On Creative Shorts
Issue 009 | September 2025
If I reframe a 20-year career in marketing/advertising, and think deeply about my lifetime reading and writing habits, I suppose I’ve been a short stories guy my whole life.
I haven’t the time, patience or stamina, for anything else.
It’s likely how I got into comics.
It’s likely how I became a copywriter.
This month, I discovered, and then got super into Flash Fiction. So much fun to read. So much fun to write. Here are a few classics & faves to whet your beak:
Earnest Hemingway* | Baby Shoes
Baby shoes: For sale. Never worn.
Joyce Carol Oates | Widow’s First Year
I kept myself alive.
George Saunders | Sticks
Every year Thanksgiving night we flocked out behind Dad as he dragged the Santa suit to the road and draped it over a kind of crucifix he’d built out of metal pole in the yard. Super Bowl week the pole was dressed in a jersey and Rod’s helmet and Rod had to clear it with Dad if he wanted to take the helmet off. On the Fourth of July the pole was Uncle Sam, on Veteran’s Day a soldier, on Halloween a ghost. The pole was Dad’s only concession to glee. We were allowed a single Crayola from the box at a time. One Christmas Eve he shrieked at Kimmie for wasting an apple slice. He hovered over us as we poured ketchup saying: good enough good enough good enough. Birthday parties consisted of cupcakes, no ice cream. The first time I brought a date over she said: what’s with your dad and that pole? and I sat there blinking.
We left home, married, had children of our own, found the seeds of meanness blooming also within us. Dad began dressing the pole with more complexity and less discernible logic. He draped some kind of fur over it on Groundhog Day and lugged out a floodlight to ensure a shadow. When an earthquake struck Chile he lay the pole on its side and spray painted a rift in the earth. Mom died and he dressed the pole as Death and hung from the crossbar photos of Mom as a baby. We’d stop by and find odd talismans from his youth arranged around the base: army medals, theater tickets, old sweatshirts, tubes of Mom’s makeup. One autumn he painted the pole bright yellow. He covered it with cotton swabs that winter for warmth and provided offspring by hammering in six crossed sticks around the yard. He ran lengths of string between the pole and the sticks, and taped to the string letters of apology, admissions of error, pleas for understanding, all written in a frantic hand on index cards. He painted a sign saying LOVE and hung it from the pole and another that said FORGIVE? and then he died in the hall with the radio on and we sold the house to a young couple who yanked out the pole and the sticks and left them by the road on garbage day.
In the contributor’s notes in “Story” magazine, George Saunders writes, “For two years I’d been driving past a house like the one in the story, imagining the owner as a man more joyful and self-possessed and less self-conscious than myself. Then one day I got sick of him and invented his opposite, and there was the story.”
*Note: there is debate to attribution.
Fresh off the Flash Fiction find… I’ve been pondering how this may or may not affect my day job as a marketer. There’s been this prevailing crunch in timelines and attention spans from clients, consumers and co-workers. An expectation of better, faster AND cheaper. Perhaps there’s something to be applied from Flash Fiction… not just the quality and quickness, but the co-creation between writer and reader. Is it time to reinvent the entire process of how/what we create/present to clients? To consumers? To each other?
On the early morning job as a writer side, I’ve taken to writing flash fiction in my notes app every day. As the idea strikes. Taking from life. An interesting person. Place. Thing. Interaction. And crafting an ultra quick narrative, in the moment. Practice. Fun.
@danandjason (creators of the amazing Barb the Berzerker series) posted this Daily Planet newspaper box they discovered. It’s so freaking brilliant. Creative Literacy in action! I’m currently plotting….
Halloween is on the way. Also, a great time to promote some creative literacy. Idea Worth Spreading: Consider handing out comics this year. Talk to your local comic book shop— find one here: comicshoplocator.com — see if you can buy some cheap back issues in bulk. Sort for maturity level and distribute via an end-of-driveway table. I’ve done this for a few years now, kids love it. Sugarless fun for all. Plus, reading.
Myles Smith | Stay
A new short story you can bop your head to — Stay (if you wanna dance)
Until next month…
Keep your nose clean,
Tom
Got a killer lead? If you’ve found, created or supported a kickstarter or a project or a profile, or adopted a creative practice or tip you’d like to share…OR if one of the things I share each month inspires you to share something you’ve found…. the lead lines are open. Simply “reply” to this email and let ’er rip.