Good short story writing is a real art form and Thomas Pluck might easily be considered to be a Michelangelo of Flash Fiction.
His palette is perfectly maintained, containing all the colours, shades and tones anyone could wish to see. He has thick brushes for the broad strokes to give the arc of a tale. There are brushes with single hairs for the fine detail. There's a blade for when the action needs to be laid on thick and fast.
Throw in the skills to create a real sense of perspective, the odd trompe l'oeil and a dash of the abstract and you're looking at something really tremendous.
Here are some tales of revenge. And how sweet they taste.
Pluck serves them up cold, just as he promises in the title.
Strange then, that as in all the best tales, it's not the chill that remains once the last full-stops have been read. Rather, for me, it's the warmth that emanates from the stories.
The characters are richly drawn and the settings as diverse as can be imagined. By the end of each story, not only will you have been on a journey through a pivotal moment in someone's life, you'll also have a sense of why they ended up the way they did. Why they had to behave the way they did. That they have hot red blood in their veins, however it may be spilled.
As for a Steel Heart (US), this guy never misses a beat. Truth is the steel's all for show. If, like me, you're a lover of the short story, I can guarantee that this guy Pluck is going to be stealing your ticker as soon as you set eyes on his work.
Yes, yes and yes! Well said.
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