Flashing Lights: Short and Weird Volume 1
A full menu of speculative fiction: aliens, ghosts, portals, humor, horror, suspense, and serious classic sci-fi.
Flashing Lights: Short and Weird Volume 1 is a collection of sixteen flash fiction and short stories in several subgenres of speculative fiction. The collection includes aliens and ghosts, portals through time and space, plenty of humor, a bit of horror and suspense, and some serious classic sci-fi.
The first book in the Flashing Lights: Short and Weird series, which takes you on a mission to explore the breadth of speculative short fiction. Each story is preceded by a content rating (G, PG, PG-13) and its genre tags. And each is followed by an About section, describing the story’s prompt, inspiration, homages, and the occasional Easter egg.
You can use the index by story type and genre to jump to the stories that interest you most, but you are safe exploring from beginning to end. You may discover a genre you didn’t know you liked.
The collection also includes six “bonus” ten-word stories with a short commentary about each and a secret bonus short work.
Flashing Lights: Short and Weird Volume 1 is available as an eBook, paperback, and audiobook. The eBook is also available on Kindle Unlimited.
(Design by Ross Flaven. Cover images by Joeprachatree/shutterstock.com, Selin Serhii/shutterstock.com, ktsdesign/shutterstock.com, and iurii/shutterstock.com).
The Stories
Covered Dishes: Date With an Alien
PG: Aliens, Humorous, Mainstream, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Hanky-Panky: Dirty Laundry
PG: Ghosts, Mainstream, Mystery
The Dragon of Dalhart: A Dustbowl Tale
G: Folktale, Historical, Serious, YA
Freak Magnet: Strange Attraction
PG: Aliens, Humorous, Mainstream, Sci-Fi
Souls at Sea: Training Voyage
PG: Aliens, Ghosts, Historical, Humorous, Sci-Fi
Shannon’s Eleven: The Cold Get Hot
PG: Ghosts, Humorous, Mainstream
Christmas Angel: Leaning Into Christmas
G: Holiday, Humorous, Mainstream, YA
Rainbow Catcher: Capture the Moment
PG: Mainstream, Portal, Sci-Fi, YA
Dead Man’s Hand: The Only Good Cheat is a Dead Cheat
PG: Ghosts, Historical, Humorous, Western
Fall Colors: Death is Beautiful
PG-13: Horror/Suspense, Humorous, Mainstream, Mystery, Seasonal
You’re Fired: Combustion Claim
PG: Humorous, Mainstream, Sci-Fi
Eccentric Orbit: Fragile Cargo
PG: Aliens, Humorous, Mainstream, Sci-Fi
Full Disclosure: For Sale: Haunted House
PG: Ghosts, Humorous, Mainstream
Derelict in Space: Suspicious Survey
PG: Aliens, Ghosts, Humorous, Sci-Fi
Alien Factory: Rite of Ascension
PG: Aliens, Sci-Fi, Serious, YA
Mending Time: A Line to the Past
PG: Ghost, Historical, Holiday, Mainstream, Mystery, Portal
Bonus: Six Ten-Word Stories
Yep, stories in only ten words.
Secret Bonus
It wouldn’t be a secret if I told you what it is.
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