Category: News

What Are CR Writers Up To Lately?

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CR Stories will randomly check in with writers recent publications, events and the news that makes us swoon. Here is some exciting events from our writers as of late.

Joshua Mohr

Joshua Mohr’s new novel coming out in february ’13. “Fight Song” and will be published by counterpoint/soft skull.

WEBSITE: http://www.joshuamohr.net/

 

 

 

 

Lyssa Tall Anolik

“Eyes within Eyes: At the Royal B.C. Museum, Victoria, British Columbia” in Drash: A Northwest Mosaic, Volume VI

THE WRITERS NEXTDOOR: www.thewritersnextdoor.com.

 

 

 

 

Jackie Davis-Martin

Jackie Davis Martin has recently had a flash fiction piece published in Flash, The International Short Short Story Magazine, Vol. 5 (“Night Out”) and has another coming up in Fractured West, Issue #5  (“Make Believe”).

She is finalizing the designs of her memoir Surviving Susan:  A Mother Deals with the Death of her Daughter and Reflects on Their Relationship (published through CreateSpace), which will be available from Amazon soon.

A Note from Straight Blonde

Posted on Categories Announcements, Flash Fiction, From the editor, Napkin Notes, NewsLeave a comment

Okay, so “Straight Blonde” isn’t nearly as catchy or winsome as “Curly Red,” so this is the first and last time you will see me use that nickname in reference to myself. I just had to try it out. Don’t you just have to try out the words sometimes? Type ‘em up, read them on the screen—take your ideas for a little test drive?

That’s one of the great things about flash fiction. Its design lends itself well to experimentation. Which is not to say it’s easy or fluffy, or necessarily even edgy. A quick tour around the stories on Curly Red will show you a range of tone and topics, from heavy to light, sunny days to darkest night.

Here’s the deal: whether you view flash fiction as a creative writing exercise, learning tool, or legitimate literary genre (we do), writing flash will make you work. It will sharpen your writing and editing skills. If you can craft an engaging story—complete with a beginning, middle, and end—in 750 words or less, chances are you’ll be capable of longer forms. And once you’ve got the longer forms down, turning a 10-page short story into flash is an excellent opportunity to practice “killing the darlings,” cutting all but the most essential words, sentences, and paragraphs, while leaving intact the story’s guts. Less can be more.

And, just so we’re clear: flash fiction is not the 21st century-American literary fad you may think it is. With roots in ancient fables and parables—from countries as remote from the West as China and Japan—microfiction is nothing new. (What is microfiction, and how does it differ from short or flash or prose poetry or sudden fiction? Is there a difference? We’ll cover these questions in another blog post down the road.) What’s still true of the style is this: it allows you to play with words and ideas, and create a world with very few, strategically selected words. In a very compact space, you can populate this world with characters, color it with conflict, even drawn an arc. And we’re talking hours/days/weeks to make a story take shape, not months or years.

So try it out. Mess around! Sculpt some small but sturdy little tales, and send them in. I am eager to read your work, delighted to serve as editor of stories, and honored to be invited into the worlds you create. (Thanks, Curly Red!)

–Beth Bates, Stories Editor

Letter from Curly Red

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Hello and thank you for stopping by! I’m more than thrilled to offer a platform for our writers that shows off their talent more fully. I’m also excited to be introducing some new activities and changes to the magazine. But first a little history about our publishing hiatus for nearly a year.

Curly Red Stories, originally didn’t intend to be a cyclical magazine. I had focused on design driven prose at Vermont College of Fine Arts and was hooked. I published a few writers in 08′ with the ‘working title’ of Curly Red Stories. However, I was more than a little surprised by the amount of enthusiasm for flash fiction. The word spread quickly. I was getting regular submissions. And people actually liked the title. I went with it and Curly Red Stories took on a life of it’s own, like all stories waiting to happen. However, I began CR Stories on iWeb. iWeb is really not set up for magazine proportions in the long run. In 2010 I maxed out on space. I purchased more. Then I maxed out on the max. So, I was unable to publish any more writers on that platform. All those comments that the writers had more than earned. All that content had to be migrated carefully; responsibly. It was going to take cash and time. CR Stories, then was somber during summer months, so last fall I devised a plan that has now been carried out. I couldn’t have done it without the help of Jess Nunez. She is amazing when it comes to technology. She very carefully migrated all the content and wrote custom code to the tune of my design and creative direction. We are over the moon to share it.

NEWS: 

Beth Bates, marketing maven and talented editor has joined CR Stories. I feel very lucky. She’s sharp with the pen. I’m your typical creative director. I will be making the vision of the showcases come true. While Beth is not only a talented writer of flash fiction but her eye for detail and inquiries into the text as well as skills in marketing are a clear route to more success for our magazine.

Featured interviews: We will rotate interviews regularly on the home page and announce them via social media channels as we do.

More Circulation: Both Beth and Niya will be attending conferences in 2012 as well as guest blogging in relevant media/writing/publishing circles and we will be showing off CR Stories writers every chance we get. We are even going in arms with cool business cards. Maybe even fancy hats! In addition, Niya’s newly published illustrated children’s book, recognizes CR Stories inside the pages and on Amazon. We will announce juicy PR placements as we gain them. In the meantime, we are charged up and ready to spread the word.

Micro-publications + Events: The views of this author is that flash fiction expresses itself in many forms throughout our culture. A letter between two people can tell a compelling story. A one page dialogue in a screenplay, one word each character throughout can leave the audience floored with all that is revealed. A painting can be translated into a wonderful story in 300 words. Therefore we will have mini-calls for submissions and add pages and showcases in between the Spring and Fall main publications. The best way to stay in the loop is to subscribe to our newsletter. You’ll never miss an announcement or ‘sweet article’ — Thanks!

These are many of the highlights. And as we grow, we are a work in progress, so stick around… you might be as surprised as we are of what comes!