Category: General Fiction

All Stories, Editor Picks, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Week 508:Inspiring Words From the Past; New Inspiring Words and Remembering a Friend

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Inside Information Inspiration

At the start of his career Hunter S. Thompson typed copies of famous novels in effort to gain a “muscle memory” of greatness–Gatsby for instance; the whole thing, seeking the inspiration; how it felt to write the powerful words. I have never gone that far, but I do surround myself with what I think are great words and images. These are pasted to my walls along with what I consider fine art. Visually, I have (among many others) Van Gough, Picasso, Dali and Giger prints as well as a large Shakespeare poster (whose accusatory eyes tend to follow me for some reason) on my walls. But it is not all highbrow, because I also have stuff like Elliott the Pigeon (of this wrap’s header), “Dogs Playing Poker” and a poster for Ed Wood’s Bride of the Monster on the same walls

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All Stories, General Fiction

In Want of a Home by Alannah Tjhatra

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Angel was sprawled across the couch, the TV turned to Seinfeld. She had a cigarette in one hand and a magazine in the other.

“Wish you’d at least take that shit outside.” Grace stripped off her soaking coat, peeled a dead worm off the sole of her shoe. She stuck her sneakers on the heater to dry.

Angel rolled her eyes, a puff of smoke escaping her lips. “And hello to you too, baby.”

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All Stories, General Fiction

Being Billy Olsen by Gerald Coleman

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“One’s real life is often the life one does not lead.”
—Oscar Wilde

Billy Olsen didn’t remember the moment he started to grow into the image everyone had of him. Nor whether other people’s “Billy Olsen” was anything like the real one, if there was one. Self-awareness was not a strength. Perhaps that’s why he confided in me.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Rence in Repose by J.H. Siegal

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John Rence, the cobbled-up person you thought you knew, now lies here charming and cold.

His voice will endure, on those many recordings, and many of you will claim, hearing them again someday in a department store or in a television commercial, to have known him.  But he was not the sloppy socialite you thought you met in bright apartments and dingy clubs.  He was in fact a marionette holding his own strings.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Joker by Kaela Li

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Our love language is card games.

Idiot expresses our affection and respect, BS is our way of checking in with each other. War to express our shared frustrations. Spit and Blackjack to say hello and goodbye. A jack secretly gifted in the hallways between class is an inside joke. A queen is empowerment, when the hours get too long. A two is permission to rock the boat and get wild.

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General Fiction, Short Fiction

What Can Anyone Say by Matt Liebowitz

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“This didn’t happen when we were in school.”

“That’s true, honey, it didn’t.”

“I just don’t get why now all of a sudden – wait, why do you? – you don’t have to sound so patronizing.”

“I’m just listening, honestly.” She changes from her robe into scrubs, loose fitting and dark purple as an eggplant. Her phone rings. She answers it on speaker. “Say hi to your father,” she says.

“Hi dad,” Lily says. “How’s the year so far?”

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All Stories, General Fiction

The Three Fishermen by Tom Sheehan

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There were three of them. There were four of us, and April lay on the campsite and on the river, a mixture of dawn at a damp extreme and the sun in the leaves at cajole. This was Deer Lodge on the Pine River in Ossipee, New Hampshire. The lodge was naught but a foundation remnant in the earth. Brother Bentley’s father, Oren, had found this place sometime after the First World War, a foreign affair that had seriously done him no good. But he found solitude abounding here. Now we were here, post-World War II, post-Korean War, Vietnam War on the brink. So much learned, so much yet to learn.

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All Stories, General Fiction

The Ghost of Van Gogh by Dale Williams Barrigar

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An Empty Family Cabin

I arrived after midnight. I found the key on the peg in the unused barn using the flashlight on my phone.

There was a blanket of stars so thick I stood in the barn door staring upward at the swirling white masses for a long time after I found the key. The shadows in the old, haunted barn had made me think of the birth of Christ story as I remembered all the departed members of my family.

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Editor Picks, Fantasy, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Week 506: A Big Announcement; Surreal the Deal; Five Great Values; Crystal Ball Questions

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A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

First, before the Big Announcement, our thanks go to Doug Hawley for taking the helm last week. We look forward to extending further invitations to do so to our frequent writers and site friends!

Next week will feature our annual anniversary post. This year is special because it marks ten years for Literally Stories. There will be the many special features we add to our anniversary wraps plus an abundance of new ones. We have been working on this since summer and we hope to see one and all next week. As always, bring the kids, show up drunk, clothing is optional.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Rage by Paul E Goldberg

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The guitar player began. The two younger women, the singers, looked to the dancer, then to one another and laughed. Everyone knew the dancer was crazy. What would happen tonight? What madness revealed when, after standing stock still, face intense, concentrating, ugly, man-like, she would explode in sudden but precise movement. Arms and legs lashing out, a burning, erotic anger masked behind the frozen expression on her face. After moving across the stage, she would come to a sudden, freezing halt, slamming her foot down on the floor—loud. The women startled even when they knew it was coming. The dancer looked at the man—her partner. She always chose a younger man. He looked back, smiled but at a distance. She glared at him then suddenly moved again, whirling, white skirt flaring out to reveal a flash of the carmine lining.

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