- Kristen Simental
"Monsoon Season" on Friday Flash Fiction
Every once in a while I find a journal, like it, get inspired to write something, write, submit and lo, it gets accepted. Sometimes the star align. I hadn't submitted anything in a while and had just come home from London - while there I attended the Flash Fiction Festival in Bristol. I find writing conferences so inspiring, more than anything else. Being around other writers, hearing what they're working on, being in the thick of it. And that's where I heard about Friday Flash Fiction.
This 100-word piece was written and submitted in an hour. The line, "Sadness that feels like an oversized fur coat in monsoon weather" is something that had been rolling around in my head for weeks because my cat is currently dying of cancer and I had to come home from London, cancel my dream trip, and swelter in the Los Angeles heat where we're experiencing our 20-year-cycle monsoon season - we forget how humid it can get in Los Angeles. My mom read it and said, "You make some good points." I'm so grateful to FFF for publishing this short little piece.