Flash Fiction – The Beach out of Reach in Mad Swirl

A new month, a new flash fiction piece out in Mad Swirl. The Beach out of Reach is another of my literary oddities. A reader got in contact with me to give me feedback on this – she said she felt it had a ‘neat twist at the end of the first paragraph with the revelation, “You’re a swan.”’ and that overall she felt it to be a kind of ecological fable. I suppose that’s what I love about experimental fiction – you take what you want out of it. As the writer of the piece, my view is different to the view of a reader, but I’m more inclined to agree with the editor of Mad Swirl magazine, Tyler, who gave me a little feedback when he accepted the piece for publication. He said he liked it because the story is deceptive and that’s why as a reader he connected with it. He feels that there’s always something morbid in the mundane and that it isn’t cynical to face that fact either – I agree entirely. There are things in life that are futile and at some point we need to give up on trying to reach them. Is this cynical? Not in my humble opinion. Idealists keep trying their best in the face of adversity. Are you a cynic or an idealist? What would you do if you were the protagonist at the end of this piece?