The story of the week for March 3 to 7 is…
The Little Hours by Alexandra Keister
NEWS: Change to Story of the Month Prizing
Beginning in April 2025, there will no longer be a $10 Canadian prize for the story of the month.
I pay out the prizes via PayPal, and the flat rate fees per transaction have been increasing over time. At this point, it costs me almost $15 each month to send the $10 prize. It is not a question of whether I can “afford” to pay out those prizes; it’s more that I can’t justify paying a 50% fee to a big corporation in order to get that prize into the authors’ hands. As a result, I have made the decision to remove that prizing.
I will still provide the Story of the Year with the same $50 Canadian prize.
My apologies to future monthly winners. I know how special it is for a writer to receive payment for their work.
ROBERTA BEACH JACOBSON: Motion
Under the Milky Way
she intensifies the pace
while humming a few notes
as she negotiates the bike trail curves
Once the trail ends
she pedals upward to the sky
into a hidden realm
one new to her senses
Her story expands
as it continues
through starlight
Is she flying?
Roberta Beach Jacobson is the fleakeeper at Five Fleas Itchy Poetry.
BILL COX: Down the Plughole
Jean liked washing the dishes. It gave her time to think. With her hands soaking in suds, she considered her relationship with Brian, looking for a sign about how to proceed. Then, when she pulled the plug and watched the grubby water gurgle down the drain, she found her answer.
Bill lives in Aberdeen, Scotland. His mind soars across all of space and time, breaching dimensions and quantum realms in its search for truth and beauty. His body likes to sit on the sofa.
JOHN H. DROMEY: The Opposite of Heartwarming
“I’m practically freezing. Why do they crank the air-conditioner up so high at these events for seniors?”
“I don’t know. My best guess is the organizers suspect some of us attendees have gone past our freshness date. They keep the place as cold as a refrigerator so we won’t spoil.”
John H. Dromey has contributed to a wide variety of online and print publications.
STORY OF THE MONTH: February 2025
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.
The finalists for February were:
The Smile by Clive Oseman
The Human Legacy by Millie Sun
Still Life by Paul D’Arcy
How to Move Your Mother To Assisted Living by Jennifer L. Freed
The winner of the February 2025 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
Still Life
ALEXANDRA KEISTER: The Little Hours
I’m up with the bakers, rolling soft sugared dough.
I’m up with the farmers, pulling warm milk into tin buckets.
I’m up with the monks, whispering intercessions in sacred solitude.
Your little rolls are sweeter, though, and between the sleepy gulps, your hushed nonsensical words are holier than any prayer.
Alexandra is a new mom who has grown to enjoy her 3 AM tete-a-tete.
JOANNE MERRIAM: Lightyears From Home
When the crows cry, I feed them. The AI running our habitat only powers up if it hears them. Nobody knew why. It’s just me now: the navigator, no programmer.
When the oxygen goes, we will too. I’m down to six ration bars, their favorite: they like the foil wrappers.
Joanne Merriam lives in Nova Scotia. Her writing has appeared in dozens of periodicals including Baltimore Review, Haikuniverse, and Pictura. She owns Upper Rubber Boot Books, known for the first English-language anthology of solarpunk, Sunvault. You can find her at joannemerriam.com.
W PETER COLLINS: Dark Matter
In the bedroom lay silence, motionless, heavy as the sun, dark as a shadow on the moon.
Bent by space and time, her faint light flickered far away.
“Are you awake?”
Saying nothing, she told me everything, then rolled over and disappeared into the dark matter that was our marriage.
Peter is from Kentucky and now lives in California. For him there’s no difference between the world we see and the one that exists in our heads. His work has appeared in The Potato Soup Journal, Flash Fiction Magazine, The Sandy River Review, CommuterLit, and Flash Boulevard among others. See more at claritywithaview.com.
SHOSHAUNA SHY: Why Willard Doesn’t Bring Dates Home
He rented a room from his ex-mother-in-law. She baked meatloaf Mondays, mac-n-cheese Wednesdays, pancakes Sunday mornings when he wasn’t due at the foundry. Between her shifts clerking at Sentry, they played Bananagrams every chance they got.
Sure, his marriage had bombed, but Eloise was the best friend he’d ever had.
Shoshauna Shy loves finding stories waiting patiently all over the place. She is the editor of PoetryJumpsOfftheShelf.com