Tag: Fiction

Original Short Fiction from The Future: “Hard Boiled Ovaries” by Marty B. Rivers

Xiang Lee arrived home from work greeted by his Siamese cat, perched on the kitchen counter. “I’m hungry. Feed me.” Xiang blinked, looked at the cat, “Did you just speak, Toshiko?” “I’m hungry,” repeated Toshiko, pacing. “Feed me. I want sardines.” Toshiko then screamed a baby-cry of dissatisfaction. Wide-eyed and trembling from what Xiang considered…
New Side A Fiction: “Bricknose” by K.P. Taylor

Bricknose It was like when Randy Johnson killed that dove during spring training. It came sailing out of left field just as Randy fired off his fastball, and a moment later, it exploded into a cloud of feathers. Just like in those old cartoons. Well, that’s what it was like this morning, except it was…
Haunted Passages New Fiction: “Originality” by Hugh Behm-Steinberg

I finish my story; I’m very proud of it, but I’m sure there are some loose parts that need tightening, or my ending could be less metafictional, so I bring it to workshop to get that little bit of feedback it needs. But instead of telling me how brilliant my characterizations happen to be, Kate…
Original Bad Survivalist Short Story: “The Mall” by Duncan Rivers

“Die in a field and tell me what rots first, you or your clothes. When the crows swoop down from the peaks of the barns they roost on, where will their beaks be persuaded to strike? Will it be the nylon handbag you carry over your shoulder, or the sunken eyes that wilt away in…
Collaborative Short Story for Haunted Passages: “Window Well” by Abby Feden & Allie Spikes

There’s a frog ribbitting super diligently outside the basement window. The window looks out into a chicken wire well. Sometimes, after a real wet spell, Maddy will invite us all over to gather at the window and peek out at whatever unlucky thing is stuck at the bottom of the hole. Mostly we see spiders…
Side A Original Short Fiction: “Transients” by Maggie Nerz Iribarne

Transients I tossed garbage bags full of last items into my Honda. Wire hangers, rolls of wrapping paper, a comforter. The orange tabby cat appeared, jumped into the back. “Damn you!” I shouted. The cat arched and skittered to the ground, running behind the (no longer) rented bungalow. I expedited to the driver’s seat, my…
Side A Short Story: “Cynthia Forgiveness Swimmer” by Myles Zavelo

Everyone’s getting wasted at the lake tonight. The train tracks cross over the lake. The moon is making the lake really shiny. Cynthia doesn’t want to be my friend anymore. I’m a little beyond the border of the party. I’m standing with the shadowy bushes. I feel like some freaky creep. I catch Cynthia as…
Bad Survivalist Short Story: “Rules and Suggestions for Surviving on a Deserted Island After Your Plane Suddenly Loses Altitude and Crashes” by Keith J. Powell

Stay Hungry.Begin each morning with a meticulous inventory of the finite morsels scavenged from the wreckage. One duty-free bag full of tiny liquor bottles begging to be twisted open. Thirty-two plastic packages of broken pretzels, each containing approximately seven pretzels per package. Six mini-cans of Diet Pepsi. Remember, this is all you have until rescue.…
Restored Fiction: “Slow 9/11” by Dolan Morgan

“Can you describe a time when someone betrayed you?” This question is posed to me by Jan during a round of the Ungame, which I play over lunch with a group of colleagues in our architecture firm on the 92nd floor. The Ungame looks deceptively like Candy Land but is described, in its product materials,…