Bigfoot and the Baby, was published by Bona Fide Books in 2014. Her fiction has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Crazyhorse, Flavorwire, Monkeybicycle, Tin House, and elsewhere.

Lenore Weiss is an MFA candidate at San Francisco State University where she is also a teaching assistant. Winner of the Clark-Gross Award and the Robert Browning Dramatic Monologue contest, her poetry has been published in many journals. Books include Cutting Down the Last Tree on Easter Island (West End Press, 2012) Two Places (Kelsay Books, 2014) and The Golem (Hadassa Word Press, 2017). Her blog resides at www.lenoreweiss.com.

After a semi-disastrous day of getting completely lost in our rental car in a maze of Idaho snowmobile trails (unpaved of course, no cell reception of course, no maps of course), we found our way back to the cabin where we’re staying this week and a cascade of good news.
 
First, my flash “Nadine’s Broken Heart” was accepted by FICTION SOUTHEAST, a magazine I love.
 
Second, more news on my micro in MATCHBOOK (find it here:   www.matchbooklitmag.com/doyle.html). Some wonderful flash writers have been praising “Heartbreak Hotel” on Facebook and Twitter. Yesterday the excellent flash writer Kathryn Kulpa (editor at Cleaver) reposted it with a really nice comment. Today the excellent flash writer Kara Vernor retweeted it with a really nice comment. Her retweet caught the attention of more flash writers that I greatly admire, including queen of flash Kathy Fish (real flash royalty), who retweeted it, as did Chelsea Voulgares (fine writer and editor of Lost Balloon), as did Jolene McIlwain (another really fine writer), as did Mr. Bear (Georgia Bellas, a fine writer and a tastemaker with a podcast). Tara Isabel Zambrano, another fine writer, commented on Jolene McIlwain's repost. Mind you, this isn't the same as going viral on the Internet, but in my very small corner of the literary scene, it's something like that. 

And then I turned to a closed flash group where members recommend “excellent flash fiction” and found that the flash writer Ashley Hutson had posted "Heartbreak Hotel" there. (I wasn’t tagged, since I have a different name on facebook, so I just stumbled across it by chance.)

I’m floored.
 
Saturday, Yellowstone. Monday, the total solar eclipse.

It's up! Check out "Heartbreak Hotel," my tiny new microflash at the wonderful MATCHBOOK. 

Talk about flash magazines I’ve always wanted to get into. Another one: WIGLEAF! Wigleaf just accepted my micro fiction “Little Darling.” I use an old school filing system and keep index cards for magazines. My Wigleaf index card is soft, well worn from handling, and the back and front are both covered with penciled submissions and rejections. I see that I started submitting batches of flash in 2010, so it’s only taken seven years and many tries to land there. They have published SO many great flash writers that I can’t begin to list them. Browse their full archive.  
 
Check out Wigleaf's longlist and shortlist of the “Top Very Short Fictions 2017,” which they famously compile, with different guest editors, every year. If you click “Archive,” you’ll get the archive of those lists. If you click “Main,” you’ll get their most recent stories (“featured shorts”). 
 
Their shorts run from September through late May. Mine will be up in the late fall or early winter. I’m thrilled.