WILLIAM CASS: Like Gramps

Submissions, Touching, , ,

I took a detour after work. The push mower stood in the front lawn where we’d left it earlier after my EMT partner and I treated an old man in distress and transported him to the ER.

I finished mowing his precise rows, then stored it away in his garage.

William Cass has had over 325 short stories appear in literary magazines and anthologies. A nominee for Best Small Fictions and Best of the Net, he’s also had six Pushcart nominations. His first short story collection was published by Wising Up Press in 2020, and a second collection has recently been released by the same press.

AXEL BÄCKE: Death’s Embrace

Adventure, Submissions, , ,

One shot. The stag stumbled. Two shots. It fell. I had pictured this feeling ever since I had heard of this thing called death, but no way could I picture this. At that moment the white flame of death burned in my soul. It burned cold, but ever so comforting.

Axel is an architecture student with a dream of becoming a published author. He thanks you for taking the time to read his story and hopes that you might find some inspiration for your own.

JOSHUA MICHAEL STEWART: Uncle Jake’s Little Black Book

Submissions, Touching, , ,

I found it in a moldy box cleaning out Grandfather’s basement. Uncle J. was all chest hair and tiger-tooth medallion back in ’78, but like his Firebird, only faded Polaroids remain.

The leather-bound pages are blank, except for his own smudged name and a partial phone number encircled by hearts.

Joshua Michael Stewart is the author of three poetry collections. His work has appeared in the Massachusetts Review, Salamander, and elsewhere.

KL MILL: Grit

Artistic, Submissions,

Yusef tipped the bowl, draining his soup. The familiar sand ground against his molars, a hazard of eating outside the Kitchen of Mercy. He had to hurry, though – there was rumor of day labor outside Raqqa.

Pocketing the bread for his mother, Yusef faded into the frenzy of street vendors.

K. L. Mill’s midwest roots are so strong, she lives in the house she grew up in, designed by her father. Most recently her work has been published by Black Hare Press, Hungry Shadow Press, and Atomic Carnival.

JOEL O’FLAHERTY: We Have Always Played with the Faceless Doll

Adventure, Odd, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

Since childhood, I’ve hidden the faceless doll for you to find.

Years passed and the hiding places grew ever more elaborate, but you never gave up.

Yesterday, I hid it in the flowers beneath your headstone.

But in the morning, there it was again: laid on the pillow beside me.

Joel O’Flaherty is a young writer from Surrey, U.K. His fiction has been featured in Flash Fiction Magazine, Globe Soup and Fusilli Writing, among others. He spends as much of his life as is financially responsible travelling the globe, which he writes about on his site, the Gossamer Traveller.

JANELLE SEABOCK: Magic Boxes

Adventure, Submissions, , , , ,

The dog’s nose tingles with the scent of magic. The fae folk are near, and their tricks are many. Secrets are packed in boxes, as trustworthy as the spider to the fly. He barks, he bays, he howls his warning song. Unfortunately, the human only replies, “That’s just the mailman.”

Janelle Seabock is a writer with a love for horror, fantasy, and animals of all kinds. She currently resides in Florida.

NELLY SHULMAN: The Sand Song

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Hissing surf touched his feet and he shuddered, startled by the icy breath of the sea, where the sun descended to the darkening abyss of water. The song of sands was the clearest at twilight and he came here to write it on the driftwood, whitened with salt and wind.

Nelly Shulman divides her time between Jerusalem and Berlin. See more at nellyshuman.blog.

RAN WALKER: Jaco

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

He plays the song on his bass, almost like a mistake, as if he is finding his way into the notes’ beauty, his calloused fingers sliding over a fretless neck, all of this completely intentional, four strings plucked into total syncopation with his heartbeat.

He is attempting to play love.

Ran Walker is a microfictionist and author of over 30 books. The creator of the 100 x 100 micro novel, he teaches creative writing at Hampton University and lives in Virginia with his wife and daughter.

CATHERINE MACKIE: Puppetry of Change

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Beats flow. Lights strobe. She waves me onto the parquet floor. Not having danced since junior high. Wearing a whisky sour shine I am again a marionette with knotted strings. The music thumping in my ears and heart misinterpreted by my limbs. So this is what middle age divorce is.

Catherine Mackie is an emerging writer based in Alberta who lets her thoughts dance free with the prairie winds.