FLASH DANCES

I shouldn’t be reviewing this, since I’m one of the contributors under my other pen-name. Without drawing attention to my own story, I’ll highlight some of the others that tickled my fancy.

Flash Fiction can be as short as one sentence or up to 1,000 words. Flash Dances is a compilation of 100 stories (and a few poems) from members of the Gay Authors Workshop, which meets in London and on Zoom. The authors are from the LGBTQ+ community, but the themes often go outside gay issues.

Quite a few deal with dying and bereavement, including one relating the gruesome death of a male spider narrated in the first person. I also relished a topical story about assisted dying in Benidorm, a new addition to budget holiday options; and Four Black Dresses, in which an undertaker sensitively prepares a closeted transvestite for his cremation.

On a similar note, Last Word, only 13 lines long, ends with a dying woman whispering: “You’ve been a terrible husband, but I forgive you.” Thus ensuring he will never forgive himself. A whole novel encapsulated in two sentences. There are many outstanding contributions in this richly diverse collection.

If you’d like to Zoom in on Gay Authors Workshop, visit www.paradisepress.org.uk