A flash fiction tribute to the Wizard of Oz

Flying monkeys are a favorite of mine, ever since I saw them in the Wizard of Oz. I even own a flying monkey fez (shown at left), perfect for when I need to draft like crazy. So, of course, I had to write an homage to Oz featuring flying monkeys as the heroes. The story took me quite a while to write: telling a complete story in a thousand words can be a challenge. It ran in Every Day Fiction in March, 2014.

Right after it appeared I was bowled over when talented author, audio reader and actor Tina Connolly emailed me that she wanted to buy the story for her Toasted Cake podcast. Tina is a fabulous reader and really did the story justice. Her podcast won the Parsec award for best speculative fiction podcast of 2012. Give it a listen—it runs about 7 minutes, the whole podcast is only 10 minutes long. Tina really did the story justice. The story is definitely darker than “Coffee Shop Crisis,” but if you don’t mind that, I think you’ll enjoy a flying monkey’s take on what it might take to escape from imprisonment. There’s also a link there to Every Day Fiction where the print version originally appeared.

Somewhat by accident this month’s blog posts have turned  into my own February Flash Fiction theme, with “Coffee Shop Crisis” last week. Next week I’ll post my urban fantasy story, “Silence.” Thanks for reading!