All posts by Tim

SARA NIESEN: Escape

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

We’re alone, for now.

Her dusty mane dances, muscles ripple in her neck, but her saddle remains unmoved.

Unleash the buckles! Cut the rope! every part of me screams.

My right boot scrapes against the gritty trail, refusing to lift.

Her rider returns, mounts.

Feeling the weight, I slump away.

A storyteller at heart, Sara fans the writing flames in young people as a BAWP Teacher Consultant at UC Berkeley. As founder of MindMyEducation.com she helps students take charge of their education, so they can write the stories of their lives instead of simply playing the roles laid out for them.

KERRY BANK: A Spoiled Afternoon

Amusing, Odd, Submissions, , ,

Behind a bench, on the empty side of the park, you see some letters upended.

Maybe they fell off a sign. Maybe they were part of an art installation. They’re very three-dimensional and very white on the green grass.

But that’s the problem with metaphors – they’re always ultimately reading practice.

Kerry works in adult education in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He thinks that most people have really great stories to share, except boring people, and that learning to tell stories empowers people to learn to learn from them.

ALISON McBAIN: Wild

Adventure, Submissions, ,

Give me creosote, sidewinders, the lone call of a coyote on top of a mesa, the silver sliver of a cold desert moon. Follow the train whistle scream, the chug and iron stink of steam.

Pull the handkerchief over my mouth. Spare the women and children.

Ride like the wind.

Alison grew up in the Wild West, but hasn’t robbed any trains… yet. You can read more of her writing at alisonmcbain.com.

PJ STEPHENSON: Infernal Tune

Amusing, Submissions, , ,

“I’m fed up with this music.”

“Hush! You’ll upset the other opera-goers.”

“I don’t care. This infernal tune keeps me awake at nights, swirling round my head. It’s driving me mad.”

“Mother, you must get used to it. After all, it is the national anthem, and you are the Queen.”

PJ is a British writer living in Switzerland with his wife and Parson Russell Terrier. He sees the Alps every day but misses the Cairngorms. The music swirling round his head is usually Linkin Park. Follow him @Tweeting_Writer.

TAMSIN SEYMOUR: Romance by the Book

Amusing, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

After weeks of making eyes from the other side of Fiction, he plucked up the courage.

His scrawled note said, “Coffee?” Her reply said “Convince me.” She’d read the novels: true love needs a little jeopardy.

But he missed her punctuating smile. He snatched up his satchel and marched away.

Tamsin also believes too much of what she reads in novels.

BOB THURBER: Legally Blind

Amusing, Submissions, Touching, , ,

Grandpa holds my hand. He taps his cane. His hearing aid emits a horrible hum. His dead eye looks like a winter moon, his right eye, which works well enough for him to manage, glints like crumpled tinfoil in direct sunlight. Whenever he bangs into furniture he spits out sparks.

Over the years Bob Thurber’s work has received a long list of awards and prizes. His most recent book is a collection of brief stories titled “Nothing But Trouble.” His first novel, “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel,” was recently rereleased. Visit BobThurber.net.

SARAH KRENICKI: Life on Earth

Adventure, Submissions, , , ,

When the radiation cleared, they were ready.

When they ventured, blinking, out onto the surface, they were overwhelmed, but they were ready.

When they followed the maps, found the seed vault intact, they were ready.

When a fat mouse ran across the littered cement floor – no one was ready.

Sarah Krenicki likes writing short fiction about large things.

DIANE CALLAHAN: A Dinner Companion

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

Without arms, he could not eat. So he sat, shirtless, against subway concrete. But then the girl came, and she fed him good rice and feasted upon his stories. Afterwards, she thanked him. Baffled, he asked her why. “Because,” she said, “now we are both more than we were before.”

Diane Callahan is a freelance developmental editor and writer of fantasy and speculative fiction. Her YouTube channel, Quotidian Writer, is dedicated to providing practical tips for aspiring writers as well as encouraging discussion about the literary arts.

JENNIFER L FREED: Passage

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

I dreamed we were still in my kitchen, laughing
at the dog, who kept trotting to the door, then not
going out, lest he miss a single scrap
of whatever we might offer.

When I woke, the dog comforted me.
It was you inside the door, poised
to go through.

Jennifer L Freed has a friend whose tumors keep outrunning the chemo. Her website is jfreed.weebly.com.