The story of the week for September 1 to 5 is…
Mycology Reveal by Ellen Townsend
All posts by Tim
PHIL BAYLES: Love Bite
My friends mock me for constantly checking my reflection.
But they don’t know about the woman who gave me a hickey two nights ago. That my skin prickles in the sun, or that I cut myself while I was flossing this morning.
They don’t see that my reflection is fading.
Phil W. Bayles has lived in Paris and London, where he’s written everything from movie reviews to mattress adverts. These days he lives in Derbyshire with his wife, his daughter and his cat. His words have been published at 50 Word Stories and Twisted Ink.
DEBORAH TAPPER: Autumn Haiku
Summer lingers on,
in butterflies’ bright wingbeats
and bee-bowed flowers.
Succulent berries
ripen in golden hedgerows,
cobwebbed with dawn mist.
Birds seek southern sun,
while industrious squirrels
cache abundant hoards.
Brisker winds rattle
apples down: speckled, blemished,
but lusciously sweet.
Children kick through leaves,
giggling, hurling handfuls—
pretending they’re snow.
Deborah writes at an old desk surrounded by five hundred pet bugs.
STORY OF THE MONTH: August 2025
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.
The finalists for August were:
Omiage by Meredith
The Offering by Nina Basu
Rough and Tumble by Steven Lemprière
The Taste of Forgetting by A.J. Joseph
Skyward by John Singh
Birralyn means the sparks of the banksia over there by Fiona H. Evans
The Power of Touch by Lilian Pomeroy Edmonds
The winner of the August 2025 Story of the Month is…
Omiage
JOHN H DROMEY: Off and On
A mother had a jocular way of suggesting her offspring get some fresh air and exercise. She’d tell them, “Go outside and let the wind blow the stink off ya.”
That stratagem seemed to work quite well. Then, one afternoon, there was an unwelcome visitor to the neighborhood: a skunk.
John H. Dromey has contributed to a wide variety of online and print publications.
SHIRLEE JELLUM: Bandit
Chicken thief. You gut our white hen, eat choice pieces, leave her belly up for the owls and maggots. Emboldened, you sneak back a second night, climb the fence, find the coop locked. So you steal cat food, scavenge compost, sleep in the barn. Oblivious to the box trap, waiting.
Shirlee Jellum is a retired English teacher who publishes fiction, nonfiction and poetry, most recently in Persimmon Tree, Quarter(ly) Journal, WordPeace and several anthologies.
GRACIE LIRETTE: the one who gets discovered every time
Talk of witchcraft made the townspeople go quiet. It’s only a matter of time before the hunt begins. Teachers will carry pitchforks instead of pencils, and children will carry torches instead of toys.
Alice hides her purple, spell-stained hands behind her back.
In this lifetime, who will her betrayer be?
Gracie Lirette is a young writer seeking to gain as much experience as she can before the daunting world of adulthood takes over. Earlier this year she earned two regional Gold Keys for a short story and flash fiction in the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, and now she is diving into microfiction.
HARMONY MOONEY: Micro-Biome Homes for the Apocalypse
I’ll stuff each cloned version of my dog when it dies until the path I walk through my garden becomes littered with the same white terrier. I’ll stare up through the glass dome at the red sky. At my end, the hazmat suits will light my whole world on fire.
Harmony Mooney is a teacher and writer living on the North Coast of California with her husband, two cats, and two dogs.
PAUL D’ARCY: Weakly Planner
Thursday, my sponsor says, surrender works.
Friday’s dealer says it too.
Saturdays, my therapist says addiction is a disease.
Sunday, the priest says it’s a sin.
Monday’s doctor says it’s genetic.
Tuesday, Mom says I’m killing her.
Wednesday’s mirror tells the truth:
I’ll believe whoever makes this feeling go away.
Paul D’Arcy tells stories. All real. Most brief. You can read more at pauldrc.com.
ELLEN TOWNSEND: Mycology Reveal
We’re in woodland with backpacks, introductions.
Glowing couples hold hands; our foraging instructor munches leaves. I nibble. He discusses elderflowers whilst sitting amidst daisies; we picnic on sourdough and dandelions.
“Wild mushroom pasta,” he says. “Folklore believes these fungi help people read minds.”
The couples devour bowlfuls, then leave separately.
Ellen Townsend is an art teacher and writer. Her work has appeared in Friday Flash Fiction and Paragraph Planet and has been broadcast on BBC Radio.