Short Fiction

The prospect of writing stories that could be seen publicly might scare the bejabbers out of you. The only solution? A pen name.

How can I tell if I have a big ass? The first of the Aser stories.

Wait a minute! What happened to California weather in the winter of '06 - '07???

Michael McLaughlin lives on the shores of Lake Chapala, Mexico, having escaped the United States in 2005 many years away from retirement. Since coming to magical Mexico his writing output has exploded (Wouldn't yours?) and he has been published in the Ojo Del Lago, The Barfing Frog, The Harrow, and New Graffiti. Currently he is with an improvisational comedy troupe called "Spanglish Imposition."

As we grow older, we lose the power of our imagination and aspirations. Mel Trent reviews "Boogiepop Phantom" and finds that it takes that idea and twists it into twelve episodes of angst, love gone sinister, and a man-eating monster.

There was a time when feet were the primary mode of transportation, and everything that people needed was within walking distance of home. Then came cars, and "progress" ...

In the darkness of the theatre, despair mingles with sudden love -- and desire listens intently to murmured temptation ...

There's a lot of "fleecing" going on, but no one is going to get a warm pair of socks out of this incident ...

It was how we knew we were home, and where we went to say goodbye to the ones who would never return, the ones whose eyes only looked to the stars. The rest of the world might forget us, but not this place.

Vampire fiction Staff Writer Lydia Manx brings us some remembered images of the holiday season, and a little bit of crazy cheer.

Conclusion. Johnny is all ready to give his family the beatings he thinks they deserve from his big hands. But one little woman with a piece of green firewood is going to change his way of thinking -- forever.

What was the strange bush in the back yard when I was a child? The leaves were soft, it had no thorns, and in the summer I'd find grape-sized berries as white as snow ...

There comes a moment when your life teeters on a precipice -- to give your heart to someone else or hold back and pretend your feelings aren't real. Ah, isn't that why they call it "falling" in love?

A stranger joins Jenny at her campfire. At long last Jenny has met someone to talk to, someone who seems to have a strength and serenity that Jenny seriously envies.

I am officially a member of the International Poleholders' Union. Okay, so you haven't heard about this rather small and highly specialized organization. There aren't any great benefit packages and the pay scale is non-existent, but there is a certain amount of down right guts involved in the initiation process and the satisfaction of a job well done.

Funny thing about writing -- once you start doing it, it changes how you see things ... and do things ...

The face in the mirror was my judge, and if it had its way, I would be my own executioner.

Another town, just like the ones the wagon had passed by before, all the same, all filled with broken dreams and weary travelers too tired to keep on going. Who is to say what lead people to settle in this one?

Write an entire novel in thirty days? Fine, the explanation behind it is that we're nuts.

Like many others, I joined NaNoWriMo the first time because I thought I could write a better novel than some of the schlock I had paid money to buy and read. Long before the thirty days were up, I realized how wrong this notion had been.

In the latest hours of the night and the earliest hours of the day, a writer can find the solitude necessary for a long inward journey of the mind...

Writing a novel in 30 days? That's insane. The voices inside you head are all to glad to tell you what a thankless, silly challenge NaNoWriMo is.

The USS John Rodgers was assigned to drilling holes in the water in the Persian Gulf when a junior officer suddenly became seriously ill. The sight and sound of the "Desert Duck" was sheer beauty as it landed ...

'Death' should, in fact -- in most circumstances, at least -- be most studiously avoided. And this is more particularly so, when that Death relates to one's own person.

blurb

Alun Evans is a twenty-three year old English writer currently studying film in Cornwall, the South of England. Mainly interested in short stories and poetry, he has been influenced by a number of writers, including Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, Jack Kerouac, and Franz Kafka. He believes in the idea of simplistic writing to create as much emotion as possible in each sentence.

The hopseed bush can be grown into a nice tree, and adds color and texture to warm-climate gardens.

Missed the bus, missed the field trip -- but there is one thing that this kid knows about what to do when life seems more serious and sad than it should ...

In the City of Spires, there is a holiday that everyone celebrates, a holy-day of the human heart. Even the darkest winter must give way before it ...

Mad Lord Patu of the Homemade Beer and Mbanje Reefers has an artificial leg. Most days, that's just about all he wears, so its origin was bound to come up in conversation sooner or later ...