JAYNE MARTIN: Boys Will Be Boys

Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

His approach was awkward, shy. Her friends giggled behind her. Then he punched her in the arm and ran away. “Oh, honey. That’s just what boys do. It means he likes you,” grownups told her.

Tonight, her face purple and swollen, that’s what she tells police: “My husband loves me.”

Jayne Martin is the author of “Tender Cuts,” a collection of microfiction, and “The Daddy Chronicles-Memoir of a Fatherless Daughter.” She lives in California but dreams of living in Paris. Visit her at www.jaynemartin-writer.com and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

SUMITRA SINGAM: Egg and Soldiers

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

Soft-poached eggs in a quivering heap on my plate. A stab of my fork and the yolks bleed heavy and slick. My belly cramps like a memory. I wolf the eggs down, as if they might replace the ones I’ve lost. As if they might make the next one stick.

Sumitra writes in Naarm/Melbourne. She has won the Writer’s Playground and WOW! Competitions. Words in Jaggery Lit Mag, National Flash Fiction Day, Every Day Fiction, Cheap Pop and upcoming in Janus Literary and The Hooghly Review. She works in mental health. Her twitterings: @pleomorphic2

CARISSA RAE: How the Cookie Crumbles

Amusing, Submissions, , ,

It took time for me to see that he was a bad partner.

We had been together months before I grew tired of the comments, forgotten dates.

Christmas at his mom’s brought it home. He forgot my name.

I kept the tin of cookies she made but tossed the person.

Hoosier-born Carissa Rae is a New Jersey resident by coercion. She works in NYC and lives with a rapscallion mutt and temperamental radiator.

HELEN CHAMBERS: Starry Night

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Striding the field edge, dog loping silently at his heels, the hunter switches his rifle to his other shoulder. Moonlight silvers the furrow ridges, reflects stars in frosted puddles. Looking, listening, his hard eyes glitter.

Sighing, Orion climbs into the sky to take his rightful place, faithful Sirius following always.

Helen writes flash and short fiction. This summer, she’s directing The Winter’s Tale for the Wivenhoe Outdoor Shakespeare and worrying how to stage “exit pursued by bear.”

RAN WALKER: Reunion

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

They both arrived at the class reunion with their families in tow. They spoke to each other cordially, doing their best to imagine they were from a universe where there wasn’t so much shared history, like this meeting didn’t feel like the suppressed desire for one’s favorite band to reunite.

Ran Walker is the author of 28 books. He teaches creative writing at Hampton University and lives in Virginia with his wife and daughter.

BILL COX: Call of the Wild

Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

An ancestral memory of the pack around her, inhaling the musky scent of prey, barking their excitement, eager for the chase.

Ahead, a Deer leaping, crashing through Gorse. In the distance, her name being shouted by an anxious owner.

Sandy’s pet Chihuahua Tiddles has, once again, returned to the wild.

Bill lives in Aberdeen, Scotland, with his partner Hilary, their daughter Catherine and Peggy, a Border Collie who frequently hears the call of the wild.

LARINA WARNOCK: Sand Seeking

Artistic, Submissions, , ,

Most search for shell or agate.
I’ve trained my brain to pick out
reds and greens, the glimmery sheen
of jasper, to overlook other
valuable things: fossil and petrified wood,
occasional Cascade jade. But isn’t that the way
we all find what we’re looking for–
by ignoring things others want?

Dr. Larina Warnock is an educator who lives on the Oregon coast with her husband, three dogs, and a turtle older than she is.

JAMES HANCOCK: Bread

Submissions, Touching, , ,

I queue at the bakery every morning. You serve me with a warm smile below a flour smudged nose. I want to talk. To hold you. Kiss your nose. I want a brave man’s courage. I buy a loaf, even though I’m gluten intolerant. The things we do for love.

James Hancock is a writer/screenwriter of comedy, thriller, horror, sci-fi and twisted fairy tales. A few of his short screenplays have been made into films, and he has been published in print magazines, online, and in anthology books. He lives in England, with his wife and two daughters. And a bunch of pets he insisted his girls could not have.

PONTIUS PAIVA: Stoked

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Crackling flames bring warmth to a cold night at the beach.
Tonight they’ll sleep in a tent to the sound of crickets and crashing waves.
Bare feet on wet sand, they sit on a log and reminisce.
He puts an arm around her as they watch their childhood home burn.

Pontius Paiva is a writer with a burning desire to stoke his readers. You’ll find his hottest stories at pontiuspaiva.com.