Articles
DETERMINATION by John “JAM” Arthur Miller
Determination is that element belonging to victorious conquerors and successful businessmen. It rings through the halls of power, echoes within the clasp of Liberty Bell, and is the thread Betty Ross sewed into Old Glory. It resonates with life, resounding amidst the Washington Monument, the faces of men whose proven actions now hint at what [...]
Fiction
narrated by Bob Eccles One hour to go. One hour until the machines went insane. One hour until the end. Three pills sat in my hand: one yellow, one blue and one pink. The smiley faces on them laughed at the human imperfection that had brought us here. Outside, the city glowed. Groups of revellers [...]
Fiction
The Riveting Tale of Rosie Reever by C.S. Nelson
narrated by Bob Eccles Rosie stared at the playground with her mouth open. She should move, do something, but what she was witnessing had her glued to the kitchen counter. Kids were jumping out of the swings and popping out of existence. Rosie was a U.S. Army officer’s wife, but not just any officer’s wife. [...]
Fiction
2012: A Firsthand Account of the End of Days by Bryan Phillippi
narrated by Bob Eccles It was June of 2012. The economy was recovering, people had jobs, and a new brand of whiskey was on the market that didn’t damage your liver. Everything was going so well. Or so we thought. Another issue lurked in the shadows. It was the squirrels. Little did we know that [...]
Fiction
narrated by Bob Eccles At one in the morning, Jancis Macleod finished escorting the last few guests to the park exit. Officially off duty, her steps hastened as she slipped between the folds of the green and white striped tent. She jogged to the near wall of her favorite exhibit and slid down the Plexiglas [...]
Fiction
Fugue State by Jennifer Rachel Baumer
narrated by Linda Manning There are shadows in this house. Turn a light on. That would be my husband Dean, if he were home. He’s not, at the moment, I don’t know where he is and I don’t care, but it doesn’t matter: I can read his mind. Not that way. I’m not psychic and [...]
Fiction
narrated by Bob Eccles True Story: I never thought buying a gallon of milk would prove to be fatal. He came at us like the Marshmallow Man, pasty but hairy and flushed and sweaty, gargling and huffing, staring straight through us as he staggered with arms flailing outward. It looked like he was drowning on [...]
Fiction
narrated by Bob Eccles First sunrise When the sun finally ventured beyond the horizon, he was waiting. Using the first red-gold light of a new day to illuminate his enterprise, he dipped his fingers into the palm of his hand, pinched a bit of sugar, and sprinkled it carefully over the window pane. He repeated [...]
Fiction
Space Monkey by Scott T. Hutchison
narrated by Bob Eccles As if JJ Jackman and the other kids didn’t mess with me enough—when Mr. Wheeler started teaching us about early space flight, saying how the first astronauts were really monkeys named Albert, every head in our sixth grade class turned around and looked at me, sinister grins spilling across their faces. [...]
Fiction
Miraculous by Stephen V. Ramey
narrated by Bob Eccles Jesus watched dust curl up from the desert floor on a straight-line trajectory that left no doubt it was heading for him. For a time he hoped it was an unusually persistent dust devil, but even before he finished weeding and watering the corn in his twelve-row mixed garden, he gave [...]
Fiction
narrated by Bob Eccles Wind whips my face as we weave through the countryside on another beautiful spring afternoon. Dad’s driving as crazy as usual, passing every vehicle that’s not quite up to his speed standards with a well-worn hand gesture or four-letter word. Mom’s jaw clenches with each Move it, Grandpa he mutters. I [...]
Poetry
The Universe In Words by Matthew King
BIO: Matthew King is originally from the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina, but now resides in Tucson, Arizona, where he studies the history of the modern American West. His poetry and short fiction have appeared in the Midwest Literary Review [2/11], Indigo Rising [7/11], The Beatnik [7/11], Ink, Sweat, and Tears [7/11], and [...]
Poetry
November Storm Break by Charles Leggett
So dense and swift these clouds, it’s the tanned olive moon that seems to move; as if into this wind your life will lean susceptible to imagery, the inwrought pull of all these metaphors we live in. Now look—the mien even of the drape is fraught with it: coronas, eyes recoiling off the ceiling; [...]
Poetry
The Rowan Tree by Marina Lee Sable
Transformed to wood, I am a deathless secret encased in spellbound bark. But there is solace in the rowan. I am alone, except for history conjured back as a wraithlike chant within a church of crumbling stone, fallen beams, and torn roof. The dark song of the dead still haunts the place [...]
Poetry
The Fool’s Lament by J.S. Watts
I am somewhat given to melancholy, Lord, Said the Fool, And though I would give you the mirth that you crave, All that I work is coloured by sadness, Whatever I will. My mother cried when I was born And there was no star to dance By way of salvation And I was [...]
Poetry
White Goddess by Lee Clark Zumpe
Outside, winter casts her hoary shadow: an early frost swathes the ill-prepared earth, and the dogwood berries are all too plentiful on the slopes this year The Oak Moon shivers, her frozen tears form icicles on balsam boughs bowing beneath the howling gales, already she has grown weary, and the nights keep getting longer [...]
Poetry
Juvenile Jackdaws from the Clouds by Amit Parmessur
A baffling rain of dead birds darkened my New Year in a snowy Swedish street. My knees buried helplessly in the soft ground I gazed at a bird’s harsh demise. His light blue eyes were bordered with a deep desire to soar, but the carousels of death inside were growling too ominously. The purple [...]
Poetry
this is not a mere paper car ready to cruise over a cardboard highway, not merely a way to plaster our feelings I’ll be your fearless driver in a world of golden mines, full of silver dreams and you know, when I’m away from you peppy paper doll I start to feel things are [...]
Flash
While other accountants kept reliable ferns on their desks, Potter kept a jug that he spat in while he cooked the books. Every few weeks, he would pull something alive from the mud in the jug. Often the prize would be a worm, in which case Potter would present it to the boss, a weekend [...]
Flash
Princess, a white swan, lived in our backyard until a raccoon ate her one night. My wife Carol found the remains: face itching with flies, broken neck snaking in the grass into a ripped pillow of white feathers. Carol took the biggest egg from Princess’s nest into our bed and sat on it, praying. She [...]
Flash
Wholly Matrimony by Kenton Yee
Fearing that Heqet would ferret out my secrets, I locked myself in the bathroom and gurr-ribetted away our wedding night. But I eventually sucked it up and we settled into a marital routine. Once a month, I’d pay a kid down the block for a sandwich bag of live flies, take a long [...]
Flash
Sarah did a double take. She’d expected a witch’s waiting room to be unconventional, but this was ridiculous. Maybe she should have gone elsewhere for medical advice concerning her sciatica, but she was trying to save money any way she could. Sarah had barely had time to sit down ever-so-gingerly on the solitary, somewhat rickety, [...]
Flash
My first life was lonely; perhaps it wasn’t a life at all. When my father first drew me, he did so with loving skillful hands. He labored over me for days, heating and hammering until I was the shape he desired. “The wedding will be in a week,” he told me. “In a week [...]
Flash
Death Watch by Richard Flores IV
Damn! Amadi saw the time fly off his watch as he thought about accepting the invitation. Jessica had been all Amadi could think about since she began working for the company. She was the most attractive woman in the office, but she had not even acknowledged Amadi’s existence. Until now. Amadi glanced at his wrist [...]
Flash
The Faernix’s Regard by Mark Wolf
Rogard held his bowstring pulled back with the fletching touching his ear and the arrow trained on the furry, white, fox-like creature. He had heard legend that the Faernix only revealed itself to whom it was about to kill, or to those it found reason to like. It yawned. “I suppose you mean to skewer [...]
Articles
Book Review by Jezzy Wolfe: The White Faced Bear by R. Scott McCoy
A sophomore release, The White Faced Bear is R. Scott McCoy’s pulse-quickening concoction of action, horror, and Native American folklore. The story follows Jeff Bennett, who has come to Kodiak to fulfill a promise to his recently deceased father. His arrival stirs an unknown enemy—Aouachala, a Sun’Aq shaman trapped forever in the body of a [...]
Articles
Book Review by Jezzy Wolfe: The Life and Death of a Sex Doll by Zoe. E. Whitten
A tag-team of sci-fi/ fantasy stories, The Life and Death of a Sex Doll are two separate novellas, neatly packaged together. And the title accurately sums up what you can expect from it… well, almost. Because Ashley Braun, former sex doll, is more than just an extra frisky Pinocchio stuck in a Jetson’s episode. Adopting [...]
Articles
Freefalling by John “JAM” Arthur Miller
You pass the time in the mirror, staring at the reflection cast by Nietzsche, Aristotle, Galilee, Sir Isaac Newton and Freud. Science and the Humanities stare back, boring into your brain. Nietzsche speaks of how you should become an Uberman—never mind that Hitler felt the same way, in accord with many other Americans from the [...]