Flash Fiction Friday

The Adventure Continues

Hello, All,

The last few weeks have been in-sane! I spent a whole weekend up at a conference in Los Angles learning about educational research. As a proud nerd earning my PhD from the University of San Diego, this trip was such a treat. It was also a great opportunity to have some space to think and create.

Aside from the two-plus hour drive, the hotel I stayed at was like something out of a dystopian novel, with many twisted paths, outdoor-facing elevators, and indoor balconies to explore.

Which, of course, I did.

Photos from my adventures wandering and writing within the hotel

On top of having a beautiful revelation about my own academic research, connecting dots scattered across years of research and a lifetime of questions, my next novel Hoard, really started coming to life!

This lovely psychological thriller/horror piece is currently sitting at 13,782 words.

Writing, both academically and for my fiction life, was so freeing at this hotel. I settled in the lounge and listened to the din of my surroundings. I normally listen to music when I write, but there was something very powerful to the setting of being in a bar with a glass of wine, water running right beside my table in the indoor pond, and the hum of the nearby conversations. Chaotic though it might have appeared, I found it grounding.

Where do you like to create or to write? Have you found that there are some places where you are more or least likely to thrive?

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Last weekend, KC Grifant tagged me in a five facts about you post, and I thought it might be fun to share that here too. Here are five facts about me:

1. Some of my favorite movies include Hook, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the Lord of The Rings trilogy, and The Conjuring.

2. I have a fresh water fish and shrimp keeping hobby. I currently have two aquariums and one “jar-arium” (no fish are inside, but some stowaway shrimps have declared it their home). My dream is to build a paludarium (a combination of aquatic and riparian plants) out of an Ikea glass cabinet I have. I use what’s called the “Father Fish” method in all of my tanks. (Explanation available upon request).

3. I earned my BA and MA at St. John’s University in New York City, then worked at Columbia University’s Institute of Peace Keeping & Human Rights for over a year before returning home. (I could not stand the idea of living through another hurricane season after enduring Super Storm Sandy.)

4. I have written 20 novels, now working on my 20.5th and 21st novel (There’s one that I am doing a total re-write on). Most of my books are fantasy but the one I am currently working on is horror.

5. I’m now earning my PhD in Education for Social Justice at the University of San Diego. I grew up next door to this campus and consider its halls my home.

I passed the ball onto other creatives as well, BUT I am curious, what are Five Facts about you? Please feel free to leave them in the comments below.

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Flash Fiction Friday

And now we are back with the Flash Fiction Friday fun! So here we are, two prompts and a drabble to follow! As always, there’s no pressure here. If you feel moved to write, WRITE! It’s up to you where you post. I encourage you to drop the link to your Substack posts in the comments below.

Alrighty, here goes!

PROMPT 1: Starbucks is opened… or closed.

OR

PROMPT 2: The rain has turned to fire.

This week, I’m going with Prompt 1.

At the End of the World by Sarah Faxon

I never thought life as we knew it would end like this. Families distanced, torn apart. Throngs unemployed. Toilet paper, a commodity, but Frappacinos and pumpkin spiced lattes, still just a drivethrough away. Driving through downtown, nothing but leaves and crows were around. Where once there was laughter, music, and song, the long-held-breath of death danced alone. Silence pressed against our skins. But from this apocalypse, we strove, we sought, we fought and found ourselves anew. Like a phoenix, our voices and our wings stretched. Our hearts did reconnect. Sipping from the Siren's cups, no plague nor doom tore us apart.

© Sarah Faxon 2026

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Now, that drabble had been living in my head since 2020. I will never forget how odd it was to think, as we thought then, that the world as we knew it was ending, and while we could not get toilet paper, we could still get our Starbies.

Alrighty, my dears, and now it is your turn! Think, write, create! But most of all, enjoy.

See you next week and cheers, dears!

-Sarah