Crackling flames bring warmth to a cold night at the beach.
Tonight they’ll sleep in a tent to the sound of crickets and crashing waves.
Bare feet on wet sand, they sit on a log and reminisce.
He puts an arm around her as they watch their childhood home burn.
Pontius Paiva is a writer with a burning desire to stoke his readers. You’ll find his hottest stories at pontiuspaiva.com.
The new year knocks.
He can’t get up, sorrow a blanket.
One by one, resolutions slink away. Write more, walk more, smile more.
He promises to get up the next day. The next week.
Sorrow adds another layer.
He tries to dial a number.
But he can’t even say “help.”
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 Pushcarts. Yash’s work has been published in SmokeLong Quarterly, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Write City Magazine, and Ariel Chart, among others.
Today is just any other day.
Or is it?
The first day for some; the last day for others.
To this end, I have invented a personalized calendar. Only date of note: the owner’s last day on earth.
No holidays, no birthdays, no other occasions.
Sales have been disappointingly slow.
Michelle is an award-winning author and poet who really enjoys writing micro-fiction. She is a contributor to fiftywordstories.com and has a story in Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Spirit of Canada. Michelle was a quarter finalist in the 2017 ScreenCraft Short Screenplay contest. Her writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail and several local magazines and newspapers including The Briar Crier, Total Sports, Voice of the Farmer, Arts Talk and Focus 50 Plus. Her short story “Lightning Strikers” (also featured on Commuter Lit) was made into a series in the Focus 50 + Newspaper because fans asked for more! In 2018, Michelle won the Ontario Writers Conference Story Starter Contest in two categories. You can find her online at fiftywordstories.com, commuterlit.com, femininecollective.com, writersblog.ca, michelledinnick.com, and on FB, Insta, and Twitter.
LOST
Dec 17th white w/ brown stripes
Home: 33 Winslow Court
Answers to Willow
No collar
Call 428-6700
Showed up weekly on my porch in June.
Tuna. Sardines. Naps on my sofa.
Came to stay when snow started flying.
Catnip. Halibut. Rocker in kitchen.
“Lost”? No way. Freddy found me.
Shoshauna Shy enjoys writing, revising and copy editing. It’s like playing Lego, only with words.
As the blizzard raged, inside the cabin an old man sat whispering to the ghost of a long-lost love. Draining the whiskey in his glass, he raised it, slurring, “One more – for her?” Curled by the ebbing fire, his cat lifted her head, blinked and lowered it again without reproach.
Nick Young is a retired award-winning CBS News Correspondent. In addition to 50-Word Stories, writing has appeared in more than two dozen publications including the Pennsylvania Literary Journal, The Unconventional Courier, Fiction on the Web, Bookends Review, the Nonconformist Magazine, Sandpiper, the San Antonio Review, Flyover Magazine, Pigeon Review, Fiction Junkies, Typeslash Review, The Best of CaféLit 11 and Vols. I and II of the Writer Shed Stories anthologies. He lives outside Chicago.
I can’t
stop watching the ocean struggle around me
I watch others navigate their seas so easily
Glide, manipulate, master
They fly through blue like angels in air while my wings are tarred, collapsing under waves of despair.
They thrive
I barely survive.
No one notices as I’m washed away
Emma Peng wrote this story.
The story of the week for December 26 to 30 is…
The Lost Shepherd by Bob Thurber
Is it more than diffused sunlight, of rounded, color-filled smiles, daffodils and aged linseed oil? Yes, of course. But behold the yellow I’ve known, an in-between color — a warning, starting as jaundice, coming full circle with every white faded — teeth, eyes, nail beds — then ceasing in the familiar embalmer’s hue.
Thad DeVassie is a multi-genre writer and fine art painter who creates from the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio. He is the author of three chapbooks and was awarded the James Tate International Poetry Prize in 2020. Find his written and painted works at thaddevassie.com.
Christmas without him isn’t Christmas.
Magicless snow falls, waiting to be played with, as twinkling lights adorn a room that somehow remains dark.
A beautiful dinner (that I have no appetite for) awaits. Family and friends surround me. But he’s gone. Happiness left when he did…
Maybe I should apologize.
Alyce Clark still believes in and hopes for peace.
Palpitations. Pain. Fatigue, lethargy, sweats, a new mole. I have every disease and they’re all terminal. I am a medical marvel. She was so brave, doctors will say. She dealt with so much.
I arrive at the clinic. The doctor checks me over.
“You’re fine,” she says. “Stay off Google.”
Eleanor Vendrell is a writer living in Oxford, UK. She writes novels and enjoys reading, wild swimming, and being a part- to full-time hypochondriac.