April/May 2004 |
The Beauty of Flash The popularity of the internet and PDAs has increased the demand for short fiction. But shorter is not necessarily less according to author Michael Arnzen, "Minimalist horror is a shotgun shell: a tightly wadded package of shrapnel designed for maximum coverage, minimal escape." Preorder now at Shocklines.com. "I like flash fiction that makes the most out of the brevity of the form—not long stories masquerading as short ones, but fiction that exploits the limitations of space." Arnzen points out that the horror story offers fertile ground for flash creators. "Horror is the genre of the jolt, the shock, the spark. The horror story’s conflict is always a matter of life and death, but death...almost always comes too soon—that’s why we fear it. Life is always too short." Arnzen's flash breathes new life into a decaying genre, "100 Jolts delivers far more than is promised by its title; with this magnificent collection of literate and disturbing short-shorts, some which are among the darkly funniest I've ever read....This book is a remarkable achievement." —Gary A. Braunbeck, author of In Silent Graves "Simply stated, there's nothing like this collection of ultra-short fiction. Arnzen continually impressed me with his punchy narrative style and endless images of grue, gore, and gristle. An evening with this book will leave you feeling like you've been gutted like a dead fish and hung out to dry." —Tom Monteleone, author of The Blood of the Lamb
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An Ounce of Brains
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