Short Fiction

Is being politically correct over-rated? When is opinion a crime?

"How many fingers do you have?" someone asks you. The answer is easy -- you look at your hands and count them. But what if the questions you're asked lead to an answer that can't be seen?

"Let them eat cake"? No, that's not what you want to say to this guy...

Sometimes bad intentions can backfire -- or lead to two steps backward and maybe one forward...

He's got the floor -- so to speak -- and it's time for him to tell all...

Ah, to wake upon that shining shore again...

For the sake of his family, his destiny lies across the water. His destiny is bound up with that of a stranger...

Morgan has had enough of her mother's neediness and her brother Ricky's poor choices. Someone has to take a new direction...

Sometimes the Great Chasm that divides us makes it easier to communicate, after all...

When you're headed off into unfamiliar territory, what you wish most for is a map...

Modern science can make any of us mythic...

It's right to stand up for a principle, isn't it? Only whose principles do we choose, and where do they come from?

Night has fallen, your pillow is soft. In warmth and comfort, are you ready to fall asleep?

Cassie lives in what appears to be the perfect environment. It isn't. And the narrator is more than a fill-in at a monthly bridge game...

Nils Wolfcale earned a Bachelor of Arts from Ohio State University and an Associates Degree from Hocking Technological College in Nelsonville, Ohio. His fiction has recently been accepted by the Roanoke Review. He shares a small farm in Northern Michigan with several horses, two mules, various chickens and ducks, three cats, a vocal terrier, his wife and mother-in-law.

Niles Reddick's novel "Lead Me Home" was a national finalist for a ForeWord Award, a finalist in the Georgia Author of the Year award in the fiction category, and a nominee for an IPPY award. He works for the University of Memphis at Lambuth in Jackson, Tennessee, where he lives with his wife Michelle, two children, Audrey and Nicholas.

Death is inevitable; what comes next is something more...

Sometimes events that seem unrelated connect. Lee is ten years old; she almost died when she was seven. But she celebrates the present. Someone needs to meet her, and doesn't know it yet... First, these unrelated events wait to be understood.

<p>When you know that there's some Mulligan out there just waiting to take you down, you have to keep your eye on the ball and your hand ready for the quick draw. And dammit, you KNOW those suckers are nearby, watching, ready to take you out ... they're just not always everything you think. But some of them -- are!

Lord Patu? In the hospital? Is he seriously injured? How did it happen? Will he be all right? Did he shoot anyone? Is his home-made beer safe?

I came up with the idea for The Message many years ago but I was unable to write it until recently. It's a simple story but in a way it encapsulates my philosophy for life. I hope you enjoy it. -- Ron Mulhollen

It was gold that drew them all, by the hundreds. Death met them, and cold and emptiness were their constant companions. But some learned that there was more to the land than ice and snow and gold ...

"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts..." -- Shakespeare

Randy has a secret that doesn't excuse his actions, but it does explain them.

And all he could hope was that his old partner was still as nice...

Genealogy is a funny thing. You can see echoes of the parent in the child, odd traits revealed by the past. And when you begin to investigate your lineage, you find there are some questions that float to the surface as well...

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines "ran-tan" as 1.) 'a knocking, banging, or pounding noise' or 2.) 'riotous conduct : spree.' By the end of this tale, the definition is definitely defined...

If only he'd kept his temper, the store wouldn't have been closed...

The only way to avoid the curse of Death is to welcome and embrace the gift it brings...

Still want your credential, do you?