I've been working on the class I'll teach next month at the Flash Fiction Institute and I realized that if I give them multiple prompts each day, and ask them to post one flash for comment, then students will generate at least three new flash. So I changed the class description to "at least three flash" instead of "two flash." (changed in entry below also). Then I noticed that the offer of a 15% discount runs out tomorrow, so I posted ads for the class on my social media. I'm not sure how soon people will see it! I need six students minimum, which is not a lot, but there are a lot of other classes out there.

So pleased to have a flash in GHOST PARACHUTE today, a great issue with lots of good writers. My second appearance there ("Raining Blackbirds" was a long time ago). "Ella's Going Places" was inspired by a sign I actually saw in Los Angeles when I was there for AWP.

The flash required research into Gen Z (how do 20-somethings talk? what do they post, and aspire to post, on TikTok?). At my writing group's suggestion, I even researched names and discovered that my original choice (Traci) was not as common a name as Ella in 20-something girls from Kansas. It's hard changing a character's name when a piece has already gone through a few drafts! I even watched the Netflix video referenced by my Greek chorus, though I didn't use it!. The flash was fun to write, and revise.

GHOST PARACHUTE always commissions artists for each story as well as their cover. The moody, spooky illustration from Andrea Damic is lovely, and not what I expected at all. Maybe because LA is so bright, and the photo I have of the actual sign is so technicolor. I was going to send the flash only to magazines that used photos, but I'm glad I decided to send to GHOST PARACHUTE anyway, since they're consistently terrific.

Great cover, by Genevieve Anna Tyrrell.