Wednesday, April 23, 2014

"The Sound of Forgetting" is Published!

"The Sound of Forgetting"*


My 50-word bit of micro-flash-fiction "The Sound of Forgetting" has been published at Fifty-Word Stories.

I invite you to check it out by clicking on the link:  "The Sound of Forgetting" By Chris J. Fries.

For anyone who may not know, a 50-word story is a bit of micro-flash fiction using exactly 50 words.  I find it a fun challenge to my normal long-winded writing style to pare a "story" down to only 50 words.  The website is run by Tim Sevenhuysen and I've been lucky enough to have had a few stories published there before. 

And as a side note -- Tim is currently seeking submissions of 50-word stories for a Spring Story Contest.  If you feel like writing some 50-word stories of your own, now is great time to give it a shot.

Thank you for reading my story -- I hope you enjoyed it!



*Image from Wikimedia Commons.

13 comments:

  1. Congratulations, Chris! That is awesome.

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  2. Congratulations. 50 words. That is a serious challenge!

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    1. Thanks, Robin! It's kind of hard for me to be so concise,but it's a lot of fun.

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  3. Congratulations, that's fantastic! I don't know if I could write a story in only 50 words.

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    1. thank you, Sarah! Give it a try -- you might find it's fun to do. :)

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  4. I have a friend who feels the presence of her deceased brother in the house and it brings her comfort. I hope I didn't misinterpret your story as this is what it so elegantly brought to mind for me.

    I really enjoy your 50-word pieces, Chris. Well done.

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    1. Thank you very much, Suze.

      You didn't misinterpret the story at all. Actually, I intentionally left it kind of ambiguous -- someone is gone, but I never say why. It might be they died, it might be they're on an extended trip (like on a military deployment), or it might be they left due to a relationship ending. It's up to the reader to decide what cause has the most resonance for them. I think most people think "old person who's died" because of the use of "old rocker" and "creak" and a cat. But it doesn't have to be. The feeling I was going for was a bittersweet mix of absence and fond memory, with a sense that "what was" with our loved ones is always still there in our hearts.

      Hopefully I didn't over-analyze and explain away any of the magic, lol!

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  5. Hooray! You nailed the bittersweet mix you were going for. Nice job. :)

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    1. Thank you very much, Nicki! I really appreciate that!

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  6. Hey, congrats! I loved that story. I truly think that packing so much into mere 50 words is awe-inspiring. Congrats!!

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    1. Thank you, Gina! I'm very happy that you enjoyed it!

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  7. Beautiful. There's a lot of depth in those 50 words. Congratulations!

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Don't be shy -- feel free to comment. I really appreciate your thoughts.