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MICRO/FLASH FICTION
What Friends Are For by The Faraday Room of The Faraday Room [Science Fiction]
”Oh my god, stop,” Alicia said. (First Line)
SHORT STORY
The Hide and Seek Champion of North America by Ron Clyburn of From the Files of Joe Cooper, P.I. [Mystery]
Just when I think, “Can this get any worse?” the truck I’m being hauled in stops, and a group of hands yanks me out of the bed like a bale of hay. (Any Line)
Familiar Boogeyman by Bryan Pirolli of Love and Other Fictions [Literary Fiction]
It was always the second Friday when the boogeyman lurked. (Any Line)
Madge by John C. Krieg of Ravings from the High Chaparral [Literary Fiction]
Some of the less generous people in town delight in saying that in her younger years she played goalie for the dart team. (Any Line)
Sorry, Princess by M.A. Knight of Behind the Grin [Horror]
Pop I was right about what I told you about the thing that chased the cows, then us, then Jess. (Any Line)
The Mathematrix by Nick Winney of The Why & the Why Not [Horror]
“In two hours and fourteen minutes you will feel the urge to shit and the shit will weigh exactly two hundred and ten grams." (Any Line)
The Barn by The Butchered Writers of The Butchered Writers [Horror]
It was a muggy evening. (First Line)
Darryl the Magnificent by Bob D. Smiley of SILVER CORD STORIES [Literary Fiction]
Vincent and Georgia Davis hated magic. (First line)
SERIAL
Those Who Knew Earth: Revolution, Part 1 by Randy M of Echoes of Earth [Science Fiction]
While the passengers of the first interplanetary ship slept, an AI copy of a young woman flitted about in their heads. (First Line)
Those Who Fight Monsters [Ch. 1] by NN Reade of NN Reade [Speculative Fiction]
I cannot allow that… mistake, I suppose one could call it, to cast a dark cloud over the rest of my life. (Any Line)
Hey ya’ll,
Quick Note: Starting now, TiF Around Town announcements of upcoming events and important date-specific information has now been moved to The TiF Library. This will leave the email open for briefer and shorter and more personal messages, like the one you are about to read as I share my personal thoughts on the latest Substack “update.” TiF Around Town can now be found on the Issues page in a drop-down as shown below:
It’s been an interesting past week, to say the least. It all started when Substack decided to make an announcement about a partnership they are very excited about. If you’re unsure of what I’m talking about, you can read their announcement here:
Long story short, and a pile-up of other reasons, I’ve decided to move my personal newsletter, Ink After Dark, to another home. You can read my rather lengthy Substack Note here:
As I stated, Top in Fiction is currently staying where it is. There is a core community here that cannot be denied and I see no reason why that should change (for now).
But I want to make a few things clear because on the surface their announcement should’ve been a welcome thing for me. I’ve been complaining how difficult I find sharing these Weekly recommendation emails with everyone because it’s getting harder and harder to discern whether or not AI has been used to write the fiction I promote. And I’ve already seen countless Notes from people I don’t know who are complaining that this new “feature” is marking their human-written work as 100% AI. Now, I’m not here to debate the efficacy of this program. But I’m also NOT, I repeat, NOT going to use it to “confirm” if AI has been used when deciding what stories will be featured in Top in Fiction.
There is this little thing called the honor system that I’m choosing (however naively) to stand behind and hope that anyone who submits their fiction for consideration hasn’t used AI. I simply cannot let a soulless thing dictate or direct my choices.
Now, if through other means it is determined that AI was used, the usual policy will apply that it will be taken down.
I just want those of you out there to know that I guarantee I will never use whatever tool comes up or is offered to validate you are who you say you are or that you’ve written what you say you’ve written.
Any program that is wrong even 1% of the time, especially when it comes to AI, is not a program I’m willing to use. But when it seems to be wrong 50% or more times? I mean…what are we doing here?
These are my two cents on the subject and I hope I don’t have to take up anymore of your valuable time in the future making statements like this again.
EXCLUSIVE FICTION COMING TO TOP IN FICTION THIS FALL
I’m currently working on getting everything underway to finally bring short-short fiction to the subscribers of Top in Fiction. For the past 3 years we’ve a sort of catalog of fiction. We present current fiction from various categories and across different genres. But now I want to share a short-short story that you can only read here on Top in Fiction and pay the writer for their work!
The Open Call email will go out on August 1st, just 11 days away and will be open for just two weeks. Keep in mind the rules and guidelines before submitting a story. There are two main and most important ones: The story cannot be previously posted elsewhere. That includes your own Substack, blog, other publication, or printed material. And the word count cap is 1,500. I will be using Google Docs to check the word count. This title is never included in the word count.
Hopefully any questions you might have will be answered in the August 1st email. Just make sure you have the TiF Notifications Section turned on in order to receive this email.
Do you want to help me increase the number of fiction I can release exclusively on TiF from 4 a year to 6 a year? All we need is 3 more Yearly or 6 Monthly paid subscribers.
One more thing: The official name for this (cause everything needs a name in order to be real) will be announced on August 1st as well.
BE A PAID SUBSCRIBER TODAY
Paying for exclusive fiction short stories is coming. All made 100% possible by your continued support.
Paid Subscribers will get early access to TiF Short Stories, for a period of two weeks, after which time the story will then be made available to all subscribers.
- Erica Drayton, Editor-in-Chief 😈
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