All Stories, General Fiction, Horror

Hooked by Jack Kamm

literallystories2014

“We create monsters and then we can’t control them.” –Joel Coen

Looking back through the window of memory with all its scratches, I’m driven to tell my story not to frighten but to enlighten because in the end—that cocky, inescapable end—-it’s truth, not reality, that transforms us. According to Dr. Hornsby, the men shuffling cards at my kitchen table that December at 3 in the morning were part of what he called my ongoing childhood fantasy— except that, unlike all the other fantasies, this one was the first that could be fatal. 

“It’s called paracosm, Peter,” he informed me.  “None of it is real.”

Continue reading “Hooked by Jack Kamm” →
All Stories, Historical

Shinmiyangyo, 1971 by Samuel T. Hake.

literallystories2014

Dock-tailed and white-eyed, the aged collie barked at a boy’s approach. The boy halted and then crept on in silence. Her cloudy gaze remained fixed. Twenty paces down he turned and watched the blind animal still shouting threats at that vacated point. He stood dumb, impressed. Something caught his eye in the rear of Train Man’s house. It was a dark figure swinging a large hammer in the perpetual motion of an oil derrick, and from that ceaseless striking of steel on steel emanated a violence so general it seemed part of the air.

Continue reading “Shinmiyangyo, 1971 by Samuel T. Hake.” →
All Stories, Science Fiction

Bunker Cleaning Lady by Franny French

literallystories2014

They only had time to perfect the robot dog, and the robot car, and the robot bank teller, which still eyed people like me with suspicion. And the robot mail carriers, whose knee socks would not stay up. And the robot Walmart greeters, whose human accents weren’t much better than the old GPS bots that put the emphasis on the wrong syllable (“Take a left onto ML … K-Junior Boulevard”). And the robot armed-agents-of-the-state, which, it’s weird, actually did resemble pigs. Before the outside air became unbreathable, they never got around to perfecting the robot house cleaner. That left them no choice but to save people like me, laborers who more and more had gotten used to things not working in our favor.

Continue reading “Bunker Cleaning Lady by Franny French” →
All Stories, Fantasy

The Monster at the end of this Tale by Mohammed Babajide Mohammed

literallystories2014

Growing up as a Nigerian meant that your parents filled your head with all sorts of supernatural phenomena. When we were children, my mother would tell us these euphoric stories, a lot of which kept us up all night, like they kept a lot of other kids around us up at night as they too were being told these stories in their own homes.

Continue reading “The Monster at the end of this Tale by Mohammed Babajide Mohammed” →
All Stories, General Fiction, Horror

Gentlemens’ Agreement by Steven French

literallystories2014

As one of the new faculty members at a small Midwestern college, I used to get the short straw when it came to various off-campus activities, such as ‘community outreach’. Basically, that involved a long drive out to some godforsaken rural township in the middle of nowhere to give a talk on local history to a bunch of bored Shriners. Who never asked questions, never showed any more interest than ‘that’s another event ticked off the calendar’ and who wouldn’t even stump up for dinner afterwards. Which meant hunting down a diner somewhere for a slice of pie as a reward to myself, partnered with a stay-awake coffee and refill.

Continue reading “Gentlemens’ Agreement by Steven French” →
auld author, Short Fiction

Auld Author – Katherine Mansfield by Leila

ireneallison12

The Collected Short Stories of Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) is available on Kindle for next to nothing. She was from New Zealand and is yet another scribe whom TB scythed early.

I’m rather tired of reading “a person of his/her times.” Who isn’t? Goddam unfounded superior attitude in my mind. Anyway, all times are pretty much the same–bullshit and power rule and people must conceal their true selves or risk expulsion from their tribes. Social media is just another form of the grapevine. Anyway, Katherine Mansfield was attracted to women and was smart enough not to make that lead news in the nineteen-teens and twenties, yet she was brave about such in her work.

Continue reading “Auld Author – Katherine Mansfield by Leila” →
All Stories, Science Fiction

Last stable Backup by Ed Dearnley

literallystories2014

“Harry… Harry…”

The voice was muffled, barely audible.         

Who was Harry?

A foaming mess of memories flooded into his head, a tidal wave of information he could barely comprehend.

The wave retreated, leaving a simple truth washed up amongst the flotsam and jetsam. 

He was Harry.

Continue reading “Last stable Backup by Ed Dearnley” →
All Stories, General Fiction, Historical

An Appreciation of Alfredo Epps’ ‘The Last Jacobite’ by Michael Bloor

literallystories2014

Alexander Korda’s 1948 film ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’, starring a moustache-less David Niven, was a famous flop, in both Britain and America.  At the time, it was suggested by the critics that Niven had been miscast, but Alfredo Epps’ new release, ‘The Last Jacobite,’ implies that there was a deeper problem with Korda’s original movie. Namely, that the main character was at fault, not the main star.

Continue reading “An Appreciation of Alfredo Epps’ ‘The Last Jacobite’ by Michael Bloor” →