Get Shorter! Why I'm a Flash Fiction floozy

It was an invitation too tempting to ignore.

Romantic suspense author Bronwyn Parry last week ran a flash fiction competition on her blog http://bronwynparry.com/blog/. The criteria was simple - submit a 55-word story for the chance to win a copy of one of three books; Bronwyn's latest Dark Country, Helene Young's Border Watch and Joanna Sandsmark's The Wisdom of Yo Meow Ma.

The entries were to be judged by the doyenne of Australian romance writing Valerie Parv.

To cut a long story short, I won.

I was tickled pink that Valerie wrote on Bronwyn's blog that she kept coming back to my story because it had a beginning, middle and end (fair enough), a sense of plot, intrigue and deception. And that it featured dogs. (The dog comment is interesting and I will write about it in my next blog.)

Here's my 54 words (yes, I can write 'em shorter than 55) titled Foiled:

She turned at the tap on her shoulder.

"Did you drop this?"

He held out a cream silk scarf.

A sharp breath. Ooh la la. What harm can it do. "Thanks."

Ollie gave an approving wag of his tail. She bent down to pat his dog.

"Cute."

"Mmm."

"Hey," another voice interrupted, "that's mine."

PS: I knew I was onto a winner when I ran the story by my partner Spanner and had to explain the meaning behind every line.

PPS: It's a shame I can't manage 55,000 winning words.