Category: All Stories

All Stories, Fantasy, Horror

Wishbone by Jennie Boyes

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The castle ruin was the only shelter Famine could see for miles, a shadow cast on withered land, on mud, bracken and brittle heather. And on bones. Beyond was the sea, and snow clouds on the horizon. The gatehouse, its great rounded towers broken and jagged at the tops, stood defiant in the desolation, like an old, wounded knight after a battle. Wind, sea-salt, and even War had not defeated it, and as Famine traced the silhouette against the sky, he could have believed the castle would withstand time itself, if such a thing were possible.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Yakima Escapades by Tom Sheehan

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From one minute of the day to the next, Neckwrek Handel-Handel sang the song endlessly, “Ain’t No Jail Aholtin’ Me,” sang it, mouthed it, uttered it, yelled it. For his five years in Yakima Territorial Prison the guards always knew where he was, in what disposition, secure in one cell or another, or laboring on a prison work detail. Prisoner #127 was known by the only name ever used by him, Neckwrek Handel-Handel, but history had other versions that are worth unveiling if the man is to be known if not understood. Yakima Territorial Prison, as described by some Washington folks in the know, was “200 miles of nothing between here ‘n’ there,” and about the toughest place in the territory. He was 24 years old when he was brought to Yakima, the prison then just over a year old, and 29 when he escaped, in 1881.

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All Stories, Latest News

Week 258 – Sammy Being Low, Unintentional Confessions And Extradition For Privileged Bastards.

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Before we start one mention about horror writing – we don’t need horror fiction when we watch the Auschwitz Liberation Anniversary.

We send our deepest respects.

I just found out this week that my favourite Queen song (Spread Your Wings) was written by John Deacon. I’ve no problem with that, I simply hadn’t noticed and had assumed that the legend that was Freddie Mercury had written it. In a past life I used to write a lot of poetry and whilst doing some research, I found out that Freddie had recorded under the name Larry Lurex. His brilliant extravagance was evident very early on!!

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All Stories, General Fiction

Just Plain Hard Work of Ages, Work of Comets by Tom Sheehan

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The tip of the shovel had talked to him with a dull thud, not just through his ears, but totally. It came into his hands and up the stiffness of his arms, through the quick riot of nerves on red alert, through all passageways of recognition. It was wood! At its tip was wood, a cavernous wood, a chesty wood, an enclosing wood. Promise poised itself, much like awards’ night and names to be named. Light leaped at his back, behind his head. Down through the awesome sky of darkness he could feel a star draining, down through thirty-five years of a hole.

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All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller

Darby by Rachel Lynch

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Darby was born flying, and I was born hating her for it. Our house was just across the river from Darby’s family’s, our backyard and theirs stretching warlike to the banks. Their house was smaller than ours but more forceful; it was three stories tall and white and wide and had grand glass double-doors that looked out toward our back porch. We were born the same year, and our mothers would stand on either bank rubbing their bellies and swelling in the June heat.

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All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller

My Investigation into the Disappearance of Kyle Amito by Harrison Kim

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I try not to attract attention.  I breathe better incognito.  On a particular hot Sunday in July I parked about four blocks from Dollarton Beach.  I slung my two pairs of binoculars across my neck, and carefully wandered down a wide asphalt path.  My mission: to lay low behind some logs and scan across the shoreline, make a few notes.  I’d be perceived as a bird watcher.  I sat on the sand observing through each one of the binoculars and sucking on a pure cane sugar Kombucha drink.  I was rudely interrupted when a lanky, curly haired lifeguard with “Ben Acker” marked on a large name tag on his pants asked me “Where did you get that T shirt?”

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