The story of the week for August 4 to 8 is…
Rough and Tumble by Steven Lemprière
All posts by Tim
STEVEN LEMPRIÈRE: Rough and Tumble
Wexford summers. Cousins. Some removed, others should be.
A bruising stick-and-ball game settles scores.
Red Lemonade, 99s, ice-cream wafers, crisps and slap-up feeds.
Ravenous teams jostle, devouring gritty ham or salmon paste sandwiches. Each liberally seasoned with sharp, salty silica.
At day’s end, sunburnt cousins dream, war-painted with Calamine lotion.
Steven is still picking sand granules from between his teeth years after the long hot summers of childhood holidays spent visiting family in Ireland.
KC SELBY: Our Spot
We were fifteen paces west of the boardwalk. The sun threw itself, orange and glowing, against the sea. You left to grab marshmallows.
Today I scooped a handful of sand from the spot. Brought it home and poured it on your side of the bed. Almost believed you were here.
K.C. Selby is a fiction writer living in the Midwest with her husband and too many houseplants. Her short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Killer Nashville Magazine, Blink-Ink, several anthologies, and more. She can be found at www.kcselbywriter.com.
MIKE KEYSER: Shelf Life
After decades of research, rewrites, and rejections, sleepless nights, and crippling self-doubt, my novel releases tomorrow.
As doors unlock, signing pen in hand… a gamma-ray burst—life on Earth, gone.
Behind now-wide-open doors, through which no human will pass, rests my book: The Universe Hates Me.
Mike Keyser hails from Wisconsin, where past and future share a beer. A seeker of alien abduction—and receiver of none—he feeds his off-world appetite through speculative fiction.
ROBERT CARLBERG: Missing Person
“9-1-1, what is your emergency?”
“I’d like to report a missing person.”
“How long has this person been missing, ma’am?”
Huh. That required some mental calculation. “About eight years?”
“Eight years? Why are you reporting this now?”
Time to tell the truth. “Because I don’t want to be lost anymore.”
Robert Carlberg has occasional sleepless nights when he eats too much salad. On those nights he sometimes writes stories. Blame the bleu cheese.
JR WALSH: The chickens will save us
8,110,424,013 people woke up having dreamed the same dream. Visions of socks, a snowstorm, and chicken manure. Finally, our climate crisis had a solution.
All but one person forgot.
Saving the world was within reach, yet the dreamer crossed that snowy rural highway. The whole world felt those headlights burn.
JR Walsh is the Online Editor at The Citron Review. He teaches creative writing at SUNY Oswego. Find his writing on itsjrwalsh.com.
SETH ROSENMAN: Places to Go
His mother says they’re going on errands. If they go to the bank, he’ll get a lollipop; the store, a toy; the market, chocolate. He knows he can’t say no, but he knows what look to give. “You can go back on your computer when we come home,” she says.
Seth Rosenman lives in the Philadelphia area. He is currently working on becoming better at typing on his phone. His poems and short fiction have appeared in 50-Word Stories, Microfiction Monday Magazine, The Bookends Review, and elsewhere. His blog goes by infiniteseth.blogspot.com.
MARY MORENO: Prince Charming
That afternoon we’d been rowing around the pond, tuna sandwiches packed in the red cooler. Mostly love keeping us afloat. Later, I spotted a small green frog parked on the lip, looking up at me like I was some kind of princess.
Now, long after the divorce, I sometimes wonder…
Mary Moreno lives in New York City and writes poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. She also composes and produces music.
ED WALKER: Word of Unbinding
The author made up a word for something, say a six-legged spider with two arms, or whatever. Just gibberish. Eventually the story was translated into Italian, and thanks to a typo, it only needed to be pronounced in the European style aloud to unbind the universe. The universe is waiting.
After decades of nattering on about moving abroad, Ed Walker finally retired and is currently living in Catalunya, Spain. His work can be found in fiftywordstories, The Arcanist, Blink-Ink and elsewhere.
STORY OF THE MONTH: July 2025
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.
The finalists for July were:
Aspera Ad Astra by Marc Simon
Inheritance by L.F. Khouri
The Silent Companion by Estelle Bardot
Paithani Shadows by Shivan Pailwan
Twin Brother by Jeff Harvey
The winner of the July 2025 Story of the Month is…
Paithani Shadows