Short Days, Shorter Stories: An Anthology of Flash Fiction Short Stories

An anthology of “flash fiction” stories. Taken from an ongoing project. First published online incrementally over 2023-24. Presented in chronological order. Each story in this anthology begins with a dream I had while asleep, taken from my daily dream journal.

In March 2023, I started writing and posting short stories of around 600 words in length, a format often called “flash fiction”, to a “Telegram Channel” I’d created for this purpose called “Countryboy Writes” https://t.me/countryboywrites. In particular, six hundred words works for Telegram because more words, specifically characters, exceed the limit for a single standard post. Of course, flash fiction of this length poses challenges to the author and hopefully delivers some quick rewards for the reader. Each story in this anthology begins with a dream I had while asleep, taken from my daily dream journal. Some stories closely follow the inspiring dream’s narrative, and others less so. Yet each one begins with a dream—a vision of the night. Initially, the well of inspiration felt bottomless, and during the first weeks of writing, my initial burst of “shiny new thing” productivity lulled me into a false sense of security. After publishing every day or so for a month, I took a break, which lasted longer than I expected or intended. I began writing short stories again in earnest at the start of December 2023 and have been publishing daily since the 15th of that month. As I write this at the end of May 2024, I won’t promise you’ll find a new story every day on my Telegram Channel. I know real life can get in the way of the best-laid plans. However, I have posted daily online since I restarted in earnest at the end of last year; this means I have reached a cumulative word count that makes this book-length collection possible.