Dean cradles the pint glass like it’s the only thing holding him together. I don’t know how he survived losing Sophie and the baby in the same night, but eight months later he’s made it to The Lantern on Christmas Eve.
Continue reading “One for the Road by Neil James”
The Legend of the Devil’s Brew
Gleefully unfit for the beige, and honest to the marrow, Hugh Cron has had the Mature Content tag applied more often than any other writer on the site. Although I haven’t checked, I’m willing to venture that he has more of those than all combined writers on the site.
I think that is something to be proud of!
A lot of those tags are due to Hugh’s direct opinion on religion. His writing reminded me of my time in a tenth grade Mythology class I took at age sixteen. Upon reading myths from many societies I had to wonder why something as clearly mythic as the Bible (and Koran and etc) is treated as real and the others as fiction, even though they too had been real at one time. I was not the only one who wondered that–a classmate raised his hand and pretty much asked the instructor the same question. He smiled and said, “I’d tell you but I don’t want to get fired.”
Although Hugh does not need to worry about getting fired, I believe he’d say what he thinks no matter what. Another thing to be proud of!
Let’s ask a couple of questions:
Q-1: Although it didn’t happen here, you have often been attacked (well, in the wimpy online fashion) by Christians who object to you using your right to speak your mind. I’m all for people having faith, if it helps them, but what has been your reaction to those incidents?
Q-2: I think if it were possible, The Devil’s Brew would take over every pub and tavern in the land. Do you agree?
Hi Leila,
Thanks so much for choosing this and thanks for the questions – These are a blast to do!!
Qu. 1 – I just laugh!! Not for the reasons that folks might think. I have the same attitude to staunch supporters of politics or royalty. If they believe what they spout, then there is nothing that I could say that should bother them. If they believe that their faith or loyalty is absolute, then there is fuck all that I say should matter. I think on it this way – What causes more trouble, belief or opposing reaction?
Qu 2. If it would get folks back into pubs, what are a few souls to keep an old and once cherished industry flourishing??
My own Devil’s Brew is quantity not specifics. When I was younger I had a phrase about being ‘five haufs in’ – That meant I was at the stage where I didn’t give a fuck but was still in total control. Over the years, unfortunately, that has increased to ‘twelve haufs in!’ I do have the curse / salvation of the quick drinker – Three quarters of the night I’m sober, it never builds, one drink later I want a kebab and a sleep!!
Thanks again Leila, these are always fun!!
Hugh
A Kvetch
We have now officially opened the twelfth year of Literally Stories UK. And as it goes in life we have faced a recent challenge after we were listed (unbeknownst to us) by one of those publications that do such things. I do not know why such services still exist in the era of Google, nor do I grasp why people rely on such services, but the situation exists.
Continue reading “Week 560: A New Year Begins”
When Drea’s mother called to ask if she could take her to see Jerry, Drea clenched her fists without realizing it and dropped the phone.
“What happened?” Drea’s mother asked.
“Nothing,” Drea said loudly as she squatted to pick up the phone. She sat down hard on the floor and tried to breathe slowly, in for four and out for six, as her therapist had suggested she do when triggered.
Continue reading “Seeing Jerry by Susan R. Weinstein”
“Five in a row.” Kenny Langston sits on the front porch with his wife. “A couple were even threes.” The couple continue watching as their 10-year-old daughter, Alex, banks one in off the goal Kenny mounted to the garage.
Continue reading “Deadheads by David Henson”
Cedric stepped down from the van and squinted toward the storefront. The icy wind roared through the low buildings of the industrial park, passing through his threadbare overcoat and making his skin ache. Reaching back into the vehicle’s dank warmth, he rolled up a small sleeping bag and stuffed it into the footwell along with the small camping stove. He carefully locked the door and walked across the snowy parking lot toward Rick’s Repair Shop, a small red and yellow building behind Main Street.
Continue reading “Get Yourself a Hotplate, Pal by Daniel Crépault”
The river’s current was strong. Everyone knew that, although very few ever felt it. The ripping current. That current was what caused the body to float to the surface. It had been the first dead person I ever saw. Actually, no, that’s a lie. John’s funeral had been my first sight of a corpse. I suppose it all started with him. I was not meant to see that one,not that I was meant to see the other.
Continue reading “Downstream by Sean Cannon”
The hydrangeas were bent under veils of snow. Irritated at late spring snowstorms and disorder, Ethan Crick had his broom to the bushes and the sidewalk before the fat flakes had stopped falling. He noticed the oddity right away, standing up out of the drift, pointing to heaven.
Continue reading “The Finger by Joy Oden”
Kim Yujǒng:
A Writer Who Lives On Almost a Century After His Death
Bruce Fulton
Kim Yujǒng (1908-1937) is one of several Korean writers who lived abbreviated lives but whose works helped cement the role of Korean short fiction as the foundation of modern Korean literature. The latest edition of his collected works (2012) lists 32 stories (in addition to a dozen personal essays—sup’il—and a handful of other prose writings). Of these stories, 27 were published during his lifetime, almost all between mid-1935 and mid-1937—one of the most productive bursts of creativity in modern Korean literary history.
Continue reading “Writers Read – Jade Bunny – A translation by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton”
OOOOOOFFFFF,
Continue reading “Year 11!”
literally stories 