Category Archives: Artistic

GARETH WILSON: The Gatekeepers

Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , , , , , ,

The gatekeepers see all, never blinking, no matter what the time.

Those who seek the angels don’t see them for they hide in plain sight.

With one foot in each world your fate is decided with the yowl of annoyance or the purr of contentment.

Those wonderful misaligned felines.

Gareth Wilson would call himself a serial reader, slayer of titles, leaving a woody (and shortly electron) swathe in his wake. Currently he is improving his writing skills by cutting his teeth on short pieces to work up to his own full-length title. He reviews general fiction here and YA and children’s books here.

LIANNA WILLIAMSON: The Darkness Those Eyes Have Seen

Artistic, Submissions, , , , , ,

He pointed the camera at her and asked, “Grandma, how does it feel to be a great grandmother?”

She looked up from the baby they had named for her late husband, her eyes wet.

“Everything the Nazis took from me… I got it all back.” Her voice was triumphant: “Everything.”

You can read more of Lianna Williamson’s writing on her writing blog.

LISA FORGET: Writer’s Block

Artistic, Submissions, , , , , , , ,

The word eludes me.

“Done yet?” she interrupts.

I scowl. “Looking for another Bestseller?”

“Yep!” my assistant chirps. She loves launch parties.

Sanity vanishes. I strike with my pen repeatedly.

Blood oozes, and she dies at my feet.

“Contract’s expired.”

I blink. “There’s the word I was looking for… Expired.”

Lisa Forget lives in Quebec, Canada. A singer and entertainer by profession, she enjoys writing paranormal, romantic and young adult fiction as an extension of her artistic expression. She is a member of Kelley Armstrong’s writing forums, successfully completed NaNoWriMo 2010, and will have four flash fiction stories published by Pill Hill Press in the DAILY FLASH 2012: 366 DAYS OF FLASH FICTION (LEAP YEAR EDITION) anthology coming out in the fall of 2011. She’s currently hard at work on what she hopes will become her first YA novel.

 

The Wand’ring Man

Artistic, Poetry, , , , , ,

Australia, the young man knew,
Held many things for him to do

And proud Brazil, whose flag was green,
Was filled with things that he had seen

He’d studied well the Paris streets
Some day, he said, he’d visit Greece

A wanderer, he called himself
Exploring books upon his shelf

Second Runner Up – DEREK MULLANARI: Binary Love

Artistic, Contest Entries, Submissions, Touching, , , , , , ,

Derek’s story earned second runner up in the 50WS Valentine’s Day contest:

“Do you love me?”

They were young, and she laughed. “Zero. Computers can’t love, silly.”

Eons passed. They were alone, together. As entropy drained the last drops of energy in the universe, he strained to ask the question one last time.

“Do you love me?”

“One. Always and forever.”

Derek Mullanari is a teenager who enjoys writing science fiction.

To Live in Peace, Plant Potatoes, and Dream

Artistic, Odd, , , , , , , , ,

“Tonight we shall incur the esteem of our ancestors!” bellowed King Tawnyfeathers as his eager army growled in anticipation.

But his heart wasn’t in this fight. He wished he were lying in his garden, gazing at the clouds, interred in the earth he had cultivated.

Ah, to be a potato…

This story was based on a title suggestion by Claire Martin via Facebook.

Lie-Baby

Artistic, , , , , , , , , , ,

“Aww, where’s mommy?” they teased. “Is baby homesick?”

And she dried her tears and lied to them.

“I’m not homesick,” she shouted, and that wasn’t the lie.

“I don’t care about my mommy,” she protested, and that wasn’t the lie.

“Leave me alone!” she screamed, and that was the lie.

This story was based on a title suggested by Dan Hingston through the Facebook page.

It Came From The Produce Section

Artistic, Odd, , , , , ,

She shrieked as a horrible, misshapen little creature squirmed out of her grocery bag and flopped itself, half-formed lungs heaving, onto the floor.

Kill it! cried her husband, but pity stayed her hand.

A bond formed between them,
and though it was built on only moments,
it lasted;
it remained.

This story was based on a title suggested by @vxicepickxv.

AUSTIN HOWELL: The Little Rock

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

I get stepped on. Water runs over me. My skin tans in the sun. Snow crunches on me, and the wind rolls me around.

Then one day a bright face comes. He picks me up and takes me home.

Then I’m dropped off again in the desert wastelands I’ve roamed.

Austin Howell is a Junior in high school in the beautiful city of Colorado Springs. When he graduates he plans to become a Youth Pastor and pursue a job in ministry. Writing is one of his favorite things to do!

Austin is part of a creative writing class from Liberty High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that wrote fifty-word stories and submitted them as a group.

ANTHONY DIAZ: Overlooked and Under-Recognized

Artistic, Submissions, , , , , ,

It is such a simple word, with such a simple meaning.

We use, we abuse, yet we almost never misuse. It sees such pervasive usage, yet it so often goes unnoticed. It is overlooked, under-recognized, completely ignored.

But despite such use, it hasn’t appeared here until now: it is “and”.

Anthony Diaz is part of a creative writing class from Liberty High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that wrote fifty-word stories and submitted them as a group.