Category: Uncategorized

For my more genteel, discerning friends A friend of mine keeps suggesting that I share my stories with various mutual friends. That idea, honestly, disturbs me. Most of our mutual friends are smarter than I am. As such, I would be embarrassed for them to read my bizarre tales of horror, science-fiction, and speculative thought.… Continue reading List for Friends, Vol 2

For my more genteel, discerning friends A friend of mine keeps suggesting that I share my stories with various mutual friends. That idea, honestly, disturbs me. Most of our mutual friends are smarter than I am. As such, I would be embarrassed for them to read my bizarre tales of horror, science-fiction, and speculative thought.… Continue reading List for Friends, Vol 1

30-Day Flash Challenge, Day 28     I can feel my legs give out, and I’m falling. The trip to the ground seems to stretch on for an eternity. Some part of me senses the cyclists detected some note of distress and have doubled back towards me. The thing I find most surprising is how… Continue reading A Life in Review

30-Day Flash Challenge, Day 14     I wake. The floor beneath me is a hard block of ice; the cushions have again drifted a few feet away from me. Where am I? Oh yeah, an abandoned building; barely made it in before the snow buried everything. I hope I can find my truck in… Continue reading Breathe

Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 73 When he complained about his advanced age, his friends, the younger ones, liked to comment that age was just a number. It was true, a part of him confessed, but still. And they were always so goddamn earnest that he found it impossible to give in to his… Continue reading The Man Who Wasn’t There

Flash Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 43 It was the utter lack of heat that had been the worst bit, Abigail thinks as she leans against her wall with the glass tumbler pressed against her ear. It had been an awful year, she thinks. Talk about an understatement. Half the world’s population was wiped out… Continue reading Abigail

FLASH Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 22 “Good morning, Juliana,” I say. She doesn’t hear me or she’s just being rude, either way, she doesn’t answer me. We’ve been working together for years now. She works in produce, I’m a cashier. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time she’s said two words to me. There’s… Continue reading Vaya con Dios Maria

FLASH Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 21 Winter was the only season we could be together. During the spring and summers, Shaila trained and crewed on the Waving Wanda. Skippered by Janelle Rochelle, who had hopes of winning America’s Cup with an all-female crew for only the second time ever. During the autumn months, I… Continue reading Winter

FLASH Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 19 It was too hot out for the black hoodie, even with the sleeves rolled to the elbow. My phone call also distracted me. There was a fair amount of wind noise roaring through my tiny earbuds as I chatted with my boss. Several things were competing for my… Continue reading Prodigal Sunglasses

FLASH Fiction Challenge 100 — Day 18 Fatimah missed her husband so fiercely that when the Djinn appeared before her at the well in the center of her little village, she didn’t hesitate to agree with his devil’s bargain he had proposed. Fatimah and Hamid had lived in a tiny stone hut in a small village of goat-herders… Continue reading Djinn

FLASH Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 16 The devil had been prophesied to lose for so long, most of the faithful accepted it as a foregone conclusion, a guaranteed given, a done deal. The problem with knowing the outcome in advance is it makes it impossible to create any real dramatic tension; it doesn’t make… Continue reading Gabe

FLASH Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 15 The moment I saw the tree standing there against the creek, the sky opening up beyond it where the trees naturally parted at a wider spot in the creek, I knew I’d found the one. I’d been taking daily hikes through the woods behind my apartment complex for… Continue reading Treehouse

FLASH Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 14 Helen slams the closet door, leans against it, her heart racing. Then she is overtaken by what her father had called the ‘little girl shakes.’ She steps away from the closet. Takes several deep breaths. She doesn’t like remembering her father; he was not a good man. “I… Continue reading Closet

MARTY The pleasing musical notes (always in the key of C) float gently out of the slot machine’s tiny hidden speakers. The volume rises gently to a comfortable level, one that would never overstimulate the gambler’s nervous system. Then it tapers gradually down and away, but then there is one little uptick in the volume.… Continue reading Time on Device

FLASH Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 11 ‘Damn it Golgorth!!’ Marcus thinks. ‘We had a deal!’ The electric skateboard and skateboarder model Marcus had hired only yesterday, fly by the two men, Marcus can see Sheila, the skateboarder, looks panicked. She is frantically pressing the buttons on the remote control. Jared looks confused and guarded.… Continue reading Skateboard

On February 19 of this year, I began posting stories daily on WordPress, Medium, and Vocal. I am still very fond of my very first published story – The Wave Buddy 1000. The Wave Buddy 1000 When I began I had the goal of wanting to publish a story every day for 30 days straight. Damn… Continue reading On Writing – Part 2

FLASH Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 10 B was a boy who lived in the same housing project as you, in the duplex next door to yours, with his three sisters, and younger brother. He was the oldest child of a single, catholic mother. There were woods along three sides of the curved, loosely rectangular-shaped… Continue reading You and B

FLASH Fiction Challenge 100 – Day 9 I get up to hand in my ‘Just Say No to Smoking’ poster to Mrs. Kay. My parents have never smoked. They tell me it’s bad for me and that I should never, ever smoke. I’m never going to smoke; it causes cancer. We know that now. I… Continue reading Poster