Alison Leigh Jones
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alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
Alison Leigh Jones
@alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
65 followers 56 following 53 posts
reading, writing, writing, reading, rinse and repeat
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Reposted by Alison Leigh Jones
smokelong.bsky.social
You're invited to our Master Series interview and reading with Aimee Bender on August 9th! This event is free! And we'll be giving away lots of books. Sign up through the SmokeLong Shop by "purchasing" this event for $0 dolares!
www.smokelong.com/product/mast...
July 16, 2025 at 2:13 AM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
Yet, once they said it everyone remembers the original claim not their recant.
meidastouch.com MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · Jul 27
NYT: Israeli military officials have admitted they never found evidence that Hamas systematically stole U.N. aid—despite using that claim to starve Gaza.
No Proof Hamas Routinely Stole U.N. Aid, Israeli Military Officials Say
www.nytimes.com
July 29, 2025 at 7:22 AM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
Day 15: Thanks for the challenge @smokelong.bsky.social and for the stories shared by everyone else who's posted. I'll definitely continue sifting the archives of flash-championing journals.
The title grabbed me and I loved the juxtaposition of strange and normal.
splitlipthemag.com/flash/0818/m...
My Sad Werewolf — Split Lip Magazine
There’s a sad werewolf on my balcony. He broke up with his werewolf boyfriend—Gregov, an awkwardly lanky wolf who’s a bit of a flirt. This crying Lycan said he’s a vegetarian, but he’s munching on bac...
splitlipthemag.com
July 9, 2025 at 11:18 PM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
Reread a longtime favorite story of mine, by a longtime favorite writer. She shared more writing wisdom during a recent incredible SmokeLong webinar.
"The first time a guy said I look like a man was at the Jamba Juice stand in the mall."
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/0120/v...
Smoothies — Split Lip Magazine
The first time a guy said I look like a man was at the Jamba Juice stand in the mall. He was still a boy, probably my age and sticky from adolescence. You look like a man. He said it as if he had th...
splitlipthemag.com
July 9, 2025 at 12:07 AM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
My only thought on finishing this story was wowzers! Talk about flash packing a punch. I wasn't prepared, the title is so beautiful, the opening sentence dives right in and the ending...wowzers.
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/0920/c...
Yellow Mama, Take Me Home — Split Lip Magazine
They give Darrell Grayson the option of Yellow Mama or lethal injection. There is no real fairness in this decision. In not being strung up in a Michael Donald sort of manner.
splitlipthemag.com
July 9, 2025 at 12:02 AM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
So happy to have a story on this list!😊
July 8, 2025 at 11:28 PM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
Day 14: The weight of shoulds hangs heavy in this flash.
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/0621/s...
Visiting a Boy’s Room — Split Lip Magazine
There aren’t flowers in Darnell’s yard, just big rocks. He unlocks the door and says, “Take off your shoes.” I do as I’m told. I’m wearing Vans. White Girl Shoes.
splitlipthemag.com
July 8, 2025 at 10:59 AM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
Day 13: "All the candidates take something with them when they go. They say they need to live with a part of us to determine if they can be comfortable there."
An epic of a flash. Parts reminded me of Cheever's The Swimmer.
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/1022/n...
Quiet Like Water — Split Lip Magazine
Erin says I’m supposed to find us a house that looks like the one we’re already in: a Dutch Colonial with arched doorways, a staircase wider at the bottom than the top, and a too-small kitchen. She wa...
splitlipthemag.com
July 8, 2025 at 12:11 AM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
Day 12: The pacing was spot on, and the layered meanings in the end struck an additional note.
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/0318/a...
Something Else — Split Lip Magazine
I loved a bastard. He was awful sometimes but also his parents never married, a true bastard. When we met he was holding a radioactive drink and I wanted to lap it from his hand.
splitlipthemag.com
July 6, 2025 at 11:41 PM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
The titles give the reader the containers of these flashes-- definitions--but not the way story and sensory details are used. The writer gives clues about characters while leaving a healthy dose of mystery..
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/0415/k...
Two Flash Fictions — Split Lip Magazine
Smack me with what you know, baby, I’m asking for it. Make those ten dollar words zip like a switch, make that jargon sizzle. Sting me with words you can correctly pronounce so I’ll stop suspecting yo...
splitlipthemag.com
July 6, 2025 at 11:22 PM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
"Caitlin enunciates the words mother and kitchen and mopping like each syllable has scrubbing properties, like she’s flossing with vowels, cleaning her mouth out for Mr. Gilcrest, our drama teacher."
I would love a Clean Girls Part 2.
splitlipthemag.com/flash/1117/r...
Clean Girls — Split Lip Magazine
Caitlin enunciates the words  mother  and  kitchen  and  mopping  like each syllable has scrubbing properties, like she’s flossing with vowels, cleaning her mouth out for...
splitlipthemag.com
July 6, 2025 at 11:06 PM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
@katedoyle.bsky.social has this ability to make a small action, feel so true to a character and circumstance and reverberate beyond the story.
"I’m nowhere, I told him. I mean, I’m at home."
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/0922/k...
The Goldfish in the Pond at the Community Garden — Split Lip Magazine
In the years I lived in that neighborhood, when I was twenty-seven and later twenty-eight, I visited the goldfish daily.
splitlipthemag.com
July 6, 2025 at 11:01 PM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
"You probably remember it different. You probably remember the sun being so hot we had to close the shades in the middle of the day—that the AC couldn’t keep up, that the floors were sticky. " The unfolding of relationship and circumstance👨‍🍳👌
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/0318/a...
Little Mouse — Split Lip Magazine
You probably remember it different. You probably remember the sun being so hot we had to close the shades in the middle of the day—that the AC couldn’t keep up, that the floors were sticky. The pizza ...
splitlipthemag.com
July 5, 2025 at 11:17 PM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
Love how the creep of the hypothetical blurs reality between story (author's imagination) and character's imagination in this flash by @rpmirabella.bsky.social I, too, can't stand to throw away books, as free-libraries near me can attest.
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/1122/r...
The Book I Found in the $1 Bin — Split Lip Magazine
I liked the cover because there was a sexy man on it and I’m easy to manipulate, so I brought it to the register and paid a dollar. In the sun, I opened the book and found an inscription: To Russel, ...
splitlipthemag.com
July 5, 2025 at 10:27 PM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
Day 11: The unreality of a place is central to this story, and I was amazed by how the writer made the mystery of it so concrete through associations.
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/0715/g...
Taliaferro — Split Lip Magazine
No one I know has ever been to Taliaferro County, so I don’t believe it’s real. There is data out that says it has 1,700 or so residents and I’ve never met a single one. The closest I’ve come is I fou...
splitlipthemag.com
July 5, 2025 at 5:04 PM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
"Now you are in eighth grade and must interact with the caterpillar on a new level." I love the main character and the way they interact with this class and how the author plays with what has been said.
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/0415/n...
Eighth Grade Bio — Split Lip Magazine
When the caterpillar is crawling in the dish, do not measure it with your ruler. Do not classify it according to the phases of growth illustrated in the chart in your book. These were the things of se...
splitlipthemag.com
July 4, 2025 at 11:14 PM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
Is it ekphrastic, is it meta, is it fragmented? All of the above.
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/0415/j...
Host — Split Lip Magazine
They lived in Indiana together in a red, brick house. A famous writer lived there before them and left a signed map of New York City taped over the solid Midwestern writing desk. They wrote in bed, on...
splitlipthemag.com
July 4, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by Alison Leigh Jones
gabino.bsky.social
Monthly reminder: Many people have a book in them, but it takes a special kind of freak to leave the Land of Laziness, cross the Plains of Procrastination and Insecurity Mountain, find the Blade of No One Made You Do This, and use it to cut your chest open and yank that book out.
July 4, 2025 at 6:15 PM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
Day 10: The way the language slants and the use of repetition caught me up in this story.
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/0625/j...
His Petrol Smell — Split Lip Magazine
His name was Joe-Thomas, I don’t remember his little brothers’ names. He was our age. He lit matches and threw them to his feet.
splitlipthemag.com
July 4, 2025 at 10:44 PM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
If a picture is worth a thousand words then what are all the pictures of Murkowski saying? She looks confused, haggard, but this was a calculated decision. They show a conflicted woman but the actions were those of self-interest.
July 4, 2025 at 1:52 PM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
Part of me wishes this was just a nice story of a mom and her adult kid and a stolen bike, but this story resonated like I was a medieval church on a Sunday. If you have a parent you live far from, read at your own risk.
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/1021/t...
Somebody’s Been Stealing Mom’s Bike — Split Lip Magazine
Somebody’s been stealing Mom’s bike. Her wheels, she likes to call it. The first time she left it on the side deck, which is visible from the street. Unfortunate, but preventable, I thought.
splitlipthemag.com
July 4, 2025 at 12:39 AM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
Day 9: A story of space and sisters and both optimism and cynicism in the face of sucking black hole catastrophes by former SmokeLong fellow @pegahouji.bsky.social felt appropriate.
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/0924/p...
In the Name of Those Optimist Iranian Fools — Split Lip Magazine
Minutes after my feet touched moon dust, your voice creaked in the video message.  “The virus wins,” you chuckled in that half-slanted way you did when nothing was funny. Jaundice yellow laced i...
splitlipthemag.com
July 4, 2025 at 12:31 AM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
If you need a laugh (and don't we all) please read this story!
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/0125/s...
Catching Babies — Split Lip Magazine
Ted and Katie sit as far away from you and Amir as they can on the sectional. Ted looks uneasily at the baby on your lap. He’s like, is it gonna…? You smile and hold the baby out. Of course not, you r...
splitlipthemag.com
July 2, 2025 at 11:08 PM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
"I don’t want turmeric that much, I say. I don’t want that much turmeric."
The relationship between the narrator and the addressed main character was so well developed and a great use of the second person POV.
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/0425/n...
Deadheading — Split Lip Magazine
The seedlings first started growing from your nipples. You never knew that could even happen. Can I just pluck them out? you asked me, but they were too deeply rooted in your breasts, straight into yo...
splitlipthemag.com
July 2, 2025 at 11:04 PM
alisonljoneswrites.bsky.social
"the spumes of deep thermal vents; the lies that seep out of people, always tipping towards slight, almost unnoticeable, uncontrolled disaster."
Take a few moments to read each beautifully crafted sentence in this piece with a killer title.
@smokelong.bsky.social
splitlipthemag.com/flash/1118/h...
An Apocalypse in Seven Stages — Split Lip Magazine
Your friend tells you over the phone. She wants you to know what you are facing. You take the knowledge from her calmly, like accepting a small white box. The weight of knowing balances in your hands.
splitlipthemag.com
July 2, 2025 at 8:17 PM