Finishing off our fantasy-dedicated issue, last week I interviewed Joyce Chng, mystical fantasy author.

This week, since we are focusing on short stories with our ongoing Search Term Challenge, we decided to interview someone highly involved in the short story world, and who better than Jon Strother, who is not only an author, but the coordinator of #FridayFlash on Twitter?

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AMH: A little about yourself, first: when did you first truly consider yourself a writer?

JS: I always like to use my imagination from my earliest days. When exactly that began to manifest itself in written form I can’t really pin down except to say it was in the early grades of elementary school. Despite the fact that I could not spell my way out of a paper bag (probably undiagnosed Dyslexia) I loved to write. Still, I did not consider myself a writer at that point. I just liked to write. The transition to when I considered myself a “writer” happened sometime between 5th grade detention and the completion my first novel length manuscript when I was a senior in high school. Both were great writing experiences.

AMH: You write in a variety of genres and styles. Do you have any particular preference?

JS: I have a natural affinity for fantasy and science fiction. I like the freedom both these genre offer me in terms of setting, and the realm of possibilities. Recently I have been writing mystery, with two separate detective lines, one a cynical old cop, the other a idealist private eye. I like exploring human motivation and character interaction in these.

AMH: You started #FridayFlash on twitter – can you tell our readers who or what this hashtag is for?

JS: I’ve had a blog for years, and like most blogs, very little traffic. I used to write a lot of posts about writing, which to tell the truth, I am not particularly qualified to write about. I felt like I was simply rehashing hundreds of other posts, most likely better written and qualified than mine, covering the same topics. It wasn’t the type of thing I wanted to write. I want to write fiction. But writing fiction on a blog can be a very lonely experience.

So I got the notion of posting a piece of fiction on a regular basis, and using Twitter to announce its existence. To broaden the scope I encouraged other writers to do the same, in hopes we might actually draw a readership. Dang if it didn’t work!

Twitter uses hashtags (#) to point out tweets of common interest, thus #fridayflash (or #FridayFlash – I have no real preference). It succinctly states the regular schedule and the content one can expect to find – flash fiction. It has been growing steadily ever since and now we have a real writing community going, with regular readership.

AMH: Are there any trends or common themes, genres, and so on that have emerged in #FridayFlash pieces?

JS: There are seasonal trends, of course – lots of stories dealing with the holiday du jour. In general I’d say there really are no common themes or genres. It’s one of the things I really like about #fridayflash. You never know what to expect.

Given authors have trends. A week barely goes buy that Laura Eno hasn’t killed someone. But there is such a diverse group of writers participating you really never know what you will find: everything from sheer whimsy, to heart-rending tragedy.

I think there is a common belief that horror predominates in flash fiction. That is not the case in #fridayflash. There is a fairly even mix of every genre.

AMH: You mention a regular readership. What is the flash fiction audience like, and what is the nicest thing a reader has done for you?

JS: This is a hard question to answer. The only way to judge my readership is by the number of visits and length of stay according to Google Analytics, and through comments. Most, but certainly not all, of the comments come from fellow #fridayflash participants. However, the number of visitors who spend quality time on site is consistently much higher than the number of people commenting.

The nicest thing a reader can do for me, or any writer, is to leave a comment. All the better if that comment contains constructive criticism. Shout outs on blogs and Twitter are also nice. Please, if someone reads a terrific #fridayflash, go tell the world. Our authors will love you.

The nicest thing readers have done for me, personally, is to volunteer to help out with the upcoming Best of 2009 #fridayflash Anthology. I’ve gotten help with artwork, judging and editing. These are very special people indeed.

AMH: What are the merits of writing weekly flash fiction as opposed to other forms, such as a weekly online serial?

JS: I’ve done both. My novella, Max Mann and the Alley of Death was serialized on my old blog (also called Mad Utopia). It was an interesting experiment.

For me, as the author, it generated regular content while affording me the opportunity to polish previously produced work just before posting. However, it took a huge commitment on the part of the readers to stick with it. It’s sort of like asking TV viewers to commit to a long mini-series.

If I had to do it over again, I would post more than one chapter a week, to cut down the number of weeks required to complete the story. Flash, on the other hand, is self contained each and every week. Readers can come and go as they please, and not feel like they’ve missed something. However, it is much more demanding on me, as a writer, to produce something fresh and vital every week – usually on short order.

AMH: Which of your own flash fiction are you most proud of?

JS: I like the ones that are poignant statements about the human condition. Two that I particularly liked were Not Paper Losses, and No One Goes Home. No One Goes Home was picked up by Pow Fast Flash Fiction. It looks kind of nice over there.

AMH: How about other authors’ work? What three #fridayflash pieces would you recommend?

JS: Ah, you ask the impossible of me here. I cannot single out three pieces — there are many great ones. Many of the regulars do consistently good stuff. After a few weeks of browsing you’ll soon have a standard reading list. I also try to make a point of reading the debut authors each week. That is how to find wonderful new talent.

AMH: Great — that’s everything from me. Is there anything you’d like to add?

JS: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss #fridayflash with your readers. I encourage them to pick up the #fridayflash habit by simply searching for the hashtag on Twitter every Friday. Or join in by posting their own stories. All it takes is a blog. I also encourage everyone to leave comments on stories they like, in any venue. Writers like comments even more than chocolate.

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Curious? Follow Jon on Twitter, and don’t forget to check out #FridayFlash this Friday — you can read the stories even if you don’t have an account by simply searching!

Of all the social bookmarking sites available, I believe StumbleUpon is the most fun. I love the sense of random discovery, of finding people with similar tastes, and exploring new internet territories. So because this week is all about being social, and I’m all about sharing what I love, I thought I’d give a short introduction to the wondrous world of StumbleUpon. Be warned though: it’s very addictive.

The basics

StumbleUpon is a social bookmarking site, which means it’s a service of collecting and sharing bookmarked sites. When you join, you select some general interests and start to stumble, either by installing the Firefox toolbar (which I highly recommend) or use the on site stumble links (which work way slower, and have less features).

Clicking the stumble button will load random sites, based on the interests you selected. Once loaded, you can decide to give the site a thumbs up, a thumbs down, or no rating at all. These ratings affect how many times the site will be shared with other stumblers. The more you stumble, the more the engine understands your preferences, and the better profiled the sites shared with you become. With the Firefox toolbar you can also give a site a thumbs up even when you’re not actively stumbling, which makes it a great way to support the authors and sites you admire.

Tags & categories

If you thumb up a page that isn’t in the database yet, you’ve made a new discovery and are asked to fill in some minor details, like the category (also called topic), some tags and an (optional) review. These tags and categories are the basis of the system, since these are the things you subscribe to when selecting your interests. Tags are also the most convenient way to browse other people’s bookmarks. Tags are limited to 5 per site, so think before you tag!

Share with friends!

Of course, StumbleUpon wouldn’t be a social bookmarking site if you couldn’t share with friends!

There are various ways to see the sites your friends have bookmarked. First of all, people that subscribe to you receive sites you’ve thumbed up more often than regular people, and vice versa.

You can also stumble through the sites your friends have bookmarked by clicking the yellow stumble button on their page:

Lastly, you can press the orange people icon in the Firefox toolbar to stumble through the discoveries of your subscriptions. There’s also a direct share option, for people who have subscribed to each other and have approved sharing. With direct sharing you can send links directly to your friend’s inbox. The picture is a little small, but this is what the toolbar looks like:

Discover fiction

Now that I’ve covered the basics, it’s time to hunt down some fiction!

Through StumbleUpon, I’ve discovered several great short stories, some lovely poetry, and even great webfiction. Servicing the Pole, which was featured in our first Scavenger Hunt, was for example listed on Web Fiction Guide (by me) because I discovered it on StumbleUpon.

The lovely thing about StumbleUpon is the random discovery factor; you never know what you may find. If you’re looking for something new to read, subscribing  to convenient categories like literature, poetry and books is a good start. However, these are very broad subjects, and cover everything from analysis to reviews. Subscribing to reading, short stories,  or your favorite genre tags, like romance novels, or science fiction will give you more targeted results. And, last but not least, there’s also a webfiction tag.

If you’re a fan of randomly discovering new things, StumbleUpon is definitely the site for you, and you should give it a try.

(All fall down) All the books you never read
(All fall down) Just started
(All fall down) All the information
(All fall down) All the big ideas
(All fall down) All the radio waves
(All fall down) Electronic seas
They’re all falling at your feet*

*I couldn’t resist! It’s a beautiful song, and I find this chorus so fitting for the whole StumbleUpon experience!

Twitter was one of the most popular social media sites of 2009. The great news for us webfiction fans? It’s probably not going to disappear any time in the near future!

Why is it great? As explained in “Why You Should Read Webfiction”, one of the biggest perks of the format is the interaction with fellow fans and authors, and nothing helps boost said interactions more than social media.

In my guest post on Novelr I spoke about how using Twitter has been quite the revelation for me.  I’ve made contact with webfiction authors I never would’ve met otherwise, I’ve found some amazing stories, and I took part in some incredible projects. If not for Twitter, this magazine would probably never have seen the light of day.

I touched upon how fans can use Twitter in the “6 Tips For Webfiction Fans” post last Monday. In this article, I’m going to explain exactly how Twitter—and the hashtag in particular—help the webfiction community to connect, share, and expand.

But first: if you’re entirely new to Twitter, check out the TwiTip Starter’s Guide before reading the following webfiction-specific hints and suggestions.

What is a hashtag?

Hashtags are often bound to a day of the week, and most Twitterers will already know of one example: #followfriday. There are a couple of webfiction weekday-related hashtags, and #WebFicWed is one of them.

#WebFicWed was originally created to accompany A. M. Harte’s Café Wednesday interviews. Webfiction Wednesday has since moved to this very magazine.

Every Wednesday readers can recommend their favorite webfiction by tweeting a short blurb and this hashtag. The following week, recommendations will be compiled into our Webfiction Wednesday post. You can use the hashtag to make your own recommendations, or check out other people’s favorite webfiction. It’s a win-win hashtag.

#Fridayflash

#Fridayflash is something completely different. Each Friday a bunch of authors publish a piece of flash fiction (a very short story), and tweet about it using the hashtag. J.M. Strother posts a weekly roundup on his blog of all stories published each week, and an anthology is in the making. It’s a great way of finding something quick to read, and I’ve discovered some excellent authors through this tag. Be sure to tweet about your personal favorites too, and don’t forget to include the hashtag if you do.

Twitter Chats

Some people organize chats around these hashtags, using a Twitter client like TweetChat, or the Twitter search engine (search.twitter.com) on a set day of the week, and sometimes at a set time.

Currently there isn’t really a chat specifically for webfiction fans, but there’s a webfiction author chat you might find interesting to follow, #dnchat, which takes place every Thursday, starting from 8pm PST. There’s also a bunch of other writer-related chats as well.

Other Interactivity

Hashtags aren’t all there is to know about, however, since Twitter can be used in various different ways. Of exceptional fun are the fictional characters tweeting and engaging in conversation with readers. A prime example is @Lordlikely; reading the adventures of Lord Likely has been twice as fun ever since I started following his twitter account, and I’m sure other readers feel the same.

Nancy Brauer of Strange Little Band has made a list of fictional characters tweeting, and since we’re on the topic of lists I’d like to mention my webfiction authors list where you can find a large collection of authors publishing online.

Before you leave me to explore all the fun people and things on Twitter, I have one last piece of advice. As I mentioned in “6 Tips for Webfiction Fans”, the best way to be a fan is to share what you love. Twitter is an excellent way to do this, especially via the retweet feature.

However, when retweeting it is often better to not include the original hashtags, or to change them to other relevant hashtags. Why? Because it can be quite annoying if you’re looking up a hashtag to see the same message twenty times. So try to think up other relevant tags (like the genre, or #reading and so on), or add a bit of comment on why you’re retweeting.

Most importantly, however, be sure to interact with your followers and followees. If you just lurk, you’ll never understand how much fun Twitter can be.

Be sure to follow us @ErgoFiction and don’t forget to participate in #WebficWed next week!!

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I said it in “What Is Webfiction?” and I’ll say it again here: the biggest perk of webfiction is how social it is. It should come as no surprise that precisely this aspect of webfiction will be featured in the first issue. But before I get to this week’s articles I have to make a couple announcements.

It is with great joy, pride and excitement that I can announce the latest addition to the Ergofiction crew: A.M. Harte. She has been very active backstage for a while, proofreading articles, testing features, and keeping me coherent and sane. I actually asked her to be part of the team last December, when she interviewed me for her Café Wednesday series. She didn’t seem to pick up on it then, so I didn’t dare ask again. A thousand of conversations later the topic was brought up again, and she agreed to join.

Anna is the author of Above Ground, but besides that she has been a very active WFG editor, a frequent reviewer on Muse’s Success, and an all-round supporter of webfiction on her blog, where she held a series of weekly interviews dubbed Café Wednesday with webfiction authors and affiliates. Luckily for us, she has agreed to move her Café Wednesday interviews to the magazine, so expect an interesting interview every Wednesday from now on!

But there’s more: Anna was also the instigator of the #WebficWed hashtag on Twitter, which serves as a weekly recommendation method for webfiction. Together, we’ve agreed to expand on the hashtag and make Wednesday a true celebration of all things webfiction. Each week we’ll give an overview of what has been happening in the webfiction world, and as fans you’ll have a lot of say in what gets featured. So stay tuned for the first Webfiction Wednesday!

As always, you’re more than welcome to join in to the conversation, through comments, Twitter or email.

Take care,

Jan, Chief Editor

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Ergofiction: Issue 1

Now that you all have an idea what’s going to happen on Wednesday, it’s time to introduce the rest of this week’s articles.

On Monday, we’ll offer “6 Tips for Webfiction Fans” who want to support their favorite authors, but suffer from lack of inspiration on how to do it. As a follow-up on the article On Patronage this article is all about engagement, interactivity and communication.

Now is also your last chance to take part in our Scavenger Hunt, because we’ll publish the last page—where you can claim your victory and prize—on Tuesday.

As mentioned above, Wednesday will be the first enhanced Webfiction Wednesday and we’ll have a very special guest at the Café. Without spoiling too much, I can reveal that our visitor is of the female gender, is all about communities, and has a surprising voice.

Thursday, we’ll travel into the wonderful social world of Twitter, and focus on how fans can get the most out of the various webfiction-related hashtags.

And finally on Friday, we’ll end the social issue by stumbling through StumbleUpon, as one of the ways to share your webfiction love with the world. Discover Webfiction With StumbleUpon

All that’s left to say is that we hope you’re equally as excited as us for this very first issue of Ergofiction! Make sure to stop by throughout the week and check it all out.