The D train doors closed just as Sammy stepped onto the platform of the West 4th Street station. Slightly miffed, he was nevertheless glad to be out of the January cold. He removed his pipe from the pocket of his overcoat, filled the bowl with loose tobacco, tamped it down into a wad, and lit it with a strike anywhere match he ran across the metal No Smoking sign on the station wall.
Continue reading “The Doppler Effect by Mark Russ”
Dr Williams soaped his hands under water. Important to keep them clean, he thought. For me more than anything. He watched the suds spill into the sink, twirling in clean white loops, neatly gurgling, almost comforting. At last, he withdrew; hands blue and sparkling from the cold.
Continue reading “Clean hands by Otto Alexander”
When an Antarctic scientist uncovered an alien space ship while digging for a latrine, he sent for the best crypto-biologists, archaeologists and astronomers to come to the Antarctic base. After the local Antarctic scientists were assembled, they entered the ship which had unrecognizable instruments and made weird sounds like those of a Theremin. They quickly discovered something encased in ice, which they hauled off to their camp.
Continue reading “Brave (not nude or new) Newt World by Doug Hawley”
Today is a real delight we have three wonderful pieces by the star who is Tom Sheehan. Anyone who has read much of Tom’s work will know how much his location near the Saugus River means to him and how it feeds his writing to take us all there with him. Tom’s time serving in Korea is another strong and most often stunning content in his huge cannon of work and Interception by a Muse includes both of these and though it may not be strictly fiction it’s a darned good read. And while you are still pondering the quality of wordsmanship read on and treat yourself to two more examples of fine writing. Upon My River, Upon My Soul and Words make up the rest of this Triple Treat.
Continue reading “Sunday Whatever – A Triple Treat of Tom’s”
And the Brain Dead Shall Lead Them
If it weren’t for slogans and bumper-sticker philosophies, management would have very little to say at work meetings. Just the other day, at a meeting, I heard the slogan “Write What You Know” “shared” by a member of the “team” (as anyone who has worked at least one day in life, the preponderance of facetious quotation marks soon becomes obvious). I work in a government warehouse that delivers supplies procured from the “civilian sector” to various locations on base. Cases of toilet paper and flats of bottled water, that sort of stuff. There ain’t a whole lot of writing what I know in that field, yet it got said because it has taken its place among managerial verbal dingleberries such as “Wow, let me look into that and get back to you”–which, translated from management-speak, means “I do not care, and hell will grow petunias before I get back to you.”
Continue reading “WEEK 435: Crows; Brilliance and a Fourth of July Salute to the UK”
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A Nocturnal Visit
I entered my office one morning and discovered a playbill pasted to the window. It was on the outside facing in. A quick check of the spy-cam I recently installed revealed that a Trans Weasel named Penrose had stuck the playbill to my window precisely at the stroke of midnight.
In Penrose’s case “Trans” doesn’t refer to gender (of which she or he is mysterious about). Penrose is a minion of the Witch HeXopatha; HeXy often endows her beloved animal toadies with abilities not normally associated with their species. In that context only, it was perfectly normal that Penrose had morphed into a Flying Weasel.
Continue reading “SaragunVision ’23 By Leila Allison”
There are, of course, spooks and sprites, goblins and ghosts, on every habitable planet in all the galaxies. Even here, in the Ant Nebula.
Are they indigenous to those planets? Or were they brought there by the space travelers who journeyed millions of miles from the earth?
Who knows?
Continue reading “Goblins and Ghosts in the Nebula of Ants by Steven Lebow”
One. Two. Three. Four. How. Are. You. Today? One. Two. Three. Four. How. Are. You. Today? One. Two. Three… What is that? A mole? When did that get there? Oh god. Fucking fuck. It’s OK, you’re FINE you ugly hog, you. Ian is going to hate this. You think he’ll take you in? With that thing on your face? Keep dreaming. People, better yet, Canada doesn’t care what’s in that peanut brain of yours, they care about what is covering it up. Go ahead, tell yourself that’s a stupid thought. Tell yourself you’re OK.
‘You are OK’.
Continue reading “Meeting of the Minds by Neil Jefferies”
The wind off Nauset Bay is strong and insistent, demanding my presence. It draws me from the long comfort of my home, and yet, it does not have to pull too hard. This is the debtor’s wind and I know why it is here.
Continue reading “The Returning by Rob O’Keefe”
literally stories 