DAVE ZACKER: Monsters on Alpha Centauri IV

Adventure, Poetry, Submissions, , ,

Escaped through the hatch!
No time for my suit.
No time for my helmet;
No time for my boots.

I’ll chance it outside,
It’s Earth-like enough;
Four light-years’ travel
Is making me tough.

I must save this mission.
Plain to see:
They’re changing into Centaurians,
The whole crew except me.

Dave and his wife Kate live in rural Pennsylvania with their two hungry rescue cats. His work has appeared in Fifty Word Stories. He’ll always be thrilled remembering seeing Space Shuttle Columbia land at Edwards in 1983.

BEN MIMMACK: Table For One

Amusing, Submissions, , ,

“Can I borrow your paper?”

I looked up and knew she was the one. The universe had thrown us together. Forever. We would tell our children about this moment.

“Please do.”

She finished reading and left without another word.

The universe and I haven’t been seeing eye to eye lately.

Ben has been trying to write happier stories. He’s not sure this is one of them.

KARALYN WAYNE: Elena

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

City council on Tuesdays, marathon practice on Wednesdays, volunteering on Thursdays, and late shift on Fridays. No friends; doesn’t have the time. Energy drinks fill her bag, and concealer to disguise tired eyes.

A bright smile hides the fact that she doubts she’ll ever live up to the world’s expectations.

Karalyn Wayne enjoys reading poetry in her armchair with a warm drink close by. She takes inspiration from long walks with her dog and the conversations of noisy neighbors. When she isn’t procrastinating, she writes. This is her second published story.

PAULA MacDONALD: Dinnertime

Submissions, , ,

The clink of ice cubes being dropped into a crystal glass. The pop of the decanter’s stopper, then the glugging sound of scotch being poured. Noises more familiar to my ten-year-old self than laughter or conversation. The shouting will start soon.

I escape to the silent sanctuary of my bedroom.

Paula MacDonald is pursuing her life-long love of writing fiction, after a cancer diagnosis put things in perspective. Do what you love.

JON FAIN: Split Check

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

In a restaurant, after the entrees were cleared, her mother would take out her compact. For Grace, it’s the phone. The device whispers sweet gossip, swaps intimacies, but in the family tradition, the reflected image is never flattering enough. Like Mom, when cracked by disappointment, she doubles down on dessert.

Jon Fain’s most recent publications are a short story in Fiction on the Web, a humor piece in Riot Act, flash fiction in Back Patio Press, and a personal essay in Kaleidoscope: Exploring the Experience of Disability Through Literature and the Fine Arts. Twitter-wise, he’s @jonsfain, where you can find links to his published work in 2020.

ROBB LANUM: Cheated

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, ,

Paul was enraged. He’d done everything right.

He’d aced the CPA exam at 22, slaved to buy the house with the backyard, skipped family vacations when busy season hit, put the twins through college. He’d held up his end of the bargain.

But his wife got old and died anyway.

Robb Lanum is a failed screenwriter in Los Angeles. His longer, epic works have appeared on 101words.org [link: 101words.org], and he was a winner of the Summer 2020 Los Angeles Public Library Short Story Contest.

JAN HARRISON: Open Door Opportunity

Adventure, Submissions, ,

She said she would leave the door open for me and she would be upstairs, waiting, dressed appropriately. As I approached the door, my heart began to beat faster. It was dark downstairs but I knew my way around. I’d been in this jewellers’ shop many times before, just browsing…

Jan Harrison likes to write ditties, poetry and short stories and has had one children’s short story published. A Graphologist by profession she enjoys most aspects of creative writing.

KURT VAN RISTELL: Climber

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, ,

The quality of the light is different at this altitude. Faint as the air. The face of his watch has frozen over, and to wipe it, he would need to un-pocket his warm right hand.

It might be noon or twilight.

He crunches onward, past another huddled pair of bodies.

Kurt Van Ristell is an author from London, England, who writes because travel is simply too expensive.

MICHAEL ANTHONY FAGAN: Juniper

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

By daylight, they told her how she was born: her birth mother fled, abandoned like a burning oil rig.

She was wildfire: unplanned, unwanted.

When the world was at its darkest, she carved a hole in the sky and crawled inside.

The stars look different when you are behind them.

Michael Anthony Fagan is a Scottish fiction writer from just outside Glasgow. He is a high school English and Media teacher who has a passion for horror, science fiction, and making documentaries. He is currently working on his debut novel and finding places to publish his short stories.