Literally Reruns, Short Fiction

Literally Reruns: Paper Lined Tables by Rachel Sievers

The two things that stand out for me in Rachel Sievers’ Paper Lined Tables are displacement and expectation. A hard to face big problem is usually addressed through an unrelated smaller trouble, and waiting for something is often better than getting that something. Mostly, the things most wrong in our lives are impossible to articulate without receiving negative pushback from a person associated with the woe. And dreaming of a best pal dog without accounting for how you will deal with the uptick of chewed slippers, barking and dogshit in your life can be stressful.

Continue reading “Literally Reruns: Paper Lined Tables by Rachel Sievers”
Literally Reruns, Short Fiction

Literally Reruns: Walk on By by Jane Houghton

Even the stars will go out, one by one, the great and the small, at entropy all will be done. And such is the case with Margot, a small star in the show business sky, yet a first magnitude sun in Jane Houghton’s Walk on By. This is a fine example of parallel writing. The current story nurtures the backstory and both resolve together in a bittersweet, even uplifting conclusion.

Continue reading “Literally Reruns: Walk on By by Jane Houghton”
All Stories, Literally Reruns, Short Fiction

Literally Reruns- Hi, I’m Stacy by Nyx-Bean

Quite often a writer will streak across our virtual sky, a word comet, who graces our viewing for a while before moving in. From late 2016 into ’17, Nyx Bean gave us four memorable stories, and it is a shame that they should sit in the vault, alone, neglected.

Continue reading “Literally Reruns- Hi, I’m Stacy by Nyx-Bean”
All Stories, Literally Reruns, Short Fiction

Literally Reruns – Word Puppet by Nik Eveleigh

Word Puppet by Nik Eveleigh is something I can relate to. Writers create characters and then take the job of their God and that of whatever Universe the character inhabits. Even though we control the action, no one can be certain exactly what kind of God is in charge of her/his reality. Does your God care about you? Or are you stricken with a God who has a nifty twist in mind and you are nothing but a means of arriving at it?

Continue reading “Literally Reruns – Word Puppet by Nik Eveleigh”
All Stories, Literally Reruns, Short Fiction

Literally Reruns – Concealer by Hugh Cron

MC “Laura” is nothing short of honest, which gives Hugh Cron’s Concealer an extra level of irony. At her interview for what we Americans call Unemployment Insurance, she divulges the reasons for her loss of a job–and how. Her delightfully profane observations and storytelling (only half-heartedly, so it seems, warned off by her interviewer) say much about the downside of the workplace and people in general.

Continue reading “Literally Reruns – Concealer by Hugh Cron”
All Stories, Literally Reruns, Short Fiction

Literally Reruns – Byrds Syndrome by David Henson

Long time site friend David Henson has published everything from tragedy to jocularity with us. He excels at stretching reality until you believe that, why yes, I can see a future in which handling a black mamba for forty seconds without dying can improve one’s credit score.

Continue reading “Literally Reruns – Byrds Syndrome by David Henson”
All Stories, Literally Reruns, Short Fiction

Literally Reruns – Bubbles by Diane M Dickson

Whenever I read of domestic abuse I always think “If anyone did that to me, he’d be picking up teeth.” Fortunately, that has never been put to task in my world, but if so, would I react as I say? I really don’t know, I might go for an eye instead.

Continue reading “Literally Reruns – Bubbles by Diane M Dickson”
All Stories, Literally Reruns, Short Fiction

Literally Reruns – Two Characters In a Shantytown by Tom Sheehan

Tom Sheehan’s Two Characters in Shantytown is a high combination of realism, art, despair, the past and that which carries the same into the future. The “cartographer” knows that the story will not come full circle until someone is fed to the river.

Continue reading “Literally Reruns – Two Characters In a Shantytown by Tom Sheehan”