Piker Press — Weekly Journal of Arts and Literature
March 16, 2026

Issue of January 30, 2005

9 articles in this issue.


Fever Dreams 029 by Sand Pilarski — Comic

Some appliances speak the secret language of animals.

Learning to Bake by Blanche Nonken — Cover story, food, opinion

(In which an essay shows the path from feeble attempts at baking to descent into madness and love of an entire foodcraft form; including a recipe and some tips.) Making bread at home, making bread professionally, bread makers in Star Trek, bread makers in states of extreme sleep deprivation... it's all here. Everything your grandmother didn't dare to tell you about the art of baking bread. Along with a few helpful professional hints on breads, scones, muffins, sticky buns, and driving on the freeway while suffering hallucinations.

Meanderings 06 by Basil D. — Essay humor food

<b>Biscuit Evolution in My House</b>. Food is wasted on the young! Stern admonitions from the doctor cause the evolution of lovely food like biscuits into unrecognizable objects that resemble roofing shingles.

Contests: OnceWritten by Gillespie and Queen — News, writing contests

Original, unpublished poetry contest at Oncewritten.com: the Source for New and Emerging Writers. Grand Prize is $500, other winners will receive $100 publishing fee.

Oort Cloud Oddities: Yeast by Alexandra Queen — Op_ed, humor, food

Yeast is no ingredient. It's <em>alive</em>. Sure, when you first get into baking, all you see are innocuous little packets of granules -- dry and gently slumbering "kitchen helpers". But once you delve into serious bread baking, you'll find the kitchen is a setting straight out of Lovecraft or Poe, and it's all because of yeast.

Secret Smiles by Lydia Manx — Poem blank verse beat

Blank verse. The faces we present to the world do not always show the turbulence beneath.

Chasing Rabbits by Kaliuna — Poem rhyme light verse

A dog dreams of chasing rabbits. Light verse.

The Rubiyaat of Ozzie 000 by Alexandra Queen — Serial fantasy humor mature content

<i>A length of chain, a mug of ale, and thou.</i> <br><br>Before we jump back into the novel-in-progress, here is everything you need to know about the adventures of Osgun, a half-orc dock worker whose education is limited mostly to four-letter words and how to gut fish, but whose heart is about to lead him deep into a land of richness and danger.

Anachronocity 000 by Josh Brown — Serial fiction, sci-fi

While we wait for Anachronocity's return, here's a synopsis of the story so far. Alex Sterling is a home-grown scientist, trying to recreate his brother's work after Daniel's suicide. An accidental break-through sends Alex and innocent bystander Katlyn hundreds of years into a future where nothing is as it seems. What started out as an effort to decipher the riddle of his brother's death is rapidly turning into a sudden death challenge, with mankind's fate hanging in the balance.

← Back to Archives