Tag: fiction

All Stories, auld author

Writers Reading. Review by Paul Kimm

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The Unfortunates by B. S. Johnson

I’ve always enjoyed reading books that challenge the reader, turn the experience on its head a bit, make me do some work in return for the work they’ve done, and just make me think about what’s possible with writing. There are those that do it with such force it makes for some mental heavy lifting and cognitive contortionism from the reader, David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest and Julio Cortazar’s Hopscotch being prime examples (even though I admit to having enjoyed reading both those), but I want to talk about one of my very favourite writers, B. S. Johnson.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Sign Of The Times Too (The Mile-Stone Inspector)

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Bernie loved this day and age.

Before, he was always cold.

He never had enough to eat.

And he hated to admit it, his weakness, his curse, his companion, his reason to stay alive was the sauce. These days he had as much booze as he wanted…Well…

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All Stories, Editor Picks, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Week 480: Tabby Rasa and Cat Commandements

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Tabula rasa, the blank slate, has taken a new meaning in the courtyard. One recent morning I left for work and saw a Red Cat of maybe four months in a window. Almost indigestibly cute, he was a war with the window shade and was, judging by the bent to hell slats, winning a decisive battle.

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auld author, Short Fiction

Auld Author – Katherine Mansfield by Leila

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The Collected Short Stories of Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) is available on Kindle for next to nothing. She was from New Zealand and is yet another scribe whom TB scythed early.

I’m rather tired of reading “a person of his/her times.” Who isn’t? Goddam unfounded superior attitude in my mind. Anyway, all times are pretty much the same–bullshit and power rule and people must conceal their true selves or risk expulsion from their tribes. Social media is just another form of the grapevine. Anyway, Katherine Mansfield was attracted to women and was smart enough not to make that lead news in the nineteen-teens and twenties, yet she was brave about such in her work.

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All Stories, Editor Picks, Latest News, Short Fiction

Week 466: Greatness Schmerateness; Five New Stories and Dueling Old Lists

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When I was in high school A Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin was considered the greatest rock song (greatest as in “progressive”–whose heyday was from the mid-sixties through the mid-seventies). Anyway, that’s what the guys on the FM radio said. At the start of this month (fifty years later, on the station that’s always playing where I work) Seattle’s “Home of Classic Rock,” KZOK, again voted it number one (narrowly edging out Bohemian Rhapsody, which finished second for the fifth year in a row). For the record, the Queen song is truly an innovative thing–it blew minds when it came around in 1976; and to be honest, I have always disliked Stairway. Fairly or otherwise I associate it with the slacker in an army coat who stank of weed and sat behind me in Social Studies class. He always fell asleep and I had to whack him on the head with exam papers when it was time to pass them back. A minor annoyance in my life, yet I have yet to forget it.

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All Stories, Horror

The Little Red Who Survived by Aleks McHugh

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Now first off, thank you for caring to listen. Or I presume so.I waited a long time to speak about the conspiracy that tried to bend me to its will and deny me mine, starting with my right to self-pleasure at the age of 12, to be master of my own body.

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Short Fiction

Ian by Hugh Cron

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Ian was a stereotype.

I didn’t really know him but I knew his wife.

The reason I say ‘stereotype’ is that he was a raging alcoholic but unbelievably functional. The usual story here, he worked in the entertainment industry as a lighting man for a theatre and that was a life that had alcohol not just at the end of the day, also throughout. As long as he could shine a spotlight and in these more technical days, programme a system, no one gave a shit.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Short Fiction

Peter by Hugh Cron (Strong Adult Content)

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“I need to speak to Peter.”

Ann looked at him and worried straight away.

“What’s wrong love, why has he got you so riled – I mean, for fuck sake, he’s Peter, the most inoffensive wee guy that we’ve ever known.”

Colin gave her a hug, “I don’t want to say anything until I hear his side.”

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Fantasy, Humour, Short Fiction

My Fair Juan G Starring Boots the Impaler By Leila Allison

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I was watching the 1969 Science Fiction flick The Valley of Gwangi on TV last month. It was playing on the ancient Philco set that connects the PDQ network in our sister realm of Other Earth to my home realm of Saragun Springs. The film was the final Ray Harrhausen/Willis O’Brien dinosaur picture. The story involved a thirty-foot tall, psychotic Allosaurus named (brace yourself) “Gwangi,” who somehow managed to reproduce (apparently without a Mrs. Gwangi) and survive at a “Forbidden Valley” in Mexico with other unlikely creatures for at least 145-million years–without, mind you, attracting notice until 1969–that from a reptile with the brain power of a caraway seed.

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Editor Picks, General Fiction, Humour, Short Fiction

Week 460: Terminating The Tree With Extreme Prejudice and Welcome to the Holiday Rerun Fest

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Fang and Rags circa 1972

Well here we are, Christmas. Today I choose to remember it well. My family used to include a Dachshund-Chihuahua mix named “Fang” who joined the team when I was in sixth grade (named after Phyllis Diller’s fictional husband). Fang was a fairly peaceful little guy but he hated Christmas trees. Every year he would attack the damn thing late at night at least once. His partner in crime “Rags,” a tiny Rat Terrier, would encourage Fang with little barks, but feign innocence when the light came on.

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