Short Fiction

Sometimes you start out on the wrong foot, and hope for a way to put things right. And if you can't, you at least hope no one has anything to throw at you.

Are words only words, or can they be something more? And is a gesture only a gesture, or can it be a statement of belief? And who is it who really has the right to decide what meanings words or gestures have for each person?

You know how they say "The first step's a doozy?" Well it's a piece of cake until you decide to put the next step in front of the first.

What is art? Is it only the things that end up in a museum? Only the things that can be sold in a reputable house? What about the crayon scrawl that a mother carefully saves because it was the first drawing her child made, with colors so bold and beautiful? What about the thoughts that occur in measured order, flowing from a pen onto paper, portrait of the shadows of a heart?

Well, yeah, we knew what we were doing! Or did we? Good intentions sometimes have to backtrack for practicalities. Oh, and did we mention that wizards are jerks?

Three star demons are waiting; they know that their time has come, that their strength in combination can destroy the angel-fool who will try to stop them, alone, to try to save the ones he loves...

In the great square of the western plaza in the mountain city of Shaddir, a story-teller gives a history lesson that may or may not be largely hearsay. So what does a crowd want, the McNeil-Lehrer Report?

Waking exhausted from an uneasy sleep, the worst thing for the sleeper to find out is that there is no escape ...

David Lignell lives with his wife Colleen and their family in Lawrence, Kansas. He is an active member of Pam Casto's flash-fiction workshop listserv.

Recent history gets tweaked as Dan Ur-Jennan relates how she single-handedly defeated the army of Kaladang the Axe. Well, of COURSE there's lots of beer involved!

If you live in an isolated little town, you can get very comfortable being like everyone else. They see the same sights, they speak the same language, they know where everything in town is supposed to be. However, if you step outside the isolation, and keep on traveling, after a while you know that if you ever go back to your home town, the people there might not even recognize who you are ...

Cornered between the deadly river and the fields of Kaladang the Axe, Aser and Danner get to insult the evil wizard Fellmount one last time.

Calls peal out in the night, and a vicious death spooks the neighborhood pets ... and what begins as curiosity is about to become a terrifying discovery ...

Hizashi and Getsuei fire, but it is not enough. The Immortal Guns will pass on, but will they ever be able to defeat the Death that walks the ruins of Angel City?

Aser and Danner take one last break among the Ghost-folk and find that fish-breath and spectral lounge-lizards inspire them.

Death walks the streets of Angel City, shouting words the people hear as prophecy, meting out pain and loss. Death stalks the streets of Angel City, years later, hiding from sight, knowing what truth is to come ...

Still on the run from the treacherous wizard Fellmount, Aser and Danner make a risky side trip to try to find the magical baboons Narsai and Guillaume. How do people get so attached to animals, anyway?

Once again Aser and Danner are snatched from the evil wizard Fellmount's clutches in the nick of time. Whose stupid idea was this anyway?

The look in his eyes was serious, but filled with promise. But it was a promise that seemed to come from farther away than Jim had ever imagined. He was afraid of that pledge, but far more afraid of not taking that first step ...

Just what you need when you're feeling left all alone to face the music is one more crabby ghost griping about desertion.

An Aser story. Planners, loggers, coopers, and whores -- this isn't your usual cast for "Singin' in the Rain."

Kaine is dying; he has nothing left to help him heal. The time has come for Iai to remember who and what he is, and what he must do ...

Kristan Ginther is a professional copywriter and published nonfiction author. Her recent short fiction work has appeared in apt Literary Journal, M Review, and Planet Magazine. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband, Dan, two cats, and Boxer dog. She has no photos of herself without the husband or the pets.

Part of a shaman's work is to tell how things are with the world of the Unseen. Spooky? Maybe. But sometimes being the Voice of a ghost is pure job satisfaction.

Iai, Kaine, Jynx, and Kumiko have something in common on the harsh desert planet of Phoenix. It's not their courage, or their battles -- it's that for their own reasons, their hearts are all breaking ...

Kids never believe their elders about anything. Is it any wonder we can't stand them?

There is more than one side to any story, even a fairy tale.

"I always hated this fairy-tale," says Lydia Manx. "It was a pleasure to give 'Snow White and Rose Red' a new look."

Spin staw into gold? A little man with an unknown identity? Lydia Manx revisits "Rumplestiltskin".

Dan twists another fairy tale into something to make your eyes bug out.