It was interesting to note that none of the individual flash stories by Charmaine Wilkerson that make up the title of the collection, had been published before. The other two novellas had been published in part before in magazines or online.
Basically each piece of flash is a stand alone story but forms part of the over all novella. Charmaine Wilkerson's How to Make a Window Snake dealt with a family coming to terms with tragedy. Each flash repeated some element mentioned in the previous piece/pieces. I liked this one a lot. The second story A Safer Way to Fall by Joanna Campbell dealt with violence. While parts of this one were very powerful I felt it also drifted off in a direction I didn't feel it needed to. The final story Things I Dream About When I'm Not Sleeping by Igrid Jendrzejewski looked into the lives of a couple who grappled with mismatched wishes. I enjoyed this one too, following the thoughts of the woman. I particularly enjoyed the flash piece about eating ice cream in the bathroom!
Of the three authors, I have come across Ingid Jendrzejewski as she ran a session on submitting to competitions at Swanwick Summer School a couple of years or so ago. I'd never heard anyone talk so fast. She had a lot to get through during her allotted time. She gave us very useful information at rapid speed. There was a lot to take in!
The form of writing a novella in flash rather appeals to me and I may well give this a go sometimes. This was a nice book with very different stories and a great introduction to this form of writing.
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