I have a nipple piercing. I’ve had it for about a year, and it’s still the most painful thing I’ve ever done – for a week, it felt like I had a tiny tiny kitten hanging from my nipple by its teeth. That is, it was the most painful thing I’ve done, up until this morning, when my barbell got caught on a towel and ripped my nipple. Yes, ripped.

There was blood, and swearing, and panic. I explained my problem to a chemist, who got very nervous and gave me some butterfly strips to hold it all together. When my piercer opened I rang them, and they told me I’d done the right thing. With a bit of diligent care and some luck, the blessed thing will heal and not migrate.

This was a dramatic start to my day. Enough to make me curl up and sulk a little, and settle into checking out some fantastic writing.

So, to continue from my “Simplicity” post yesterday, I’d like to introduce Flash Fiction.

“Flash fiction” is the actual name for what I was talking about yesterday – very very short fiction. This is done in many different ways…
Some publications ask for a maximum of 140 characters.
Some want six sentances.
Others simply want something under 1000 words.

Point is, they’re rather short happenings. And this works for me, with my short attention span and plot-retardation.  This also works for readers like me, I like being paid for my investment promptly.

Almost everything I write fits into the “Flash Fiction” category, given the above definitions.

So here is mine for today, with more to come in future:

“She takes ugly photos of her lips, just to see if people are paying attention. Twelve hits in five days. So she takes photos of her pretty feet, to see if people are paying attention.”