Midnight. The new year was now here!
Angie sipped Champagne. So far, 2025 felt perfect! And somehow it felt like it would stay perfect. Of course, she knew that sooner or later something would go wrong. But for now…
“Mommy!” came a scream at 12:01 AM. “The toilet won’t flush!”
John M. Carlson lives in the Pacific Northwest. He was writing a story while normal people were celebrating New Year’s Day.
Midnight, in the frozen space where the Old Year greets the New.
“This is yours now,” says Old.
Stooping, broken, he can barely lift the world: its wars, famine and suffering.
New takes it, flushed with youthful optimism.
“I will make paradise, just watch.”
Old sighs. “You won’t survive January…”
William Mitchell lives in East Sussex in the South of England. He is an award-winning author, having had early success with various Horror and Science Fiction publications before winning the Writers of the Future contest in 2012. His first novel, CREATIONS, came out in 2014 with John Hunt Publishing.
Fires
Devastation
Impeachment
Kobe
COVID
Pandemic
Virus
Fear
Deaths
Loss
Distance
Fauci
Masks
Droplets
Restrictions
Sanitizer
Testing
Contact
Quarantine
Lockdown
Remote
Lewis
WFH
PPE
RBG
Grief
Essential worker
Homeless
Unemployed
Deserted
Hunger
Bubble
Guidelines
George Floyd
I CAN’T BREATHE
Protests
Division
Violence
Stimulus
VOTE
Zoom
Isolation
Anxiety
Depression
Vaccine
Hope
Margie Nairn wrote this story.
Treeless, he burned unopened Xmas cards, turned a blind eye on Scrooge and the Wonderful Life. For plugged ears, there were no jingle bells, and the Salvation Army lady was clapperless. An invitation to drinky midnight hoopla declined, sound asleep at ten, he was in fine fettle on the first.
James Gallant is the winner of the 2019 Schaffner Press Prize for music-in-literature for his story collection, La Leona, and Other Guitar stories, just published. His e-novel, Whatever Happened to Ohio? from Vagabondage Press, and a collection of essays and short fiction, Verisimilitude: essays and approximations, published by Fortnightly Review press (UK), appeared in 2018.
Pulse. Drumbeat. Baby’s kicks. The guitar screams.
Blankets laid on the lawn. Lights dim.
Music swells in waves. Rhythmic: pushing, shoving, pounding on the ground. A night of screamo. Moshing. An owl swoops silently from the rafters. The bassist strikes a chord.
My baby’s song begins.
Joanna Friedman’s fiction and poetry has appeared in a couple of anthologies and on-line publications. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband, twin girls, and pug dog, Blue. Follow her on Twitter or her website.
Happy New Year!
Another resolution to make; another resolution to break…
Perhaps this year will be different?
Probably not.
Yet, as 2017 rolls into 2018, I am mostly happy.
Never the same, one day to the next.
Everyone has bad days…
Wandering off the path, hoping it always leads back.
Michelle is a contributing author in the most recent Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Spirit of Canada. Her writing has won several awards, and appeared in The Globe and Mail and a number of local magazines and newspapers in Alliston and Barrie. She has a monthly series in the Focus 50 + Newspaper based on her short story “Lightning Strikers.” You can find her online at michelledinnick.com.
On a downward spiral for so many years, I sit in the bath as it empties and watch the water suck down the plug hole. I should move; I should do something. It’s not too late to change, but I sit in the bath until all the water is gone.
From now on David is taking showers not baths. See more at davidrae-stories.com.
Nobody’s gonna count down to midnight with more zeal than me.
In this, my “Year of Yes”, I’ve:
Next up: my Year of NO.
Mary Steer only has her ears pierced. She will be ringing in 2018 with a long story, “The Yarnabomber”, appearing in The Ocotillo Review. It will be available for purchase by mid-January at kallistogaiapress.org. You can read more of Mary’s work at marysteer.com.
To test the old saying ‘misery loves company,’ Henry subscribed to a binge-watchable streaming video service, rented a humongous flat screen TV, and hired a caterer.
The first weekend in January, with dieting and exercise strictly prohibited, Henry and his party guests broke their New Year’s resolutions in record time.
John H. Dromey has had short fiction published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Crimson Streets, Stupefying Stories Showcase, and elsewhere.