F is for Flash Fiction

Thank you, Kerrie, for hosting the weekly Crime Fiction Alphabet.

Flash is glimpses of angst, paranoia, dark humour - anything that lurks beneath the suburban facade.
I have read the second half of Cathryn Grant´s collection, "Flash Fiction for the Cocktail Hour", and again I will share a couple of quotations with you.

Get the collection for free - for a few days. 

Sitting with the Dead
The narrator, an old woman, meets her grandson´s fiancé, but is less than thrilled.

"She wore a dress with thin straps over her creamy white shoulders. Each time she reached for her wine glass, the strap on the left slid down her arm. The side of her breast popped out like the egg white emerges from a crack in a boiling egg - a silken bubble."

Besides, young Clara is a medium, conducting séances for money. A despicable practice as the dead should be left alone. No spoilers, but this particular story is among my favourites.

Out of Options.
Ah, black garbage sacks! I wonder what is in them in real life, but we all know what to expect when we come across them in crime fiction, don´t we?
Karla the caretaker doesn´t like dead bodies, but when she sees something sticking out of one of those black sacks in a dumpster, it seems she has no choice. Lovely (dark) twist.

Reverberation.
A sinister story about fireworks, but as always full of fine little observations about human beings and their priorities, "The carbonation sizzled against his teeth, probably rotting them away while he stood here doing nothing but wanting to kill someone." 

Latest news: see the winners of Cathryn´s give-away 

Why I Love Reading and Writing

- this magnificent quilt belongs to Heather, and when I read her post about it the other day, I knew I couldn´t find a better illustration for this post - thank you for letting me bring it -

This post is part of a launch campaign by Cathryn Grant of Suburban Noir. To win a wonderful debut novel, or even a Wi-Fi Kindle, see the rules beneath my post.

I have loved reading ever since I learned how to at the age of seven. I have had several other interests and hobbies over the years, but reading has always been number one. When I am engrossed in a book, I am in another world. Pure and simple.

My dream of writing began at the same time. I began my first novel when I was seven - did I finish two or three short pages? - and I have had several false starts since then. The final push came a few years ago when I got the diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome. I had to make some changes in my life, work less and give up some (several, actually) of my many interests and ambitions. Enough said about that, though, because my somewhat sofa-bound existence gave me time to reflect: how did I want to spend all those hours when I had to sit quietly or lie down?

Of course I read more, especially in periods, but I was also determined to see this as my opportunity to do something about my old dream: writing crime fiction. Since then, I have had several rejections of my two Danish novels and plenty of my English flash fiction stories. But I have also had great moments, such as when Every Day Fiction bought my first flash fiction story ´Lollipop´ a year ago and when ´Megamartyres´ was published in "Discount Noir" in October. Or the other day when...

Enough about me - at least for twenty-four hours. Here is my review of Cathryn´s "The Demise of the Soccer Moms".

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Cathryn´s give-away.

Enter the Suburban Noir contest for the chance to win a copy of "The Demise Of The Soccer Moms". The grand prize is a Wi-Fi Kindle. Rules for the Kindle Giveaway:

1. Between February 4 and midnight PST, February 11, comment on any one of the 7 participating blogs (see the list here) to get one entry per comment. Limit of one comment per blog for a possible total of 7 entries.

2. Between February 4 and midnight PST, February 11, tweet any one of the participating blogs to get one entry per tweet. Limit of one tweet per blog for a possible total of 7 entries. Tweets must have @CathrynGrant so I can track them.

3. Participants can have a total of 14 entries between commenting on blogs and tweeting.

4. Ten people will win their choice of an eBook or paperback copy of Cathryn Grant's Suburban Noir Thriller, "The Demise Of The Soccer Moms". One additional person will win a Wi-Fi Graphite Kindle (valued at $139) pre-loaded with a copy of "The Demise Of The Soccer Moms". Please note the paperback copy will not be available until March. Winners will be chosen by a random number generator

"The Demise Of The Soccer Moms" tells the story of a seemingly quiet suburban neighborhood which is upended when a provocative single mother saunters onto the school playground for the first time. Her Doc Marten boots, tight T-shirts, and in-your-face attitude stir up buried fears and sexual anxiety.
In the dark corners of her home, a woman battles crippling memories that threaten to destroy the family she wants so desperately to protect. A suspicious death forces her best friend to make a hard choice between marriage and friendship.

Paranoia, jealousy, and maternal instinct collide, leading to the demise of the soccer moms.
The competition is open to readers from North America, Europe, Australia and NZ (if you live in another part of the world and want a chance, you may send a mail to Cathryn via her blog).
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E is for Electronic Pleasures

[Kerrie´s alphabet meme + two-sentence Tuesday, Women of Mystery - a bit early]

Do you know how many free or cheap pleasures you can find out there? IF you can read electronic texts in one way or the other. (If you are reading this, you probably can).

I downloaded a great selection of free flash fiction the other day: "Flash Fiction for the Cocktail Hour" - eleven well-written stories full of intriguing characters - written by American Cathryn Grant.

As I am going to use this collection for my Danish challenge (short story month), I´ll bring a couple of delicious quotations over the month.

A Thousand and One Bottles of Wine.
"She plucked at the spandex that clung to her legs like cobwebs. She wasn´t sure if the tight fabric looked good because it showed how slim she was, or looked bad because it left nothing to the imagination."

Things change in Corrine´s life, and she decides it´s a good opportunity to think of her life style. Read the story to see how this attempt turns out. And you know what: you can download the whole collection from Smashwords - absolutely free of charge. But don´t come back to blame me if you develop an addiction to Cathryn´s stories! I read one, and I have followed her blog ever since.

Tomorrow: come back to see how you can win Cathryn´s brand-new novel, The Demice of the Soccer Moms, or even a Kindle for one, very lucky winner.


Finally, a quotation from my latest flash story, Hand in Glove.

She found the other glove under a woodpile, and it all came back.
"Your mother loved you, sweetheart. She went up to your room and kissed you goodbye before she left," her father had assured her. 
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Cathryn Grant, The Demise of the Soccer Moms (2010)

This American suspense novel is the writer´s debut.

“After a moment of silence, a thud shook the walls of the living room and the hallway outside Amy´s bedroom. Her mother yelped. Amy rolled onto her back. The walls shivered again. There was a thick, damp sound like the pounding of her mother´s meat tenderizer on a piece of beef.”

When Amy Lewis was a little girl, her mother was raped in their own living room. She was too terrified to do anything, but for the rest of her life she remembers her father´s verdict: if her mother hadn´t invited a stranger in or ´dressed like a slut´, nothing would ever have happened to her.

Afterwards Amy´s mother stops caring about clothes, make-up, food – even her two daughters. So when Amy grews up, she decides to create a perfect life for her own girls. She becomes one of the group of devout soccer moms in their pleasant Sunnyvale suburb.

When Charlotte, a budding photographer and the mother of Meadow, enters the scene, things change very quickly, however. “She wore a gauze skirt paired with Doc Marten boots that made her look like a hybrid of Tinker Bell and a thug.”

The outrageous newcomer who doesn´t even wear a bra sticks out a mile, and the soccer moms Amy, Rachel, Jane and Kit are less than pleased with this inchworm in their paradise.

When it comes to plot, it is difficult to say if the story is mainly about crimes against women, or about the long-term consequences of these. No matter what, I rushed through the book in a few hours. As I had expected, the suburban environment was well drawn, and I was intrigued by the small group of female characters, especially Amy and Charlotte who appear to be opposites.

I bought the Kindle version myself.

Global Reading Challenge # 1, North America. 

Extra News: Congratulations, Cathryn!

Great news on the first day of 2011: one of my American blog friends, the wonderful writer of suburban noir, Cathryn Grant, has published her first novel, THE DEMISE OF THE SOCCER MOMS.

The Kindle price is very fair indeed, but you can buy an even cheaper copy from Smashwords.

Congratulation, Cathryn!

NB: if you are more patient than me - or if you don´t own an ebook reader, the print version will be out later this month. Cool cover, isn´t it?