Category: Fiction

“The Kingdom Come Queer Gun Club and Wilderness Survival School”: A Short Story for Bad Survivalist by J. D. Schraffenberger

Early in the first summer of the president’s third term, right before Franny won the lottery, my dad died. The book club had just chosen The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey. Gus grumbled into his Cabernet that it wasn’t a queer book proper. Franny sighed. This was an old argument. The Queer Book Club…
Haunted Passages Short Fiction: “Grocery List” by Oliver Cubillos

You forgot to lock the front door. How could you be so careless? There’s an intruder in your home and it’s all your fault. Who would break into your home? Perhaps it’s the mailman or the crone next door. There’s a crash downstairs and you slide on your slippers. Maybe it’s that pesky rat. You…
Haunted Passages Short Story: “Storn Williams Goes West” by Perry Genovesi

1. Tuesday Seeing what he thinks is a basketball rolling across the road at night, and then a boy in a pair of nylon gym shorts following it, Storn swerves. The Taurus veers off the asphalt and plunges into a bog. The headlights submerge into murky ink. The engine floods and the intake and transmission…
New Fiction for Flavor Town USA: “Between Now and Forever” by D. Harlan Wilson

I had never stolen anything in my life, not even as a child. I received no guidance from good parents, and to this day, my moral compass remains an elemental lump of shit. Taking things that weren’t mine simply never occurred to me. When I saw the booth, I had to have it. The color,…
Side A Flash Fiction by Keith Woodruff: “Thunderstorms 101”

Thunderstorms 101 That red alert dot on your weather app? That’s us. As a couple, we’re textbook toxic. Our bitter resentment and anger churning up the atmosphere. Expect torrents, damaging winds. Lightning, striking thrice times in some cases. We’ll pick our teeth with the wire bones of your Walmart umbrellas. We have a chemistry, but…
New Flash Fiction for Side A: “dangerous humans” by John Sara

dangerous humans The newspapers will remark on how he was born just before Christmas; December 24, the time doesn’t really matter. His mother, a Catholic, will visit a psychic for reassurance. The old woman will tell her only great men are born so close to Christ. She will take this as a sign of his…
Original Side A Flash Fiction: “Plugs” by Sudha Balagopal

Plugs Years ago, ahead of my work trip to London, you went to RadioShack to purchase the type G plugs needed in the U.K. “Must you insist on this much preparation?” I asked and you raised your brows. The plugs had three rectangular prongs, different from the ones we use in the States. “The Brits…
Bad Survivalist Fiction: “Body Snatching in the 21st Century” by Mathew Serback

Show some goddamned patience. No one—not even a body snatcher—gets rich overnight. When no one attends the funeral, you might as well leave them to the worms. Anyone worth something draws a crowd—unless the will’s already been read and possessions divided up. The gold teeth aren’t worth it. You might find a silver ring or…
New Fiction for Side A: “The Dog’s Absent Bark” by Sean Thomas Dougherty

The Dog’s Absent Bark The neighbor’s dog across the highway and the tree line barks on and off all day. She is a big dog. Some kind of Shepherd mixed with something else, out on a chain, there in the cold. But no, it isn’t that story. They bring her in when they get home…