Short Fiction

To what lengths are you willing to go to collect ancient artifacts? Would you have carried off King Tut's sarcophagus? Would you have stolen Marie Antoinette's jewelry? Would a group of filthy barbarians object if you came among them desiring what little they had?

A sense of place is important. How many accidents happen every day because someone takes some sort of wrong step?

In the Southern Hemisphere, Summer arrives in December. December, the month of media hype about Santa Claus at the frozen North Pole. Oh, not so along the Orinoco River ... the River that might be mostly made up of the sweat of travelers at that time of year ...

Even although Headman Chimumvuri was a well respected Elder, the rumours had started to circulate -- furtively -- among the good people of Chimumvuri Kraal, soon after Lindiwe Hove had first gone missing.

The most eloquent medical advice one receives falls on deaf ears, unless the recipient really, truly wants to be healed of his ... snack.

In many guises and shapes and circumstances, there is One who waits to meet us all ...

The Boss is hunting Plague -- Plague, who triumphed over his despair and turned to the side of Good. Relentless, the Boss either wants Plague back or to drive him to despair again ...

The word has been said, the idea understood. How do you feel when you've just been told that you will never live on the cherished other side of that fence?

A freelance writer currently operating out of Branson, Missouri, Steven P. Servis has a bachelor degree in creative writing, with a minor in advertising and promotion. Publishing credits include "The Taj Mahal Review." His website is <a href="http://www.stevenservis.com/">Steven P. Servis</a>

She was loaded with rats and roaches and a crew of drunks, but the "Miss Jenny" was an old hand at cheating Death ...

Effie Collins is a writer of horror and speculative short fiction and novels. She lives quietly with her husband, three children and two beloved pit bulls, Sarrow and Chancey, in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains.

She had legs from there to here, and if she ever had to brush something off her arm, it would be gold coins the size of a personal pizza ... but the important thing was that she had a dead ocelot ...

The battle is staged, but Command has given them no backup... what do they expect them to do?

Something draws near when a writer flexes his fingers and begins to draw upon his own past for words ... the words are easy, but what is it that they evoke?

Hailing from the quiet, itchy back woods of Pennsylvania, Paula Patruzzi has this to say about herself:"I've been a paper carrier, punch-press operator, 'sales associate', and pipefitters'/welders' helper. Now I'm a writer, which is a lot more fun than the other ones."

"This time of year," she said, her voice soft, yet possessing an alarming severity, "the curtain between the worlds is thin. Rips do occur..." An oh, what a rip it was ...

Nate and Sammy have a dangerous job -- protecting humanity from the witches who attack and hide from the government. But isn't there a kind of shell-shock from battles like that?

No matter how down on your luck you are, it's best to see with open eyes and watch where you're going ...

"He worshipped the very air she trod upon, but did she really give a FCC?"

Tom Larsen lives in Lambertville, New Jersey with Andree and her pets. His work has appeared in Newsday, New Millennium Writings, Antietam Review and Puerto del Sol. Larsen's short story "Lids" was included in Best American Mystery Stories -- 2004. His first novel FLAWED will be released this fall.

Ted Gnarles made preparations for care for his exotic plants, even though he was 85 years old.

Alas, Dunwitty was Dunwitty, and Miss Haversham was ... well, she was dismissing him, wasn't she?

It's not necessarily the words you say, it's how you say it -- and whether or not your listener has been trained to pay attention.

How ironic that the very sport that brought them together would be the one to drive them apart ... no pun intended ...

Tim Henderson is a freelance writer who currently resides in Asheville, NC. He holds an M.A. in Communication Studies, spent several years teaching English in Japan and traveling around Asia, and is finishing up a collection of short stories based on his adventures in the Far East. In addition to the views enumerated above on the subject of human-pet relations, he also believes that teaching a dog to shake your hand on command is degrading to both man and beast alike.

Send the kiddies to the other room and keep your hands and feet inside the car -- Nigel and Lucy Biatch are about to have an affair ...

How we protect the rights to wage warfare! Laws surround it to make sure it does well; if warfare is treated with no respect, we grimace and protest and beat our breasts with grief! Is it any wonder War comes to us, begging for sustenance and seeking our attention ...

Complacency is so easy to foster ... it often takes sacrifice to make people aware of how tenuous life can be.

Karla Lammers works as a corporate lawyer and has written several academic articles. Since turning her pen toward literary fiction, some of her short stories have appeared in online publications.