Short Fiction

Ronald lives in Charleston, South Carolina where he spends his days running, reading, writing, and trying not to get on the nerves of his wife of 39 1/2 years. Gleefully retired from an unremarkable career in financial and social services, Ronald spends his hard won free time writing short stories with a southern theme and setting. His wife, mother, and daughter are his biggest fans because, well, they have to be.

Here's the recipe: icy winter, grumpy wife, over-stuffed car, add a new baby, and mix all together in a move ...

The revelation has been made, and humanity will change as a result. Not quite the way Orbis had hoped, but the road to successful enlightenment has more than one path ...

Ask him the name of his favorite song when you first meet him. It might save you a bit of heartache later ...

A native New Yorker, Bruce writes short stories in a mad search to one day create the definitive short story. In the meanwhile his works have appeared in SNM Horror Magazine, Demonic Tome, Freedom Fiction, and The Horror Zine.

Jilly's resolution ought to have been "Don't get involved with Celia's craziness ..."

David Mink says of himself, "I have been writing for several years now. My grown up job is being a funeral director in Ventura County, CA. I have also written an unpublished novel, 'Funeral On The Beach' and am currently working on another novel as well as another short story. Funeral directing is a third career; I toiled in Television Animation for 16 years, working for studios such as Disney, Warner Brothers, Sony and Knowledge Adventure."

Alexei Russell is an emerging writer living in Winnipeg, Canada. He had a great many jobs before realizing his University English teacher may have had something, when she suggested he'd be happiest as a writer. A believer in the maxim that a writer should try his hand at all genres, he has conquered all themes and genres, apart from Westerns--which he will get around to eventually.

Yes, sometimes it seems, you can go back, and things can change ... especially if you've done some changing yourself ...

At the last moment, you can change your mind -- but so can Fate ... and maybe Fate knows what you intended in the first place ...

Will is tired of that cat, and knows just the way to get rid of it. He just doesn't know enough about quantum mechanics to understand the consequences of his plan.

Who are you really? What you see in the mirror, or the reflection in your own heart?

A leap of faith, a gift of hope, and a stretch of the imagination -- freedom and joy!

What begins as a joke can turn serious -- if we're willing to allow it to do so. Sometimes how serious something becomes is kind of a joke, too ...

Bah! Humbug! Where are those blasted Christmas lights?

Some holiday windows are dark; remember those alone this Christmas.

Denied hope or comfort, some people turn to theft to maintain themselves. And if there's no chance of having a gift accepted ...

Oh, no, it's Nigel and Lucy Biatch again, and this time, they've infringed upon the smile of starlet Molly Ringwald ...

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.