The story of the week for July 15 to 19 is…
Firelight by William Mitchell
STORY OF THE MONTH: June 2024
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.
The finalists for June were:
Samsara by Fiona H. Evans
Imagination by Carol Reeves
Midnight Rendezvous by Bob Thurber
Bracing For Impact by Lesley Warren
Her Solution (a true story) by Trevor
The winner of the June 2024 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
Bracing For Impact
REGINE JACKSON: Carolina Reaper
My grandmother grew up on a southern farm, spending her youth with blackened feet that beat against the ground. Her stories trailed behind her like a veil to Massachusetts. Spitfire was inside her; a resilience that kept us warm during the New England winters.
As hot as a Carolina reaper.
Regine Jackson is a writer who was born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts. While Jackson mainly writes short stories within the science -fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, she also writes prose and poetry revolving around her life living in an inner city. Jackson hopes to not only hone her own craft but to bring more creative work to her city and encourage more creatives to write their truths.
JENNIFER BUSCH: Special
What a girl! Chuckling, he picked up another shoe thrown impressively far. Everyone thinks their child’s special, but how could you not marvel at Hannah’s strength and speed, her spirit? It was practically superhuman.
Straightening up, his eye was caught by an ethereal glow. And inside it, his daughter, levitating.
Jennifer Busch ain’t afraid of no ghost.
WILLIAM MITCHELL: Firelight
The wolves crept toward the old man’s fire, for the forest was frozen, and they would not survive the night.
Curious, he greeted them as new friends. Old hostilities forgotten, they shared the warmth.
Sunrise saw his bones picked clean. When night next fell, they died with their bellies full.
William Mitchell lives in East Sussex in the South of England. He is an award-winning author, having had early success with various Horror and Science Fiction publications before winning the Writers of the Future contest in 2012. His first novel, CREATIONS, came out in 2014 with John Hunt Publishing.
FRANCESCA MORRISON: The Fort
The river flowed.
Tiny fingers prised giant rocks.
Muscles piled the fort higher.
The river flowed.
Snow came.
The sun melted it.
The river broke its banks.
The fort was overrun.
Smaller pebbles shifted.
The fort was submerged.
The river flowed.
It subsided.
The fort reappeared, triumphant.
The river flowed.
Francesca Morrison is a born and bred Londoner now living in Vancouver. She walks the river trails every day with her dog and sometimes kids in tow. That’s where she got inspiration for this piece. Francesca recently came runner up in a Flash Fiction contest and was longlisted for the CANSCAIP 2022 Writing for Children Competition. She meets regularly with two critique groups and is a member of the 12×12 Challenge.
SIMON KAEPPELI: Homebound
She steadied herself against the console as she chose the coordinates to her destination. The tired metal warped and shuddered around her. Centuries of dust and debris fell away as the spaceship broke free from the ground. Soon, she would be on her way to a home barely remembered. Earth.
Simon Kaeppeli is a scientist and writer. He currently lives in Scotland with his senior cat.
BETH SHERMAN: In the Gloaming
Two teenagers in a cemetery. They prop their laptop against a tombstone. A faint name scrawled there—Alastair or Archibald, died age 15. Wispy fingers pat the girl’s hair, shake the boy’s hand, offer them a spray of white meadowsweet. No one screams. The three new friends share ghost stories.
Beth Sherman’s writing has appeared in over 100 literary journals and will be in The Best Microfictions 2024. She’s a Pushcart, BSF, and BOTN nominee.
STEPHEN TILDEN: Missing
Everything fit together like clockwork until one piece went missing. The remaining pieces are holding together but things don’t feel quite as tight. Life ticks along until suddenly that sprocket doesn’t show up. My gear expectantly reaches out and, with nothing there to mesh with, spins out into free fall.
In his retirement, Stephen Tilden has become wary of clocks.
JN JOHNSON: Fatherhood
As the hospital’s automatic doors closed behind him, he dared a glance down. He smiled at the perfectly swaddled newborn asleep in his arms. An impossible protectiveness bloomed in his heart. He was a father, finally.
Thirty minutes later an alarm sounded from the maternity ward. A baby was missing.
When J. N. Johnson isn’t writing, she works as a Lookout Observer, watching for forest fires in Alberta, Canada. She published her debut novel, PIG, which was short-listed for the 2022 Cygnus Book Awards, and she is currently working on book two in that series. You can find her on Instagram @kocojopublishing.