Flash Boulevard, November 2023

I think this is the first time where every piece in my submission package got accepted, which means three brand new stories got released into the world all at once.

The first story “Boca do Inferno” was inspired by it’s namesake Boca do Inferno, which is a natural rock formation near the coastal resort area of Cascais in Portugal. The roaring sea and curving rock arch stuck in my head as a setting, but it was really the name of the place, the Mouth of Hell, that kept returning to me, insisting on being written.

The second and third stories “A Drowning on Dry Land” and “The Collector of Bourlanda Alley” were written together as part of an attempt to create a flash series. The series never really went anywhere, but these two stories about a fictional seaside town that is a little bit of a tourist trap were the best of the bunch. I’m doubly happy to see that they were able to be kept together as a set.

Read “Boca do Inferno”, “A Drowning on Dry Land”, and “The Collector of Bourlanda Alley” in Flash Boulevard.

The mouth of hell can easily be found on a map, if one ever looked.  It exists on the roughened edge of a Portuguese coast.

“Boca do Inferno” - Flash Boulevard, November 2023