STEVEN HOLDING: Bug Hunt

Adventure, Submissions, , ,

Trip through shifting rubble, kicking up dust; smothering coughs.

Hungry pack of trackers, beady-eyed snipers, stalking our prey.

Angry grenades flush it out. Telescopic sights place just enough distance between us.

Aim carefully. Don’t think.
It’s only another dumb creature.
Fire phaser.

I hear the last man on Earth scream.

Steven Holding lives in the United Kingdom. His sound installation SEVEN STORIES debuts at Northampton Royal and Derngate theatre this November. You can follow his work at www.stevenholding.co.uk.

VERITY MASON: Goosebumps

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, ,

Goosebumps flock my forearms as I sign my own death certificate.

Beads of sweat race, cool down my back; it feels good.

All I’m taking with me is my love of singing the gospel.

Never again will he own me.

One last call:

“Hey, Nungen, it’s me, Aaron.”

“I’m ok.”

Verity’s first love is writing and she has been honing her craft for many years. Well travelled, she once took a cruiser out to Alcatraz where she was locked in solitary confinement for an hour. “That hour felt like days,” she recalls with a sense of accomplishment. It’s experiences like this one that fuel her imagination. Published numerous times on spillwords.com, her portfolio of writing extends from the fantastic to the personal. Verity’s passion is to play with words, enticing and tickling you into her stories.

GENE NEWMAN: The Loophole

Amusing, Submissions, , , , ,

“I’m so sad,” little Billy cried. “Mommy said I could eat only one candy bar each day.”

“Oh, that’s a shame, Billy,” his pal (and future defense attorney) Clarence replied. “But think back, Billy. Did she happen to mention anything about how many bars you’re allowed to eat each night?”

Gene Newman was a USAF cryptologist during the Korean War and is a retired engineer and journalist, including stringing for the N.Y. Times and being a crossword puzzle creator for the New York Times and USA Today.

ANTHONY CESCHINI: The Pop-In

Adventure, Submissions, , ,

The girl knew she had gotten older when her imaginary friends stopped aging. She wondered if that was the same as dying. She sat in her playhouse, alone with the very real thought that the place was haunted. After all, who else but her friends would open up without knocking?

Anythony Ceschini has been writing most of his life. He tries not to take himself as seriously as the Craft. So far, so good?

BOB THURBER: Grandma Was A Child from the Black Forests of Germany

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

She had no book of spells, no dusty scrolls with ancient formulas. Her incantations were spontaneous. She performed her rituals spur-of-the-moment, custom-made to the individual, whispered like a prayer, unleashing forces faster than light. When shadows become phantoms, the gentlest curse can nudge, redirect a person toward consequence, coincidence, enchantment.

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.

ELODIE A ROY: Now and Forever

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

After the ceremony, she couldn’t decide what had been worse: standing in the cold, damp chapel while the priest was marrying them, or stepping outside in the sudden, overwhelming heat afterwards – people frantically speaking, grabbing her hands, clutching at her dress as she could feel herself falling, something breaking inside.

Elodie A. Roy is a French-born writer living in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Her short stories and essays have appeared in journals including The Stinging Fly, New World Writing Quarterly, The Oxonian Review, MASKS, The Drouth, and Scrawl Place. As a cultural theorist, she’s the author of two nonfiction academic books.

BILLIE-LEIGH BURNS: Ashes of Yesterday

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

I set fire to the past by burning photographs, old diaries, and your heart-shaped pendant – a shackle around my wrist until now. Doused you in alcohol and watched as the flames consumed you.

And yet you still persist.

In the dulling embers, buried in yesterday’s ashes, your heart still lingers.

Billie-Leigh Burns is a writer from Liverpool. Her short stories and flash fiction have been published by Fictionette, 50 Word Stories, and Naked Cat Lit Magazine. She is currently working on a novel set in a dystopian future.

CASEY LAINE: The Brunette and the Bayou, Part 2

Adventure, Submissions, , ,

The brunette downed the bourbon in one swallow. Pushed the shot glass forward. “Pour me another.”

The bartender complied. “You been…” his chin lifted briefly in the direction of the swamps, “out there?”

She laughed. “Honey, the bayou ain’t nothing. I been to the ends of the earth and back.”

Casey Laine comes from a long line of talkative women. She works as Fantasy Editor at Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, and publishes an annual anthology of fiction and poetry for her writing group, Writers Assembled. In her spare time, she chases butterflies with her camera. Find her at Facebook, Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, and Amazon.

Editor: Read part 1 of this story here.

JENNIFER SMITH: Her Last Bouquet

Submissions, Touching, , , , ,

She didn’t hug, but her life embraced me in richness, like fertile soil nurturing zinnias. Like Earth’s dense nutrients nourishing blooms that flourish in early autumn fields.

Flowers pose grandly under a canopy sky of her favorite blue. Basket in hand, I stoop and pick her a medley of colors.

Jennifer Smith is a retired elementary school speech-language pathologist. She writes stories inspired by her small town southern life. Residing in Rock Spring, Georgia, Jennifer enjoys walking in beautiful places and listening to audiobooks.