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    Flash! Vol. 1
    Flash! Vol. 1
    Flash! Vol. 1
    Ebook119 pages46 minutes

    Flash! Vol. 1

    By Brady Koch

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    About this ebook

    Brady Koch's abbreviated murders, tiny apocalypses, and weird happenstance are all collected in Flash! Vol. 1. These 50 stories are exercises in horror, sci-fi, crime and the unusual all distilled down to the essential components of storytelling. Cannibals, criminals, and the curious will all find something to like in these brief, dark tales.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrady Koch
    Release dateFeb 3, 2016
    ISBN9781311177414
    Flash! Vol. 1
    Author

    Brady Koch

    Feel free to read over Brady's shoulder if you see him working on a new novel or short story at the coffee shop, library, or commuter train into NYC. Despite his penchant for crime, horror, and the unusual in his writing, he's actually a nice guy and welcomes your feedback. Brady Koch's first collection of short works, Guns, Gods & Robots, will be available in Winter 2016.

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      Book preview

      Flash! Vol. 1 - Brady Koch

      Introduction

      I grew up with The Far Side. I still have a stack of Mr. Larson’s comics carefully clipped from the Lifestyle section of The Times Union. More than anything, I liked how each day was its own separate world, with its own rules and complications. Gary Larson had to start from scratch every single day and determine how he was going to fill that simple black rectangle with a complete story.

      I’m drawn to flash fiction for the same reasons I was drawn the The Far Side. The word count restrictions force you to be economical and discover how much story you can pack into the space provided. You are afforded too little words to include a beginning, middle and end. As a writer you find yourself jumping into the middle of the action and doing your best to lay out the scene and a complication or two for the protagonist to work through. Add in the time restriction and maybe a photo prompt and you’ve got a scenario that I’m sure feels a lot like what the daily cartoonist has to work against. Sometimes it all clicks and you’ve got How Birds See the World and other times you’re left with Cow Tools.

      The flash stories included in Volume 1 were a lot of fun to write and many a deadline were limbo-ed through to get these posted on time. Often I turned to writing these tales as a way to shake off any writers block I was facing while working on the longer stories and novellas that would comprise Guns, Gods & Robots. As this is a flash collection I feel that I’m quickly approaching my word limit with this introduction, so I’ll leave you to read on.

      ENJOY!

      -BK

      A Foothold in the Orchard

      The clay walls were wet. Somehow it was more hot and humid down here than the tangerine orchard twenty feet above him. Jake’s sweaty hands weren't helping and he slipped again. He wasn't afraid of falling, just screaming on the way down.

      You still down there, boy? Jake looked up upon hearing the farmer’s slow drawl. The old man’s head looked down the hole, eclipsing the better part of the opening’s light. Jake remained silent.

      Don’t worry. Police ‘er gone. ‘Bout twenty minutes ago, the farmer said casually, seemingly without any hurry to salvage the man in his dried-out well.

      Good. Thanks. Get me out of here. Now that his escape from this narrow pit was upon him, he found it harder to keep his grip.

      Now you wait a minute. Policeman says you robbed the credit union. The one on Jefferson Davis and Lee. He could hear the old man spit something substantial into the weeds on the edge of the hole. Thankfully not into it.

      Don’t worry that bank is insured.

      It’s a matter of principle young man. You have to live by principles for crissake. I know I do.

      Jake bit his tongue and slipped down another foot. Let me out and we’ll talk more.

      Jake considered the other hiding places he’d considered: his buddy’s attic, the burned out warehouse, under the overpass. All of them seemed like quaint vacation destinations compared to his location dozens of feet under the ground. In hindsight he should have been more suspect about the easy bargaining with a dotty old man he’d met at the convenience store. The one that was now blocking his way back out.

      Listen, sir! Jake yelled. Are you a man of God? It was a last ditch ploy, but one that had always worked on Jake’s too-sympathetic grandmother.

      Don’t know. What do you think, Officer Philips? Am I a man of God?

      Another man’s silhouette joined the farmer’s at the top of the well. You chose a poor partner in crime son. The policeman’s voice carried authority even this far

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