Fiction Abomination

By D. E. Park

Need a few tale tales to kill time while you're stuck at the airport or in a queue? Flash Fiction is the answer!

Tiny tales suitable for a quick read on the bus, the laundromat, whenever the boss isn’t looking. Pocket fiction for your phone, any time. Enjoy quick shots of my favorite genres. All tales are between 40 and 500 words.
Obviously, I can't recommend this approach for all aspects of your life.

Here are even more (34 more!) tiny tales from D. E. Park in a variety of genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Other—Speculative Fiction.

For example:
Santa Claus receives a present, for a change.
Enjoy the view over the edge.
What’s it like working for an anthropomorphic personification.
Browse the famous vehicle B-list at the auto show.
Watch out for the dog, and the volcano.

And much more silliness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: D. E. Park
• Release date: Feb 4, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311594891

D. E. Park

Dave is a vigilant champion against the magniloquent periphrastic battalions of blowhard, on the front lines daily protecting the virtues of brevity and whimsy. He's also demented and won't ever amount to anything.

Book preview

A Visionary Gift

Thank you for the doll, Santa. Won’t you accept my gift?

Sarah extended a brightly wrapped package with a smile.

You have a present for me? Bill Murphy, the department store Santa, was unsure. Wasn’t there a something in the store policy manual about not accepting gifts? He stalled to cover his confusion, Ho Ho Ho!

We’re supposed to exchange gifts on Christmas, right?

Thank you, Sarah.

Inside the gift box was a pair of odd-looking spectacles with bright orange frames and thick lenses. Rainbows shimmered across them, like the sheen on a soap bubble.

Bill slipped on the glasses. Everything he could see came abruptly into focus, sharp edges razor-delineated. Bright primary hues in high contrast dominated every direction he glanced.

A vested bunny carrying a pocket watch hurried by, pursued by a family of mice racing on tiny motorcycles. Tall grass and pussy willows grew over the store’s linoleum tile floor, and toadstools sprouted in fairy rings. A gently burbling stream flowed out of the Housewares department and tumbled down the escalators.

My gift, Sarah laughed, You can see through a child’s eyes whenever you wish.

She kissed Bill’s cheek, then spread her wings and flew away.

Admiring the View

Andrea carried her picnic basket to the promontory to sit and enjoy lunch under her favorite oak tree. It was a beautiful tree, enormous and very old. Sacred to her people, it provided a fine shade from the afternoon sun where she could enjoy a book or even an afternoon nap.

She pushed the tire swing pensively back and forth with her toes while reclining on her back, munching her lunch basket apples.

A sail was moving in fast from the northeast. Andrea stood and watched the vessel accelerating into the massive wall of mist to the west. As always, she winced in horror as the captured vessel tipped forward at the edge. The thunderous pounding of the waterfall obscured the screaming of the terrified sailors, and the ship was lost over the falls.

Andrea only shook her head. Someday, surely, the explorers had to stop coming.

She climbed onto the tire swing and kicked into a slow, broad sweep out over the edge of the world. At the apex of each swing, Andrea considered the darkness of space and the twinkling of stars visible between her toes.

Now that would be an awesome vista for exploration.

Angel Of

I practically died.

Don’t be so dramatic. The explosion was on the far side. Besides, your time won’t be up for ages yet.

Ernie decided to spend the day playing hooky from work, because he was a firm believer in cultivated leisure. He believed it to be his one true calling, the mission of his lifetime, to spend the absolute minimum number of minutes working as necessary to generate the maximum time for seeking pleasure. Ernie viewed it as a sort of lifehacking min/max problem, to skip work exactly as often as possible without scoring the Fast Exit Boot from his tight-assed boss.

He’d set out this morning for his local carnival in his very best Slob Friday