In The Trees/Fiction

In The Trees/Fiction

Photo by Matthew T Rader on Unsplash *** In the Trees   by Britnee Meiser Contributor t was the summer of the cicadas. Usually I liked to walk around barefoot, to lie in the grass beneath the great oaks...

Ava, Lana and Old Bob Campbell

Ava, Lana and Old Bob Campbell

Photo by Ashutosh Nandeshwar on Unsplash ***   Ava, Lana, and Old Bob Campbell   by Wayne Turmel Contributing Writer Las Vegas, 2018 ob Campbell was seventy-five by this point. He was never much of a BS...

A Grand Adventure/Fiction

A Grand Adventure/Fiction

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — Georges Seurat. Art Institute of Chicago *** A Grand Adventure   by Gina Willner-Pardo er elderly mother’s death left Laila Rayburn untethered, a condition she had never...

A Room in the World/Fiction

A Room in the World/Fiction

A hundred-dollar radio lurks on the hutch playing its concoction of progressive radio and commercial crap at low volume. By the radio a red scaly organizer suns itself under a craning lamp.

The Reunion/Marlene Olin

He packed a week before his flight, bringing twice the amount of clothes that he needed. A sport coat in case people were dressing up. Jeans in case people were dressing down. A sweater in case it was cold. A golf shirt in case it was warm. For the first time in his life, Calvin went to a fancy salon where they manicured his nails and shaved his beard. He felt buffed and polished, his engine in good working order, his chassis gleaming. He read and reread each of Miriam’s books. He felt ready to tackle the world.

A Hobbit/Fiction by Alf Marks

  A Hobbit   By Alfred Marks  ave comes on the Cronulla Street Mall, hoping the kids will remember what day this is. The early breakfast punters are dotted under their umbrellas. Daughter Zoe likes...

Good Boy/Fiction by Eric DePriester

      Good Boy   by Eric DePriester   tuart grazed the open bar at his high school reunion, forcing conversation long enough to catch the bartender’s eye. As he ordered a scotch on the rocks, a familiar voice...

Larissa Shmailo

    Sly Bang / hybrid fiction by Larissa Shmailo You knew this is what the world really looked like all along.   A review by RW Spryszak ISBN-13: 978-1947980983 Spuyten Duyvil – New York 2018 198 pages [dropcap style="font-size: 46px;...

Fred Skolnik/Fiction

BASIC FORMS: A PROLOGUE   Each thing, insofar as it is in itself, endeavors to persevere in its own being. ─ Spinoza Now we know the language, and we're fluent in it. ─ Philip Glass   The following is Chapter 1 of "Basic Forms," the latest novel by Fred...

Larry Smith/Fiction

Larry Smith/Fiction

Unhappy people are America’s new underclass. You run into some guy on the street who’s just been fired from his job and has a family to worry about, and when you ask how he’s doing, he’ll say “I’m doing just great, just great. Busier now than ever.” He’s not ashamed that he was canned; he’s only ashamed if people think he’s worse off for it, because that would make him a second-class citizen…

Steven Masterson/Fiction

Steven Masterson/Fiction

Lucy pulled her arms down his thighs until her hands reached his knees and pushed herself to her feet. Picking up her bag, she walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. She didn’t worry about Jonnie stealing anything—he was a nice guy, better than most—but she went nowhere without the bag. She pulled out her needle and spoon, panicked until she found the smack. Sitting on the edge of the old cast-iron tub, she cooked and shot. She let herself lean on the drug; no more panic, no more craving. Lucy didn’t get high—she got normal. As normal as she could…

Perle Besserman/Fiction

Perle Besserman/Fiction

Karin doesn’t like Carl’s best friend Benjy, and she doesn’t want to join them in a game of poker, but she doesn’t say so because Benjy (who has come to live with them after being thrown out of his apartment two months ago by his second wife) keeps threatening to kill himself…

Yoshiro Takayasu/Fiction

Yoshiro Takayasu/Fiction

A few days later, Kiiko said, “Say, what about the story of a woman who makes a bet whether her husband will cheat on her? A friend of hers who bets against her seduces her husband in order to win the bet. It will make you anxious watching him almost succumb to temptation. In the end, he goes back to his wife, and they live happily ever after.”

Alan Swyer/Fiction

  Kindred Spirits   by Alan Swyer now what's amazing?" Ross said as he and Gelber wolfed down an early morning feast of dumplings and porridge at a dim sum joint in New York's Chinatown.  "It's...

Richard Kostelanetz/Fiction

??????   ANSWERS A Cycle of Short-Short Stories Richard Kostelanetz In memory of Novalis [For periodical, print continuously with extra space between entries; if a book, one to a page; wide (Latin?), paginated landscape; so far 94. Resequence to move from cliché...