MATTHEW WEIGELT: New Music

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Lights are strung helter-skelter around the building’s rooftop garden.

When lit, it could be an outdoor bar in Mexico. I imagine a Mariachi quartet, plump men with thick mustaches and black sombreros embroidered with silver threads.

It’s a nice thought when the typical music is police sirens and jet engines.

Matthew Weigelt finds the best characters in McDonald’s, so he writes and eavesdrops, eavesdrops and writes, with a dollar-size sweet tea. He then goes to the gym. Someday he’ll need to find characters elsewhere. He has a YA novel, The Mysterious Matt Barnes, due out in March. See more at ReadBetweenThePages.com.

MARK FARLEY: Gruff

Amusing, Submissions, , , , ,

Being a toll troll was taxing, in all senses of the word. Many refused to pay the copper penny he demanded for essential bridge maintenance. Eventually he decided to start threatening people with a club.

Now, three billy goats were approaching.

This time he was determined to get his due.

Mark Farley writes novels, flash fiction and the occasional poem.

ALEX COLVIN: You Want Him Deader

Amusing, Submissions, , , , ,

Dante Bernthall knew he was dying, and went on a farewell tour to say goodbye to his beloved fans. He sang songs they loved; they cried together, gave thanks, and exchanged goodbyes on stage.

And then he just didn’t die. Actually, he got better.

His fans were kind of disappointed.

Alex Colvin is a Canadian humourist who works in Real Estate. Sorry. Find out more at alexandercolvin.wordpress.com.

BOOMER TRUJILLO: Mondays

Amusing, Submissions, , ,

Three million years entering R.E.M. A dreamy rendezvous with a handsome-beaked mollusk. Wasted.

She half-awoke fully enraged. Fleshy apes. Again. Transmitting waves embedded with trains, rockets, and cream pies. Again.

She hit the snooze, propelling an asteroid toward Earth.

She hoped, vainly, to rejoin the mollusk before waking for work.

boomer trujillo knows it’s not Mondays; it’s really any day without the automated, communist utopia from Star Trek. Check out more of his stuff at boomert.info.

HANNAH WHITEOAK: Left Behind

Submissions, Touching, , , ,

Things you left behind when you moved out:

-coffee mugs (2), stained
-CDs (4), no cases
-shoes (1 pair), scuffed
-socks (5), all odd
-spider plant (1), lovingly watered
-cufflink (1), gift from me, remember?
-sweater (1), still smells like you
-heart (1), broken

Please call ASAP to arrange collection.

Hannah Whiteoak is a freelance writer and poet from Sheffield, UK. Read her stories or follow @hannahwhiteoak.

PENNY JO McALLISTER: Happiness

Adventure, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

“Happiness is seeing Mars in your rear-view mirror…” sang Lorg as the planet disappeared from view. “Good luck colonizing that mudball!”

He turned on the vessel’s kitchen feature. Reaching for the hyperspace button, he hesitated and turned around instead. “I’d colonize an asteroid with Liya if she wanted.”

He sighed.

Penny Jo McAllister writes fantasy and has never left Earth.

HARRIS COVERLEY: Pitfalls of the Musty Utopia

Artistic, Submissions, , , , , ,

In a village just outside Llandudno, I went up to the owner of a bookshop, me a young lad, and declared how much I’d love his job.

He looked at me first in scorn, then in pitiable sadness, his face crinkled like the edges of one of his browning paperbacks.

Harris Coverley lives in Manchester, England, where he works as a teaching assistant. He has had short fiction published in Disclaimer Magazine, Microfiction Monday Magazine, The Drabble, and 50-Word Stories.

JONATHAN COOK: A Day to Forget

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

She had always been afraid of heights.

Finally she decided that today, on her birthday, she would conquer her fear and go to the top of the tallest building she knew.

Looking out at the extraordinary view she knew this would always be a date to remember.

September 11, 2001.

Jonathan Cook is a one-time farmer, pharmacologist, stand-in head of an EU delegation, international training advisor, and current language school director. Throughout, he has retained an abiding interest in anything as long as it is well written…

HENRY BLADON: The Loving Tree

Submissions, Touching, ,

“Let’s walk to our tree,” she’d say. Our special place.

Through the wood, twigs snap underfoot. The brook flows by, reflecting dazzling summer sun. At the tree, a blackbird sings. I run my fingers over her initials, still carved into the trunk.

She’s gone. Her name forever in my heart.

Henry writes micro, flash and full fiction. He lives in Somerset, UK and he likes trees.