Tag: Fiction

“.DECEMBER.”: October People novel excerpt & audio by Pablo D’Stair

…It was twenty-years ago today (as someone – I can’t think who – was known to say) at the ripe young age of nineteen, beguiled by my mis-reading of the rules to the Anvil Press 3-Day Novel Writing Contest, that I locked myself in the cheapest Econo Lodge money could buy for the purpose of…
Su Nadeau: “Juniper,” a short story for Haunted Passages

The twelve-thirteen train derailed on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. It was the only one that passed through this way. This meant Lupon and Wren devoted their time to clearing the wreckage so each train had the opportunity to wreck on its own. A quarter after noon on Saturday the train was heard before it was…
Amanda Chiado: “A Pretty Girl’s Hair,” a short story for Haunted Passages

“Where’s mama?” Bobby asks. “She went to the moon,” Dad says. He sucks hard on a Marlboro. Most of the smoke escapes out the window. I think of Mom drifting in a silvery spacesuit toward the strange botched face of the white orb. We three stare out the windows. Journey is Believing on a half-static…
“A SLOW RADIOACTIVE DEATH (IN AN ENDLESS LOOP)”: A Short Story for Bad Survivalist by Joshua Rodriguez

<!DOCTYPE dog-shit><head><meta name=“robots” content=“noindex, nofollow, noarchive” /><meta name=“viewport” content=“width=device-width, initial-scale=1 /><meta name=“description” content=“Joschua Blau has all the leverage. Yours Truly doesn’t stand a chance, and what’s worst, Yours Truly is used to being subjugated, exploited, and discarded. We welcome abuse like a long-lost twin separated at birth—this is the story of Joschua Blau, the perennial…
Aaron Teel: “The Quality of Mercy,” a short story for Haunted Passages

When I was boy no older than you, but taller of course, and squarer of jaw, I came by moonlight on a fortune teller’s wagon parked alongside a smallish river or creek, stopped short of ascending the three wooden steps that led to the wagon’s candlelit window, and eyed its proprietor where she sat weaving…
“Into the Pool of Magma”: An Interview with Directory Author Christopher Linforth by Tyler Dempsey

Has a book made you mad? It’s so good, you realize drugs exist—without your knowing—that send authors to parallel planes? Me neither. Well … one time. I read Christopher Linforth’s new collection, Directory. I threw it across the room. Like brain-bugs cats give us, the book had me doing things—sniffing, salivating, yelping. I read it…
“Our Mutual Friend”: A Short Story for Haunted Passages by Stephen Langlois

My daughter Arabelle, she was the first to hear them. They woke her Thursday night before last, tapping on her window. Maybe not tapping so much as clinking. I heard the same sound since. Right here in the kitchen and elsewhere, too. A quick, sharp, hollow sorta sound. The sound of digits what ain’t designed…
“The Shapes in the Carpet”: A Short Story for Bad Survivalist by Stephen Piccarella

Both of my parents are dead. I live with Zeke, my older half-brother, and we take care of each other. We grew up together in the house we live in now, a one room unit like a truck with no wheels, out in the middle of the woods. The house is flat on every side…
Haunted Passages: “Business Travelers,” a short story by Bernard Reed

Foster was in town again. We took a cab together and had a late lunch in an empty little restaurant, after meeting in the lobby of the La— Hotel when my shift there was over. It was his second visit that month. He was staying in a hotel called the Gw—, a swanky new one…