Tag: free reading

All Stories, Fantasy

The Story of Jimmy Gray by Gerald Coleman

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“What the people believe is true.”
—Nanabush, Son of the West Wind, Grandson of the Moon

I was a story I told myself.

My body required mechanical help with inputs and outputs, causes and effects—the purpose of one function needed to be fitted to the function of a higher purpose, from swerve of nerve to bend of bone, synapse to neuron across the junctions electric.

Body shifts, reflex tests, muscle pulls were performed. Others asked questions neither understood nor answerable.

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Literally Reruns, Short Fiction

Literally Reruns – Franky and Jesus by -Hugh Cron

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We often run pieces that rub some persons the wrong way. Some folks are sensitive, others as Jack Nicholson once observed “can’t handle the truth.” Still, it is far better to provoke a reaction than not. Sort of like there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

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Latest News, Short Fiction

Week 487 – Famous Five, Charlie and Young Mr Bell!!

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Who is the greatest writer ever?

Is that a loaded question?

Literally snobs will come up with the usual suspects that I’ll not mention. I can’t really as there are very few of the so called classics that I have read.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Omaha Hold ‘Em by Shoshauna Shy

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When I inherited my great-uncle’s fortune, I quit my job at the drycleaners, but I kept driving my thirdhand Nissan. I didn’t stop shopping for housewares at Twice But Nice, and I even renewed the lease on my two-bedroom walk-up on Standard Street.

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All Stories, General Fiction, Historical

Buffalo Bill’s Day Out by Michael Bloor

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On July 3rd, 1903, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show gave a performance in Abergavenny, a market town in the Black Mountains of South Wales. The town sits surrounded by seven hills, but the most prominent is The Sugar Loaf (it’s Welsh name is Pen-y-fâl), which looms over the town. At the close of his show, Buffalo Bill annouced to the crowd his intention to climb The Sugar Loaf the next morning. It was said that, the next day, Bill was accompanied up the mountain by half the adults and all the children of the town.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Nobody Ever Retires, Even After They’re Dead [1] by J Bradley Minnick

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Mr. Balding, our 5th grade Social Studies teacher, was so old that the Germans shot the hair from his head on two separate occasions and in two separate wars. Mr. Balding was so old that he hated and despised discussing his age. He was so old that the hairs in his ears had fossilized and had grown longer than the hair on his head. He was so old that his cataracts had cataracts. He was so old that he couldn’t remember being our age. And, yet, in a weak attempt to connect to what he imagined to be our violent sensibilities, once a month, or so, some military and patriotic force compelled him to tell gory and graphic war stories from behind the full view of the obit page of Peoples Gazette—our local and irregularly published bi-weekly.

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Humour, Short Fiction

Samoa Moa by James Hanna

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 (A Novel Excerpt)

Author’s Note

Gertie McDowell, a naïve young girl with a talent for misadventure, has joined a women’s wrestling troupe called Christian Ladies of Wrestling. The troupe was put together by Wanda Sue, a bank robber with a streak of religion whom Gertie met while serving prison time because she “trusted the wrong sort of fella.” The mission of the troupe is to bring folks closer to Jesus by having women posing as Christians wallop the daylights out of women posing as transgressors. Gertie’s wrestling persona is Haystacks Holly, a lustful temptress who leads married men astray. Her tag team partner, an Apache girl named Cocheta, is billed as Blasphemous Berta, an outspoken atheist who deifies witchcraft. Both girls incense Christian audiences by flaunting their unsavory lifestyles.

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Historical, Short Fiction

The Radium Girls by Chloe Hehir.

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1917.

In her most primitive form, Nora was nothing but an artist. Her papers were covered in sketches, an arch of flowers in one corner, life-like copies of butterflies sketched into another. Every pen in the house was out of ink, every pencil leveled into nothing but a stubby eraser.

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Short Fiction, Sunday whoever

Interview Steven

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This week we take a deeper look into the mind of site friend and excellent contributor Steven French. To date, no one has gone Turtle on us; everyone has replied brilliantly, as has Steven who is a relative newcomer to LS, but a person whose impact has already been widely appreciated.

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Editor Picks, General Fiction, Latest News, Short Fiction

Week 486: Beware of the Amazing Bogey-Duck

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(As for the image, Elliot is on vacation this week)

Maybe I’m Amazed

I live by the water–by name, the Puget Sound, a cold and unforgiving northern sea connected to the Pacific Ocean; abundant with life, ghosts and sources of amazement. When I was small I’d amaze myself with the idea that I could get in a row boat anywhere on the Sound and proceed to China without having to touch land once. I dismissed a nagging voice that informed me that I’d likely drown long before reaching the Strait of Juan de Fuca; nagging voices are for grown ups. And although I’ve dealt with the Sound in one way or another nearly everyday of my life, I do not know how to swim beyond the sort of “floating stroke” peculiar to corpses. Cold northern seas will kill an unprotected Olympic swimmer just as fast as any non-aquatic type of person; thus the skill is as futile as wearing an asbestos suit for a walk on the sun. But the sea and surroundings are excellent places to spice up reality through what I like to call “self amazement.”

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