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Week 224 – Characters, Sixteen Points And Two Types Of Shandy

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t read novels anymore. I miss them but I think when you read as many shorts as we do, your reading discipline changes. At one time I enjoyed reading forty pages of build up, now I think ‘Get fucking on with it.’

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All Stories, General Fiction

Old Rain by Ian Murphy

The boy’s father considered there to be two primary aspects to parenting – the importance of time spent with the child and the importance of time spent without the child. One took precedence over the other. Once a month, without fail, the father would take the boy to the barber and they would both get their hair cut the exact same way. The father would have a shave and the boy would envy him while he had it. It was because of this ritual that the boy would forever remember the back of his father’s head.

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All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller

Blueberry by Joshua Stevenson

Blueberry

You wrestle with the blueberry pie as you floss through traffic on the freeway. The lop-sided bundle of pie looks like a monkey got ahold of an aluminum foil roll and tried to wrap a banana. You chuckle; you’ll tell Berry that one.

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All Stories, Fantasy

Living Silver by M. Jacobs

I have a brother who isn’t a boy at all, but a fish.

When I tell people this, most of them chuckle politely, their bustling minds already flicking past the youthful imaginings of the charming little boy. That is, until they’ve seen him with their own eyes. My brother with his transparent fins and gills cut into the side of his neck and of course- the sea of shimmering scales that secretly hold all the colours of the world.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Vmbra Wormwood by Leila Allison

And the name of the star is called Wormwood…

–Revelation 8:11

Pus star Wormwood glowered ceaselessly in the cigarette sky. Although it was only midday, Wormwood pulled long shadows from the sour crabapple trees, whose fruit not even the crows will eat. Embittered little trees, Scotch broom, feral blackberries and scrub grass are all that grow in the brief ridges and ravines and knolls that serve as the community “backyard” throughout the valley. During wildfire season the broom pods burst and the smoky wind disperses their dusty spore. During wildfire season it’s easy to believe in hell.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Martin Gets a Letter by Ferguson Williams

It was official. Martin McClintock was scheduled for recall. Recall was his name for it. He’d also heard revoke, the big take back, shit outta luck (that was the sinners’ special), and the Rapture. That was a favorite of the bible thumpers. Whatever it was called didn’t matter though.  His number was up and he knew it as soon as he opened his mailbox. Continue reading “Martin Gets a Letter by Ferguson Williams”