Available in the Following Formats
- E-book ASIN: B099515H34
- Paperback ISBN: 979-8-5357-3009-7
View an Excerpt
Creative Ink, Flashy Fiction - Book 18
Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote: "The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living." Lending credence to these
words are the 43 stories here about the lives and deaths of the subjects of these tales and the memories they left
behind. The stories primarily were selected from among the 438 stories were found in Books 1 through 6, incl., of the
authors' Creative Ink, Flashy Fiction anthologies. Included, as well, are selected offerings from Cohen's two
short-story anthologies, The Road Less Taken, as well as stories from Cohen's Mementos series of anthologies. Most of
the stories in the instant volume are 250 words or fewer in length. They are best compared to a handful of peanuts or
M&M's. Which is to say, they're tiny, bite-sized morsels that won't let you stop with one! The longer tales were
added for those who seek something more substantial with which to curl up on a long winter night or better, on a
beach in the hot summer sun.
Praise for Theodore Jerome Cohen's Writing Style
"Brilliant! Above all, Cohen is a masterful storyteller." ~ Mark Mitchell, former editorial page writer for the Wall Street Journal"Cohen is a writing virtuoso!" ~ Gary Sorkin for Pacific Book Review
"A fresh voice in literary journalism." ~ Richard Blake for Readers Views
"Great entertainment . . . sure to delight." ~ Lee Ashcroft for Readers' Favorite
"Stands out from the crowd." ~ Krista Schnee for Hollywood Book Review
Featured Review
"Flash Fiction Stories on Life and Death by Theodore Jerome Cohen is superb literature and, like your favorite wine, you won't be able to stop sipping." ~ Jon Michael Miller for Readers' Favorite"Flash Fiction Stories on Life and Death by Theodore Jerome Cohen is an anthology of brilliantly composed short and longish pieces for a contest. Each story is inspired by a captioned photograph. The author compares them to M&Ms or peanuts in that the reader won't be able to stop with only one. The analogy is apt. You simply can't stop nibbling on these vignettes and musing about how incredibly well they work with the prompts. This is Mr. Cohen's 18th volume of these flash fiction pieces, and it seems as inspired as the very first. Mr. Cohen writes exquisitely of human emotions, of life’s enigmas, of scenes and characters shaped in mere phrases and brief comments that leave this reader constantly startled at how much can be conveyed in so few words. And yes, like M&Ms (in my case kettle potato chips,) you simply cannot stop, even with the longer stories.
"Let me mention a few that particularly engaged both my intellect and my heart as all great art must do. In the first piece, the son of a recently passed WWII veteran honors his father’s last wish to find his commander-sergeant of a village battle in which few survived. When found, the sergeant tells the deeply moving story of that battle while resting in a nursing home. In another story a Chilean military officer attends the funeral of a prostitute famous for dancing in red stilettoes. In another, a wife implores her husband not to jump off a bridge due to drug addiction—but whose? In “Mountain Pass,” a fellow employee informs a woman that a man she loves was killed in an auto accident in the Pyrenees. Then, there's a group of George Harrison’s celebrity friends gathered in a hospital room as he is dying. In the final piece, 'Gone Girl,' a husband cannot lose his guilt for having discounted the visible symptoms of his now deceased wife. Flash Fiction Stories on Life and Death by Theodore Jerome Cohen is superb literature and, like your favorite wine, you won’t be able to stop sipping."