Tag: fiction

All Stories, General Fiction

Spring-Summer Diary by Tobias Haglund

Tobias Haglund

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4.3..

Beef, potatoes, gravy, fork and knife to the left, glass to the right. The volume set to eleven and the table lamp lit, not the standalone lamp.

4.6..

Switched detergent!!!

4.8..

Bianca’s visit was cancelled so I had to throw away the pies. Also if I’m being honest to myself I don’t like pies.

4.9..

A raccoon family found the pies. The two trash cans were open and garbage all over our driveway when he left for work. I need to learn! How can I be so stupid!? My shirt’s ruined now of course. A shower will clean my face, but my shirt is ruined. The gray-brownish liquid. It’s in my hair! I need a shower.

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All Stories, Horror

A Roaming Tat by Frederick K. Foote

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This is without a shadow of a doubt the most disgusting, pig sty of a tattoo shop I have ever had the displeasure of visiting. It’s in the bathroom of an abandoned Shell station about ten miles off Highway 99 just south of Fresno. It reeks of urine and feces and is littered with used condoms and equally used sanitary napkins.

The walls are smeared with what looks like dried feces and graffiti written in the same substance. I hold my breath as I address the two thin, bearded white men in immaculate white doctor jackets with name tags reading, Alphonse and Dupree. Despite the doctor jackets, they are somewhat lacking in bedside manner.

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Editor Picks, Writing

Editor Picks by Vic Smith

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We invited Literally Stories author and friend, Vic Smith, to be Editor for a day and choose three great short stories from the site. Here is what Vic had to say about the three stories he chose and why he felt they were special.

This list of my three favourite stories from Literally Stories only crystallised as I set out to write it. These are the stories that meant most to me at that moment. At another time, when I’m in a different mood or when the weather has changed, it would be a different list. The depth of talent here is too great to be summed up in such a small number.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Horror

A Geronimo Moon by Catfish McDaris

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Maybe it was thoughts about Geronimo or the brick smokestack jutting up against the dark Milwaukee night that made me think about the lean times when I was a kid back in New Mexico. I stood outside my parent’s bedroom door and could hear them talking about money, how we’d be lucky to have enough food for the family through winter. My dad said he’d take me and we’d go to California to work in an asbestos factory. A bricklayer friend of his had called the week before telling him about the job.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Humour

Toffee-Head Tom by Hugh Cron

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Toffee-Head Tom was born to Caramel Jeannie and Jammy-Dodger Rodger. He wasn’t an attractive child and had no friends as such. In those days he was classed as special; now-a-days he would have had a list of names.

He lived happily with his parents. They would only eat pudding if the previous meal had included potatoes.

They spent their Sundays reading excerpts from the Pears’ Cyclopedia and drinking Rainbow Sherbet.

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Latest News

Literally Stories Week 28

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Anyone who has followed the progress of Literally Stories over the past seven months will testify to the fact there are no specific genres or themes favoured above any other in the choice of stories we have published. No subject matter has taken precedence over any other. There is no writing style which is de rigueur with the Editors of the site. Just good stories. At any rate, we, the Editors, like to think so. Not that every story is to everyone’s taste. You can please some of the people all of the time…

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All Stories, General Fiction

Expectations by Fred Miller

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The eighteen wheelers sound as if one may soon graze the edge of my bed, and the air conditioner rattles like farm machinery in dire need of oil. The motel rug reeks of mildew, and a distant whistle wails every ninety minutes or so. I’m almost home.

When my father passed away a month ago, I knew I was destined to see the farm where he was born during the Great War. Don’t ask me why, but like a butterfly hell-bent for Mexico, I sensed the fates had ordered this trek.

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All Stories, General Fiction

The Woman Upstairs by Michail Mulvey

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I can hear her, the woman upstairs. Especially on a Friday or Saturday night when she’s entertaining a guest. The two, the woman and her guest, trade small talk. Over drinks, most likely. I only catch a line here and there, especially if I’m watching TV. Eventually the small talk dies out and the entertaining goes horizontal – I can tell by the rhythmic squeaking of her sofa-bed.

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Editor Picks, Writing

Editor Picks by Hugh Cron

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When we thought about doing this I considered researching, re-reading and trying to come across as a damn sight more intelligent than I am. I therefore decided to do this off the cuff. That is what it is all about. In my lifetime I have read over 400 books and I would not be able to hazard a guess at the amount of short stories. Within all of the short stories published on Literally Stories, I remember some. Those are the ones that I would like to consider.

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