BRYAN DAVIS: The Prodigal Grandson

Adventure, Amusing, Submissions, , , , ,

Grandma, bless her kind blind soul, calls me the ‘Prodigal Grandson’. She wrote me back into the will (with a sizable portion of her estate) for the hours I’ve spent doting on little Albert—her seeing-eye dog— teaching him to roll over, play dead, and… walk dear Grandma into traffic.

Bryan Davis is an aspiring writer from Knoxville, Tennessee with a Bachelors Degree from the University of Tennessee. The Prodigal Grandson is an extract from his publication Break Neck 180°: One Hundred-Eighty Short-Shorts, Micro-Minis, Blasters, One-Liners and Snippets of Flash fiction, currently under revision.

HAWKELSON RAINIER: Initiate Autumn Simulation

Artistic, Odd, Submissions, , ,

If we are in a simulation, does it occur to the alien programmers that the leaves are most beautiful while they’re in their death throes? Do they feel anything when they see crimson and gold rioting against a steel sky, against the coming winter, against the madness of it all?

Hawkelson Rainier lives in the American Midwest. He dabbles in prose and poetry from time to time.

STEPHEN TENEROWICZ: Cloudcroft

Adventure, Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Snow comes early in Cloudcroft. Every year a foot covers the cellar doors by Thanksgiving, two by Christmas. I hated it, but that’s life at eight thousand feet, Dad always said.

At eighteen, I left. After a decade, with Dad’s passing, I’m home.

Outside, snow’s falling. Dad would’ve loved it.

Stephen resides in upstate New York and writes flash fiction and dark stories. He has been published in Flash Phantoms, Trembling with Fear, as well as various other non-fiction publications.

LEAH HARRIS: Next One, Best One

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Whenever Ms. Mary paused their walks to scowl, pointing menacingly at speeders, Prince Charles VI gnawed the cord. A passing Bronco — sullying their walk with its recklessness — finally allowed the frayed leash to snap. The terrier sprinted toward brake lights. And Mary prayed lucky VII would stay until the end.

Leah is the recipient of an individual artist award from the Arkansas Arts Council and has been published in 101 Words and The Normal School.

LAURA BESLEY: Uncaged

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

After signing the divorce papers, I go to my local pet store. Gerbils and hamsters and rabbits skitter behind thin bars.

“Anything bigger?”

*

Within weeks, I’ve moved from my high-rise to a log cabin. At night, I howl along with the coyotes, each of us free, each of us wild.

Laura Besley (she/her) enjoys exploring big topics in small spaces. She has published four micro- & flash fiction collections, most recently: Sum of her PARTS (V. Press, 2025). She is currently a Creative Writing PhD student at the University of Leicester, an editor with Flash Fiction Magazine and JMWW, and runs The NIFTY Book Club. Having lived in the Netherlands, Germany and Hong Kong, she now lives in land-locked central England and misses the sea.

ALYSON FLOYD: Ecdysis

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

As a girl she dreamt of becoming a butterfly, pearl-winged and pure.

Instead she turned dark and rigid, crawling out of adolescence on spindly legs. She could not fly, and so taught herself to weave. The silk in her veins was endless and iridescent; the tales it spun were beautiful.

Alyson Floyd spins her stories late at night with caffeine in her blood and a CD in her discman.

ELODIE NEAL: It Betrayed You

Adventure, Submissions, , , , ,

You always loved the rain. You claimed it gave you a thrill to see the heavy grey clouds looming overhead, yet all I saw in it was ruined plans. But today it feels like my accomplice, washing the dirt off of my shovel and the crimson off of my hands.

Multiple times a week, Elodie Neal is kept awake by the stories demanding escape from her mind. Once in a while she gives them the courtesy of escaping onto paper.

COLIN RUFFELL: Eau de Passione

Amusing, Submissions

She looked across at me like Eva Marie Saint seducing Cary Grant in North by Northwest. My new cologne was working! She sipped her champagne and leaned closer. My heart was pounding. Her lips parted and she whispered, “Don’t you hate it when they wipe down the tables with disinfectant?”

It was a dark and stormy night many years ago in the city of London when Colin set off on his bicycle to ride around the world. He only made it as far as Hong Kong where he found work as a copywriter and is still planning his ride home.

JIMMY MACK: Tasmania

Artistic, Submissions, , , , , ,

After decades of adding to his bucket list, Gerald started erasing, thinning the herd.

Angkor Wat, Fez Music Festival, Solar de Uyuni. Not likely. Life turned Autumn.

“But you’re still alive, right?” encouraged Sara.

The question hugged Gerald, his soul matched the turning leaves.

He added Tasmania to his list.

Jimmy is a writer from Portland, Oregon. Having worked in the horticultural side of life for over 30 years, he is now working on a book about his backpacking adventures around South Asia in the early 1990’s.