Flash Fiction Online #123, December 2023
“Little Pound Shop” by Rebecca Harrison
“Seven Ways to Find Yourself at the Transdimensional Multifandom Convention” by Rachael Jones
“Five Books from the Alnif Crater Traveling Library” by Stewart C Baker (reprint, not reviewed)
“How to Safely Store Your Dragons” by Marisca Pichette
Reviewed by C.D. Lewis
The December 2023 issue of Flash Fiction Online contains three original works up to 1000 words each. To create something that will delight a reader without requiring the reader to set aside a weekend or even an afternoon is a gift to humanity, and any who would like their quality of life elevated without requiring the commitment demanded to ingest a novel should seriously consider subscribing. The hit rate—the fraction of stories that were worth the time to read—crushes this reviewer’s recommendation threshold of thirty percent winners. Improve your week. Read it.
Rebecca Harrison sets the present-tense “Little Pound Shop” in a shop stocked with £1 products, the entire inventory of which has been unexpectedly enchanted with various magical properties. The curmudgeon narrator is transformed by the power of comedy, romance, and perhaps the intercession of her deceased sister’s spirit, who may be sending loony good things into her life. Largely crafted from low-stakes “problems” that set up hopeful notes. Fun.
Rachael Jones’ second-person “Seven Ways to Find Yourself at the Transdimensional Multifandom Convention” describes your experience with your double from another dimension at the con where it’s your tradition to meet. “Seven Ways” isn’t about finding the way to the convention, but finding yourself with the assistance of alternate-universe you, who is kinder to you than you are and less judgmental and whom you hate to see disappear into the portal when the con is over. Melancholy transforms to hope. Good stuff. It’s not clear whether the dimensional portals are intended to suggest SF or Fantasy, but since the plot arc is about the protagonist’s mental health and personal outlook, and the climactic choice is about how the protagonist will frame the risks and possibilities unfolding before him, the SF and F elements are more in the nature of setting than genre. The climactic victory lies in finding things to look forward to and crafting a hopeful outlook when desperation offered an equally likely alternative.
Marisca Pichette‘s “How to Safely Store Your Dragons” provides advice for the novice dragon-keeper. The second-person instructions and warnings don’t constitute a plot arc so much as they reveal a cozy fantasy scene that is likely to warm the hearts of pet lovers with a fondness for dragons. If you are a pet lover with a fondness for dragons, this is yet another reason to pick up Flash Fiction Online.
C.D. Lewis lives and writes in Faerie.