I'm back from the Flash Fiction Festival at Bristol. It's the 4th consecutive one I've been to. About 120 people. Full immersion. Less than 20% males, I'd estimate.
I've come to use it as an annual review - of my writing, and also the state of Flash. I think the Flash written nowadays is better than ever, but the readership has plateau'd, and mag/book publication chances have if anything shrunk. Newcomers can develop quickly now that there are more supporting resources. Meanwhile I've been static. I can feel crowds of writers whizzing by.
The weather and the karaoke were too good for the quiet room to be needed - a shame, because some useful resources were there.
I liked nearly all the workshops. One that I hadn't expected to like - but did - was about non-writing issues that affect writing (writing for the wrong reasons; finding time/places to write; how to take breaks).
I came away with "This alone could save us" (Santino Prinzi), "In the debris field" (3 NiFs), "Landmarks" (NFFD anthology 2015), "Sleep is a beautiful colour" (NFFD anthology 2017), "Root, Branch, Tree" (NFFD anthology 2020), "And we lived happily ever after" (NFFD anthology 2022).
My story collection "By All Means" (ISBN 978-0-9570984-9-7), published by Nine Arches Press, is on sale from 
My poetry pamphlet "Moving Parts" (ISBN 978-1-905939-59-6) is out now, on sale at the 
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