Salvation

Salvation is a collection of 34 short-short stories, sometimes called "flash" or "sudden" fiction, each under a thousand words. In flash fiction both time and space are compressed, which makes these stories ideal for reading on the go, in line at the bank, or while waiting for that special someone to arrive at the coffee shop. The characters are in the moment, in a moment, and what we get in flash fiction are their reactions to that moment. And as happens to most of us when introduced to circumstances we're not accustomed to, those reactions usually reveal our true, deeper character. Broad in style and subject matter-from inner-city realistic to South American magical-the brief fictional nuggets in Salvation explode in the mind like starbursts and linger long afterwards. In the gripping title story, "Salvation," which won the 2012 New Millennium Writings Short-Short Fiction Prize, young street toughs encounter their first taste of the blues and adulthood on a snowy afternoon. "Winter," which won the Editor's Prize at Fiction Southeast magazine, is a brief dream within a dream about the desire for home. In "Karlikski Walks" we follow an old man on his dementia-addled walk to an ambiguous rescue. Winner of the MUSE Literary Prize, "Turquoise for Two" portrays a wary but hopeful couple on their first doomed date. JL Schneider is an accomplished, award-winning writer who has published his fiction, both short and long, in numerous magazines over many years. Nine of the stories in Salvation have either won or been short-listed in national contests, two have been anthologized, and a third have been published in small press magazines. And he has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in fiction.