Category Archives: Top Stories

MATTHEW EICHENLAUB: Secret Regret

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

October: crimson, burnt-orange and gamboge, a poisonous yellow powder once used in paint.

We are living above a paint store in Chicago, she wrote, come visit! Oh, how I wanted to.

Sometimes, in my writing group, I write about a paint store. They think I’m writing about a paint store.

Matthew is fortunate to sometimes live near a lake in Maine where loons swim and sometimes yodel and hoot late at night. And sometimes on a day like this with few clouds in the sky and mountains in the distance a warm breeze will sweep across the lake and take your breath away.

YASH SEYEDBAGHERI: Remote

Stories, Top Stories, , , , ,

I hunch over computer screens.
My wife tries to get me outside.
I have to complete these editing jobs. We have heating, cell phone bills, electricity, and groceries to cover.
She tells me I’m remote.
I shut down the computer. Take her hand. We walk into the night, clouds parting.

Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA fiction program. His stories, “Soon,” “How To Be A Good Episcopalian,” “Tales From A Communion Line,” and “Community Time,” have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. Yash’s work has been published in SmokeLong Quarterly, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, and Ariel Chart, among others. He has been working on a short story collection centered around two siblings and their quest for the American Dream. Yash lives in Garden Valley, Idaho.

STEPHEN TILDEN: Knife’s Edge

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

I write each piece as if making a knife. I grind it into shape, polish the surfaces, maybe cut some fancy scrollwork into the sides, and then hone the blade edge with a precise discernment, enabling its power to slice the topic so thin as to be transparent to all.

Stephen Tilden is retired in Brooklyn and carries this knife wherever he goes.

BOB THURBER: Habeas Corpus Ipso Facto

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

When the town-sheriff reported my mother dead, my grandfather disagreed.

Where’s her body, he said. Show me a body.

I drove us downtown. Our visit to the morgue silenced the old man.

That’s not her, he said on the ride home. There’s a resemblance, but I know my own daughter.

Bob Thurber is the author of six books. Regarded as a master of Flash and Micro Fiction, his work has appeared in Esquire and other magazines, been anthologized 60 times, received a long list of awards, and been utilized in schools and colleges throughout the world. He resides in Massachusetts. Visit his website at BobThurber.net.

STEPHEN DOHERTY: Desert Heroes

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

The oranges are bitter.

The hummus though, is sweet. Flat breads, falafels, and olives. The fruits of the irrigated deserts.

In the bunker we tell the children of our heroes. How they dug in, built walls and barbed wire fences.

How our neighbours grew into enemies.

Stephen Doherty wrote this story.

LEONIE GREGORY: Crunchy Sensation in Every Bite

Submissions, Top Stories, Touching, , , , ,

A colourful gelato cone in hand, and I’m magically back in dolce Liguria: blazing sun, turquoise water, your damp curly hair and laughing mouth. Taking a bite, I crunch; the spell breaks. But then you crunch, and the magic returns. Your silver hair glistening, smelling, as then, of the sea.

Leonie Gregory lives in Australia. She has a passion for photography and writing about her experiences, as well as subjects she wants to explore further.

NISSA HARLOW: Not Everyone Likes Cookies

Adventure, Amusing, Submissions, Top Stories, , , , ,

Death didn’t want him.
So he came back and lived under the porch.
Mostly, he’s quiet. I leave out food sometimes, but he never eats it.
The best part is how he drives away the solicitors and evangelists.
I just wish he didn’t scare away the little girls selling cookies.

Nissa Harlow lives in British Columbia, Canada where she dreams up strange stories and writes some of them down. She is the author of a number of novels and novellas, all embellished with a touch of the fantastic. You can find her online at nissaharlow.com.

ANGELA CARLTON: Whispers

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

He took me away, mother, a long time ago. Dad beat me down with words, fists-fists. If sleep came, your whispers were loud in dreams saying, “Run-run-run, go.” At fourteen, I found our river. I floated amongst drifters, moving with the broken, living, as we built tents beneath Georgia stars.

Angela Carlton’s fiction has been published in Every Writer, Everyday Fiction, Pedestal Magazine, 6S, 50 Word Stories and Friday Flash Fiction. In 2023, her story “Swallowed,” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. See more on Facebook.

SANDRA JAMES: Clouds

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

Clouds afford a soft landing. I climbed that stairway to Heaven, found you, and snatched you back. I didn’t want you to leave; couldn’t let you go; wasn’t ready to say goodbye. We eluded St Peter, leapt from the pearly gates. Down, down. I wake with tears on my pillow.

Sandra James leads a writing group in Heathcote, Australia.

MARLA KRAUSS: Hope Lurches

Amusing, Odd, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

People aren’t keen on zombies, even though they try so hard to fit in. The suburbs can be like that sometimes. The zombies grunt a greeting as they shamble into doggie day care, Starbucks, the yoga studio. They love yoga. They lurch in for Shavasana and come out with hope.

Marla Krauss is a writer who lives in Massachusetts.