DYLAN MARTIN: Train to Eternity

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Every morning I stand on that platform waiting for the train to arrive. And every day, on the opposite end of the tracks, another train comes flashing right by.

All the while, another flash flies through my mind: What if I just walked over there and took the other train?

Dylan Martin is a University at Albany alumni who currently lives in the New York metropolitan area. His passion for fiction tends to gravitate towards the characters involved, and as such, his writing tends to focus on the characters as well. See more at dm-writing.com.

SAMANTHA BALTZ: Passion

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

When I first laid my eyes on her, I could not look away. Months later, I feel the same.

Charming and delicate, she is absolutely perfect. The only thing I would change about her is the way she shuts her blinds before she sleeps.

One day we will be together.

Samantha Baltz is employed in the medical field and currently taking up writing as a hobby. She loves meeting new people and hearing their stories and sharing her own.

BILL COX: Aesop, We Miss You!

Amusing, Submissions, , ,

In the jungle, a Jaguar spotted a frog.

He was ready to pounce when the frog said “I’m a poisonous frog. Eat me and we both die!”

Then a bulldozer crashed through the undergrowth, killing them both.

The moral? In the twenty-first century, fables ain’t what they used to be!

Bill Lives in Aberdeen, Scotland. His New Year’s resolution was to go vegan, but he found that it didn’t fit in with his cannibal lifestyle.

ANNE M LOGAN: Tranquility

Artistic, Submissions,

She prepared her coffee, added her favorite creamer, carried it to her sitting place, placed her coffee, picked up her chosen pen and journal.

Nesting into her tranquil spot, she turned to the blank page.

Suddenly, the phone rang.

“Hello.”

“Is this Kate Morgan?”

“Yes.”

“We hate to inform you…”

Anne Logan is a consultant, author, and lecturer. She self-published three books including Why Heal Your Mind, Body, and Spirit? Sleuthing Ways to Love, which can be found on Amazon for Kindle and in paperback. See more at gpsanne.com.

SG: Mild

Adventure, Submissions, , , ,

She’d always been the good girl, the dutiful daughter, even-tempered wife and loving, supportive mother.

A woman with endless reservoirs of patience and good intentions, which made her popular with those far from home.

She’d folded her passion away in a place no one would ever look.

Until that day.

SG has a vivid imagination and lives in Brisbane, Australia.

JO WITHERS: Time I Wish I Could Recycle

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

Moments wasted in anger:
55 hours arguing over finances,
6 months “discussing” our exes,
8 weeks agreeing to disagree,
18 frosty Sunday breakfasts after you came in late,
3 weeks not speaking over small things,
1 year, 7 months detesting your illness.

Moments missing you:
24 hours, 7 days, always.

Jo Withers needs to remember to make every moment matter. She spends them writing shorts, poetry, and flash fiction from her home in South Australia. She is also author of the middle-grade adventure 5 Simple Steps to Saving Planet Earth. You can follow Jo on Twitter.

NICOLAS RIDLEY: Uhuru

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , ,

“He died in Tanganyika,” she said, pouring herself another chotapeg. “Mauled to death by a lioness. That’s what he called it. Never Tanzania. Native nonsense, he used to say. He’d insulted his bearer, you see. He frequently insulted people. The shotgun the bearer handed him hadn’t been loaded.”

Nicolas Ridley lives in London and Bath (UK) where he writes fiction, non-fiction, scripts, and stage plays. A prize-winner and Pushcart Prize nominee, his short stories have been widely published in the UK, Ireland, Canada and the USA. See more at nicolasridley.co.uk.

DAVID DEREY: Whipped

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

“Whipped!” we used to shout, mocking him, all those times he couldn’t join on bar nights.

When he could, she’d always call him home early.

Those phone calls cracked us up. We made women’s voices, and passionately screamed his name while he shushed us.

“Hanged,” police told us one day.

David Derey wrote this story.

RAN WALKER: Behind His Back

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Shortly after Greg woke to discover his vertebrae had permanently fused with his wife’s while they’d slept, he became curious if she had been complaining to her friends about him behind his back.

When she awoke screaming, desperate to pull away from him, he smiled, realizing it didn’t matter anymore.

Ran Walker is burrowing himself beneath a growing pile of words–and enjoying every minute of it.