I’d intended “The Man in the Tree” to be my fifth book published. It was an accidental mouse click that lead to it being the first. Buy it here. Mr. Bojangles is a collection of all the stories created during my first 30-day flash challenge in August 2021. Buy it here. This is probably my… Continue reading I Published Five Books!
Author: singram1028
Second 30-Day Flash Challenge
My Favorite Twelve Stories On June 30, 2022, I completed my second 30-day flash fiction challenge. Here are my twelve favorite stories produced during this challenge. Day 2 – The Ladder in the Box (a dream) – I love the imagery in this story and it was honestly something I dreamt of one night. Day… Continue reading Second 30-Day Flash Challenge
Flight 497
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 30 “Tell my dad…,” But, you’re my son…, why can’t he say the words? ### Clark looks out the flight tower window again. It’s going to bad one; the black sky is fat with storm clouds. As if 497 needed more things to go wrong. They’d lost two engines in… Continue reading Flight 497
Hexagram 57, Wind over Wind
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 29 As the doctor retraced the spots, the man remembered the trails and how simple life could be there. He’d blown through a lot of savings, planned his hike endlessly, then hiked an anemic 500 miles before calling it quits. The actual number was closer to 380. The last 120… Continue reading Hexagram 57, Wind over Wind
A House of Sun, Sky, and Sand
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 28 A lot changed for Scott when he stole the disc from the Goldbergs. He had been alive then, of course. He was an artist with a fair amount of success centered around his endless sequence of portraits of his wife, Portia. They were cubist, realist, and impressionistic. She was… Continue reading A House of Sun, Sky, and Sand
Liza Saves a Bunny
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 27 The sad thing was, it was not her rabbit. The tragedy might have been much worse if LeRoy had not been there. The young boy became a hero when he chucked his oversized history book at the shooter’s head. LeRoy was a hero, and the town was abuzz with… Continue reading Liza Saves a Bunny
Red Bike
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 26 I can still recall the day I first saw her bike. It was a deep red Trek that was, in her words, “not too girly.” Classic Nikky. She was one of a kind. I remember entering the Starbucks and having one of the kindest, most beautiful people I’ve ever… Continue reading Red Bike
Come and Get Me
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 25 I sit at the dining room table and blow on my coffee, pretending I’ve not already noticed the damn date 37 times this morning. I chose to sit here this morning because it was one of the only rooms without a calendar. It is always a rough day. I… Continue reading Come and Get Me
ICU
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 24 The ICU is extra crowded this afternoon. That pile-up on the expressway has kept most downtown hospitals busy, but I heard we caught most of the injured. I lean into her desk as she completes the intake on one of the injured, a teenage girl who is favoring one… Continue reading ICU
Louisa’s Story
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 23 I was worried about Stuart. Everyone says twins are supposed to be alike, but we were fraternal twins; while we were alike in many ways, we were also different. Stuart had been the sensitive one. I was worried about him. When I walked through the door, I had hoped… Continue reading Louisa’s Story
Classroom
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 22 “I tell you, it’s today.” “You say that every day, Stuart,” Julia says. He does think a lot of days are the anniversary; maybe he feels guilty about Louisa. She was his twin. Perhaps he wishes he had gone with her. I study the light in the room. Stuart… Continue reading Classroom
A House with Enough Space
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 21 “I need lots of space,” Trish had told me at our first meeting. I wanted to point out to her that if she bought a house with more space, she would fill it as well, and in three years, she’d be looking to upsize again. Still, people’s foibles and… Continue reading A House with Enough Space
A Familiar Face
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 20 Everyone moves so fast at work these days. I do my best to stay out of their way, but it takes vigilance. The hall is a special effect, a light show of colorful blurs as massage therapists and clients zip by at speeds that feel wrong for a place… Continue reading A Familiar Face
For a Season
(a poem) For a season? he’d said. Meeting her gaze, holding it this time. For a season. I won’t trap you in forever. For a season, his words twinkled like chocolate stars, his face was the first she saw in the morning, his words the last she heard at night. For a season, she struggled beneath him.Open your eyes, he’d… Continue reading For a Season
A Helluva Deal
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 19 I am running too fast to stop, but even as I take my second step into the street, I can see I’m not going to make it across in time. Oh, no. Not again. CRACK!! The pain in my leg explodes and demands all the attention I have now… Continue reading A Helluva Deal
B.Y.O.S.L.
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 18 Bring Your Own Sacrificial Lamb, the Lambda Nu frat poster said in oversized bold letters. The party was for members and pledges only, their final blowout bash of pledge week, held in an abandoned lyceum under a buttery full moon. For their final party, before judging which pledges made… Continue reading B.Y.O.S.L.
Donated to Science
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 17 Why did I drop that damn gun? Occasionally a few grains of coffee will get in my eyes or a splash of water from the fill tank. I have only the loosest perception of light through the white plastic enveloping me, enclosing my head. They say the brain has… Continue reading Donated to Science
Real Magic
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 16 “So then they spread the deck face up, and you…” “Wait, what? But when do you take the deck back from them?” I say. “What do you mean?” Is he serious? “You have to take the deck back at some point to affect a control of the two selections.… Continue reading Real Magic
In a Year
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 15 “I need to know,” she says, “where do you see us a year from now?” He stops stirring the risotto. He had made this for her enough times that she knows you have to keep stirring it. She nudges him to the side, hands him his wineglass, and takes… Continue reading In a Year
Mr. Auk
June 2022 Flash Challenge, Day 14 The people of the earth collectively pause whatever they’re doing and shift their attention to the solemn ceremony. Today it is Mr. Auk, a retired fisherman in Thailand. Who knows where it will be (or IF it will be) next month. The sleeping wake in time to watch. A… Continue reading Mr. Auk
Stories by Shawn 