Tag: free reading

Fantasy, Humour, Short Fiction

My Fair Juan G Starring Boots the Impaler By Leila Allison

ireneallison12

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.

Continue reading “My Fair Juan G Starring Boots the Impaler By Leila Allison” →
Literally Reruns, Short Fiction

Literally Reruns – Half by Doug Hawley

ireneallison12

Well here we go, we now say farewell and thank you to 2023. And as the year cleans out its desk in the present and moves into the archives, we close it with the last of ten reruns over the past nine days!

Longtime site friend Doug Hawley specializes in making the absurd seem possible. And that talent is extremely present in Half. It begins with an almost religious disease matter-of-factly diagnosed by perhaps the most dubious physician since Wm. S. Burrough’s Dr. Benway of Naked Lunch.

Continue reading “Literally Reruns – Half by Doug Hawley” →
All Stories, Literally Reruns, Short Fiction

Literally Reruns – Mary, Joseph and the Baby by Diane M Dickson

ireneallison12

To locate this Holiday Rerun, I had to go way the hell back in the vault to find this wonderful little piece by our own Diane M Dickson. Mary, Joseph and the Baby is truer to the spirit of the occasion than anything you can buy at Amazon and the dialect is musical. Unique but it gets across.

It’s an old story in many ways, but blessed are the poor and meek no matter what the corporations say.

Continue reading “Literally Reruns – Mary, Joseph and the Baby by Diane M Dickson” →
All Stories, Literally Reruns, Short Fiction

Christmas Rerun – A Crow in a Pear Tree by Nik Eveleigh

ireneallison12

The saga of site co-founder Nik Eveleigh’s Storm Crow series remains to this day excellent reading. A sort of forlorn hero, whose humanity is commingled with humour and despair. And good old Stormcrow appeared in a Christmas tale seven years ago. Seven years is a magic number as far as time goes, and rest assured that readers new to Nik’s character will agree that the old crow has aged well.

Continue reading “Christmas Rerun – A Crow in a Pear Tree by Nik Eveleigh” →
All Stories, Literally Reruns, Short Fiction

Christmas Rerun – The Real Bad Snowman by David Henson

ireneallison12

Today’s Rerun is brought to you by the darkside of life. It ain’t aimable Frosty awaiting these children, but during this season it would be an error to omit the truth about the many lives around us in which misery is pretty much a full time experience. David Henson has a way of injecting some light into the darkest of places, which should be a quality found in Christmas.

Continue reading “Christmas Rerun – The Real Bad Snowman by David Henson” →
All Stories, Literally Reruns, Short Fiction

Bonus Christmas Rerun – The Perfect Personification of Religion by Hugh Cron

ireneallison12

Since it is Christmas Day itself, we add a bonus story by our own Hugh Cron. It is not our object to deride those who have faith or get sentimental about the holiday. And Hugh’s The Perfect Personification of Religion states the true meaning of Christmas better than a fleet of Rudolphs. It is a tale of common decency and a priest who made himself holy through his dedication.

Continue reading “Bonus Christmas Rerun – The Perfect Personification of Religion by Hugh Cron” →
Literally Reruns, Short Fiction

Christmas Rerun – A Little Red Wagon, A Long Remembered Face by Tom Sheehan

ireneallison12

Merry Christmas, even to the humbuggers. Today we present two in a series we call the Reruns of Christmas. James McEwan began this party yesterday, which will last through Sunday. And there will be no rest for the wicked because the new year begins with new stories next Monday.

Continue reading “Christmas Rerun – A Little Red Wagon, A Long Remembered Face by Tom Sheehan” →
All Stories, General Fiction

Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress by Ximena Escobar

literallystories2014

Warm tones hit the mahogany bed posts, struck by the sudden light entering the room. The French door moaned as the veil curtain swelled, and a leaf spiralled onto the crochet bed cover, the terracotta tiles, the dresser table.

Frida held a deep breath, albeit restrained inside the cast, until her ribs complained. As if she could capture the light within her lungs, the gap of blue that she envisioned open in the sky. Something inside her had changed; the narrowest ray of light had filtered through the fill of her darkness.

Continue reading “Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress by Ximena Escobar” →
All Stories, General Fiction

It’s Never Too Late by Tim Love

literallystories2014

With most first dates, I knew within seconds that we wouldn’t meet again. I didn’t feel that with Janet. Except for a few wrinkles, she could have been years younger than me. Maybe her eyes were too far apart and her mouth too narrow, but when she smiled all her features worked together. That said, getting her to smile was a challenge. We exchanged questions about each other, learning nothing more than in our online profiles. I couldn’t help studying her again as she walked to the toilet – her bright floral dress showed off her figure (was she rolling her hips?)  and her long hair was jet-black. Waiting for her to come back, I decided to raise the topic that the dating site matched us up with.

Continue reading “It’s Never Too Late by Tim Love” →
All Stories, General Fiction

Tea for Two by Rachel Sievers

literallystories2014

The door opens, the day is warm and the sun is already rising burning off the last wisps of fog. The child moves over the threshold holding a tortilla she found in the pantry. Last week the food bank handed out tortillas and she had filled her backpack full of them. Tortillas were good with anything from beans to peanut butter. This morning it was plain but she did want to wake any of the guests from last night, still asleep on the floor. 

Continue reading “Tea for Two by Rachel Sievers” →