Short Fiction

The sun rises, and morning speeds by, full of discovery, deeds, and plans. But as the day wanes, light dims, and the minutes go by so slowly that nightfall seems to have lost its way...

Some places still have enough magic left to make wishes come true. (First appeared 8-24-2002)

Some people say "If you have your health, you have everything," but oh, if you have 38 million dollars, you can have the Everything of Everything -- the real EVERYTHING -- and that's what Bjorn and Janet would say ...

The end of the world is coming, and it's 127 miles wide. But is a mere hunk of rock really going to be our undoing -- or will humanity tear itself apart before it even gets here? (Originally appeared 01-03-2004)

For Bobby Lipton the world is a simple and easy-living place. All that's about to change, though, when his sister's boyfriend decides he knows just the way to help Bobby realize a whole new side of existence -- one that will also help his own bank account...

It's the chance of a lifetime, a way to go from rags to riches, in one easy step, guaranteed returns on your investment ... go for it!

A short tale about a short man who is shortly to become ...

Jerry Guarino says, "Your life will have storms, calm seas and everything in between. Our destiny is determined by how we learn from our experiences. I hope your life will be filled with peace and love and that you get through the storms of life with ease."

If you don't want the end of the world to hit you, you had better stay off the tracks ... but does that really help?

We teach our children compassion, and are thrilled to see them open their hearts to the world. But when we have to teach them about worldly practicality, how well must they learn those lessons?

If murder were not a crime, would disposing of a dead body merely be considered "littering?"

Kerry D. Stewart has been traveling around the United States for fifty years, and believes that every encounter with another human being is a brush with a potential story. "Writing is as much a way of life as any other deep profession. It just wears out more laptops than most."

It IS there, even though no one will speak of it. It is so near at hand that it can hear us breathe ...

Terence Kuch is a consultant, avid hiker, and world traveler. His publications and acceptances include Ante Review, Clockwise Cat, Colored Chalk, Foliate Oak, Foundling Review, Marginalia, North American Review, and many others. He has studied at the Writers Center, Bethesda, Maryland, and the Mid-American Review Summer Fiction Workshop.

The journey may be long, and who knows what one will encounter along the way? What is known is that the journey is made alone ...

Sometimes you walk right into the devil's lair and don't realize it until it's too late.

If you really knew what the consequences would be, would you ever have put the damn things in your mouth?

"So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Yes, when our fear generates paperwork that people can't surmount, that's scary indeed ...

And what will happen if the collective wisdom of the elders does not inform the sudden surge of Progress?

In the end, she had always known that he would ...

It's the booming 80s, and if you want to ride the boom to the good life, you have to make a few sacrifices ... it will all be worth it, won't it?

It's hell being in Hell, and even if you know what the hell it really is, how the hell do you get out of there?

If only the Powers That Be, who endow blessings and curses alike, would descend from their Jovian heights to give a guy a heads-up now and then ...

The message was clear and frequent -- someone had a greeting for Barney ...

The path to the future is paved with cryptic scrawls ...oops!

From the time he was a little boy, was there ever anything that could keep Jack Runner from flying too close to the sun?..

We believed there was no way they could break through; they believed there was no way they could not. And so we watched, waiting, holding on to one last thing ...

None of them had been written, but there were three stories that wanted told ...

With age, comes wisdom, they say. But if the passage of time makes us wise, should we worry about getting too smart for our own good?

It was elite, it was private, it was ... perhaps not quite enough of a good thing ...