The Road to Savannah
Sam Hawksmoor 5.1.24
What does it feel like to be old?
Feeding the Dead
Odimegwu Onwumere 3.5.24
The Consequences of failing to feed the dead ...
Raina
James C. Clar 8.1.23
The body in question
Emergency Stop
Sam Hawksmoor
The Unexpected Hitcher - Chapter One
from The Restoration of Ami
2.24.24
Nanna
Kevin Hughes 7.6.23
Time to stop the tears ...
He Remembered - A Walk in the Park
Martin Green 1.7.23
Living alone is hard to do
The Adventure of the Diamond Diamond Heist
Martin Green
... we’d been pretty quiet, except for the New England Clam Chowder Caper.
Damsel in Distress
Martin Green
Scene at the Diner ...
Hard Count
T.R. Healy 11.8.22
Win or Lose - the cards tell the story
Aliens – 12.30.1999 - Clearlake
Sam Hawksmoor 4.1.22
The day before Y2K day ...
How a Young Crow Came to Love a Sunbird, a Green Parrot, an Old Woman & Balls of Rice
Michael Chacko Daniels 1.4.22
Once upon a time, when birds of a different feather could still talk to each other ...
Mission Longshot
Sam Hawksmoor
The background to a new exciting new cli-fi novel: Mission Longshot: how far will you go to save one life?
Sara Troy interviews Sam Hawksmoor
6.1.21 (Video)
The Man Next Door
Sam Hawksmoor
You may never know what your neighbour might be up to during lockdown...
Scenes from a Life
Martin Green
It was the Depression year of 1939 but Arnold, eight years old, didn’t know they were poor.
In Memory of my wife Beverly
Martin Green 12.3.22
Back to Normal - 2021
Martin Green
The pandemic was finally over. Daily life could resume.
The Hurricane Hits Crepe Myrtle Court
Allen Cook
Storms frequently circled Bob’s head. Because Florence was meteorological, not simply windy imagination, his whilom fear now registered approximately nine on a disaster scale of ten.
The Human Train
Kim Farleigh 9.9.20
“It’s money, tickets, passport, torch,” Jones said. "The essentials for travelling. True travellers," Jones said, "use torches."
I am Not a Hero
Damilola Omotoyinbo
When I was younger, all I knew about my aunt - Dad’s sister; her coconut smelling perfume, her throaty laughter
The Castle Library
Sam Hawksmoor
Saska was staring at an empty space leading into an ante-chamber. Cat was somewhere inside there in the darkness licking her wounds ...
The Onset of Menopause
Abigail George 2/1/20
Aren't all women cautious, seeking, seriously breathtaking, and divine in the arms of the right man. They are divine, aren't they. Pain is wasted in youth. It is like driftwood in my hands.
How to deal with the loneliness
Abigail George
I think of Elijah who had literally moved abroad. Well, he had always wanted to travel. He had prospects. I was a non-event in his life.
Nerve damage and the history of light in November
Abigail George
I reach out for the stillness of the sea hanging in the sitting room. I’m slowly going mad again.
First Love, Paradise, Tenderness and Vertigo
Abigail George
I can’t stand your love affairs Jerome. Your one night stands, the booze talking, the gospel truths coming out of your mouth, and your orange or pineapple juice laced with vodka.
The Muse walking away
Abigail George
“You have me all wrong. I’m here to help you, you know. We’re not supposed to fall in love. It’s not meant to happen like that.”
“I’m your Zelda. Say it. Say that I’m your Zelda ..."
Balloons at the Beach
Sammy Jones
Each summer, once my sisters and I were liberated from the months of school work, my dad would take down the cobweb covered beach chairs, haphazardly stacked in the garage, anticipating beach season.
A world of colored people
IV olokita
Like all the girls in 7th grade, Amelia had a small bow on her head. Such a simple bow that held all her hair so well and tight.
Memories of Mickey the cat
Martin Green
I had to get rid of Mickey or move out. I started looking for another place to live.
After Black & White Lightning
Michael Chacko Daniels
'No rice, no dahl, no sugar...'
Nothing to eat? How was it possible?
Leaves that talk
Abigail George
I think of fruit, good olive oil, pasta, and tuna casseroles when I think of her name. I think of overripe tomatoes perfect for sauce. Of just how much I loved you, and how you never loved me back.
Dear Journal, it’s me, Alice
Abigail George
Books always marked our games somehow. The passage of time.
Growing up the house was (always) filled with books.
When I consider how my breath is spent
Abigail George
Empty houses are like lava burning bright as any flame. Here, an empty soul is like lava burning bright as any flame.
The Split Personalities of Elizabeth Donkin
Abigail George
I had a wood when I was a child. There was a forest near my childhood home. At night, before I would blow my lamp out I would stare out into that darkness that seemed to be stalking me. Forever stalking me, do you understand?
And guide me on the everlasting path
Abigail George
The photograph is of my mother. In it she looks like someone else. Perhaps someone else’s mother. Our relationship is fraught with difficulties. I’m a fat cutout or rather the curator of fat cutouts. Dark water inside of my head.
What the Heck is a Yuma?
Jerry Alan
Tahimi told him that she had not called him a “Yuma” the night before. Somebody in that room sure as hell had. He hated that word. Why couldn’t the first Americans in Cuba have not come from Idaho?
A Beautiful Girl
Jerry Alan
Esteban the artist came from Santiago de Cuba. He was a painter and painted anything that paid. Nobody knew what he liked to paint because he was such a liar.
Pips Wally and Dogman Jones meet Maradona
Jerry Alan
Pips Wally went to Cuba one year at last. He had heard about sun and fun, fishing and brown girls - all that he liked – but it took an invite from Dogman Jones and some harrowing circumstances to finally convince him to go.
The Bread Line
Jerry Alan in Cuba
Laurant and about three-hundred people were in a ‘cola’, which means ‘tail’ in Spanish. A line-up. They were waiting for bread
Adventures in Paris in Four Acts
Martin Green
It was springtime in Paris. A beautiful blonde, I figured she was an American tourist, was taking a picture of the Eiffel Tower. I was 21 and in the Army, drafted during Korea and stationed in Stuttgart, Germany.
The Wrong Stop
Martin Green
It was a typical gray dismal raw New York City spring morning. Jenkins stood, crammed with dozens of other blank-faced people, in the subway car headed for his office downtown.
A Note of Thanks to Hackwriters
Martin Green
I’ll miss Hackwriters, as I’m sure all of its writers and readers will, but it’s been a long and happy ride
Still Eating Oranges
“We’re friends, right? Best friends, right? Friends, right?” asked the red toadstool with a toad on it. The toadstool was not speaking to the toad, who was age-mottled, crotchety and, crucially, as deaf as a doorknob with cotton in its keyhole.
Who Will Replace Dimma’s Teeth?
Odimegwu Onwumere
It was the hour when men of goodwill ought to have retired to bed that the deafening noise emerged from Mazi Egede’s house.Mrs. Havermill isn't as fast as she used to be
Peter Barlow
Morning comes too early for her tastes. She feels as if she hasn’t slept at all, as if her eyes only just closed one moment and the next they’re open again but it’s nine hours later. She doesn’t feel refreshed, doesn’t think she has dreamed or if she has she can’t remember any of them.
Patrick
Allen Cook
Joan first met Patrick in a dumpster. This altercation had a lot to do with the neighborhood in which she lived.
Israel ( and further adventures of Patrick)
Allen Cook
Although New Yorkers, who loved lox and bagels, Joan and Bob were goyim, not Jewish. By going to live in Israel they did not plan to make alliya (become Israelis.) Rather, they simply wanted to see first hand what was going on in the region.
Endtime - Panic in BC
Breakout
‘In life we have three choices: the discipline of self-sacrifice, the congregation we choose to be with, the laws we choose to obey.’
The Word according to Prophet Arnold
Lahaina Noon
Jim Meirose
I want to catch up to my shadow and walk over it and be in front of it. I want it following me instead of me following it.
In the Red Light District
Jim Meirose
Snake Doggett the cook lived in an unpainted house between a hemp shop and a whorehouse with his roommate Bert, on the edge of the red light district.
My Nemisis
Martin Green
“I wonder why Irv Kane hates me?” I said.
“Irv Kane hates a lot of people,” said my friend Abe Silverman.
“Yeah, but he seems to have a special hatred for me.”
Remembrances
Martin Green
Paul Lerner opened his eyes and looked at the bedside clock---8:15. He’d made it through another night, he told himself. Since his last birthday, 87, he’d found himself saying, or thinking, this every morning.
The Thanksgiving Dinner (Post-Trump)
Martin Green
Ah, Thanksgiving. The time for families to get together. This year we were scheduled to go to Ellen’s sister Sophie and her husband Mort’s for the annual feast. And I’d have to deal with Mort’s crowing after Donald Trump, to everyone’s surprise, not to say shock, had won the presidential election.
Remembering Art Grossman
Martin Green
He wondered what had happened to Art. Was he still around? The obvious thing was to Google him ...
Bud
Martin Green
Bud had come for lunch sometime in September. He’d seemed fine then. At their lunches, they’d usually have a report that one or another of their old tennis group had passed away, but he assumed Bud would be there forever.
A Ride Through The Park
Victor Castleton
I knew how to get there. Someplace around here there must be still this path leading to the water.
Block Island Here We Come!
Victor Castleton
That morning I loaded up the bicycles on the Jeep’s rack.
“We are going to Block Island!” I cheered!
Grandma and the Old Warrior
Michael Chacko Daniels
Grandma Jacob, dressed in a white cotton sari and blouse, opened the door of her new home on Rural Route 2, South Riverside, on a warm day in 1975 and looked into the blue eyes of the old Polish warrior.
A Salvager for Our Times
Michael Chacko Daniels
I find a youngish man sitting at one of the three yellow, screwed-down plastic chairs, deep in some enterprise that doesn't look all too honest ...
A Prince’s Wedding, a Young Man’s Birthday
Michael Chacko Daniels
On a sunny day of the coldest February in 70 years, I skirt around sidewalk poop—dogs’ and humans’—as I walk down Pine Street towards the post office.
Too close for comfort
Andrew Lee-Hart
Whilst I don’t agree with killing people as a rule, particularly not close family, sometimes it is the best solution to an awkward problem. You do the deed and then move on with your life.
Beasts
Andrew Lee-Hart
I have learned a lot from the gorillas ... most importantly I have learned about love, being accepted because you have been born, no matter what you do.
Uncle Pringle and Political Correctness
Martin Green
No safe space for a diference of opinion
Anniversary Cruise
Martin Green
Arnold and Ellen had been married for 48 years. In that time, he’d learned that women spent half of their time in the bathroom...
Listen
Andrew Lee-Hart
It was weeks until I heard him speak more than a couple of words, and by then I had probably told him my whole life story, which he had swallowed whole like a whale eating plankton, with only the occasional “yes” or “hmm” to encourage me in.
The Maestro in Six Movements
Andrew Lee-Hart
The Maestro looked at the green gardens of Harrogate and saw that they were good. “This will be my home” he said aloud in German, “after all my troubles I have found somewhere I can lay my head.”
Death in the Castle
Andrew Lee-Hart
There he was, just as I expected him to be, sat in the castle grounds reading The Times, a respectable looking man enjoying the last few moments of his respectable life.
Melchizedek
Andrew Lee-Hart
Melchizedek walked out of his chamber, and his subjects knelt before him in adoration. King and High Priest of Salem, he looked about him with stern eyes and saw that all was well...
Entertaining Angels
(For Celestine, in apology)
Andrew Lee-Hart
I would have recognised Celestine anywhere; despite the passages of time, the broken hearts and the blood on her hands, she still seemed the same the young woman who had walked into our lives and betrayed us all.
Switzerland
T.R. Healy
“I thought there was a rule against panhandling in the plaza,” a gruff customer grumbled one afternoon
Run
Roy Valenzuela
“I can’t breathe”…. “The air is thick” …….. “How could this happen”?
Mr. Kuroda
James C. Clar
“Excuse me sir, are you the caretaker here?”
My inquiry was met with the kind of deep silence that only the Japanese have truly mastered.
"Are You Not Crazy"
James C. Clar
Through one of the windows I caught sight of two Japanese women. One was my age, late-50 or early 60’s while the other was younger, maybe 35 or so.
Stacker
Julie McSmith
After supper Bessie always set a few utensils and pieces of dinnerware in precarious positions in the orange plastic dish rack next to the sink.
The Rush of '72
Sam North
Keeping diamonds secret is hard (First Chapter extract)
The Wicker Basket
SS Laccohee
My mother’s face holds that force smile, not real, ‘but it will be alright sort of smile’, as she stands by the carriage door. The whistle shrills down the cold, blustery, platform, the wind catching it, then sending it echoing around the small country station.
Dinner at Fisherman's Wharf
Martin Green
I thought of the Buena Vista. The Berkeley gang would meet at a downtown bar on Friday night and usually someone knew of a party going on. The next morning, Sunday, we’d meet at the BV...
The Cruise
Martin Green
What was I, a young man,28, doing, going all by himself on his first cruise?
MARIKKA - Chapter One: A Dog’s Dinner
Marikka woke suddenly. It was a warm night, the air unusually thick and cloying. The house was eerily quiet. She found she’d kicked the blankets off the bed, looked down for Deacon, puzzled he wasn’t sprawled on the floor as usual. With a sudden sense of guilt she remembered why...
The Woman in the Park
Andrew Lee-Hart
She is sitting on an iron bench in the park. In the distance I can hear horses’ hooves lightly pounding and the sound of carriages trundling down the thoroughfare just behind us.
Play That Thing
Andrew Lee-Hart
I almost walked passed it. A small café, hidden between a newsagent and a kebab shop, on one of the main thoroughfares of Camden.
The Sauce
Jerry Billstrom's Cuba stories
Al woke with a start to the agonized yelps of his dog whom he discovered ham-strung in the steel grating on the balcony security gate ...
The City University of New York Medical School Quick Weight Loss Diet
Steve Slavin
Caroline is a yo-yo dieter. Name any diet – Scarsdale, Weight Watchers, Dr. Atkins, and even Dr. Romano’s lettuce leaf diet – and she’s tried it. But nothing worked for her...
Montgomery, Magalee and the Magi
Reed Sterling
A young moon, and old moon, a full moon—I could not make it out, but moonlight fell through veils of cloud hanging over Zambeliou Street. Revellers in other parts of the Old Port were yet at their fireworks.
Local Color: A Ride on the No. 2 Bus - Oahu
James C. Clar
The No. 2 bus traverses a portion of the island of Oahu that is as diverse as that route’s eclectic ridership.
After the Surgery
Martin Green
It was my first day home after knee replacement surgery. Although the procedure had become routine, especially for old guys like me whose joints were wearing out, it still was, as my doctor reminded me, major surgery.
Adultery for Beginners
Martin Green
One thing led to another, as they say, and, yeah, I guess I was unfaithful. It would had seemed stupid to turn down the opportunity.
The Walker Family 2025
Martin Green
Tom Walker was late getting home that evening because a self-driving car had gotten its wires crossed and had stopped on the track of his monorail train. Tom lived in a suburb of Sacramento, and he worked in the Department of Affordable Health ...
Interview with a Family Man
Martin Green
“Can I tell you something,” he said, “off the record?”
Rosemary Harper
Martin Green
It was a nice spring day in Sacramento, one to enjoy before the summer heat settled in. I was having lunch with Rosemary Harper, my lead analyst, in the Capitol building cafeteria.
Cousin Bobby
Martin Green
I became aware that I had a cousin Bobby at one of our family occasions, a wedding or a seder, I don’t remember which.
Parallel World
Martin Green wakes up
A thunderstorm in June was almost unheard of where they lived...
Lost Love
Martin Green
June 15, was the day when I had my heart broken. The girl who did the breaking was Isobel Carter, whom I’d gone with all through high school.
Julie Engelbrechten
Martin Green
He’d occasionally had a fantasy of meeting an attractive woman on the courts, and, there, on the front court she was, practicing serves, pretty hard serves, too.
Valentine's Day Mascara
Martin Green
“You don’t bring me flowers any more.”
Redemption
Martin Green
Arnold was walking through his old neighborhood in the Bronx. Back in his parents’ apartment it was frantic, his mother scurrying around, furniture being rearranged, food being placed on tables; it was as if the President was coming for a visit...
My Nice Brother
Martin Green
He was slow in getting promoted at his office. He was too nice to engage in office politics.
Warnings
Martin Green
Steve Carson didn’t look like a horrible boss. He was a tall, good-looking man in his early fifties, just beginning to show his age despite a rigorous exercise regimen.
The Crow
Martin Green
Caw. Caw. Caw. Arnold was jolted out of his doze. A crow in his back yard?
Hide Your Books
Ajay Patri
Does this really mean no more punishment? Like, ever again? No more corporate punishment?'
Another Place To Die: The Endtime Chronicles
Hawksmoor & North
Chapter One: Warning Signals
‘Those who stay in this city will die by the sword, famine and pestilence, but they who go out beyond to places of safety will survive. Our cities will be overwhelmed by darkness.’
Prophet Arnold: Church of Final Redemption 29:1-5
The Man in the Middle of the Room
Michael Levy
One night just before he went to sleep he felt a strange sensation come over his whole being.
Train to Munich
Brad Kurlancheek
The Spy in Carriage Number 3
The Book About ELI
Julie McSmith
All the bottles of oil in the kitchen turned rancid and all of the produce in the refrigerator went moldy the day that the boy named X.E23 opened the book about Eli. His mother complained as she was cooking, blaming the spoiled produce on the change in weather.
Making Love on an Island in a Wine Dark Sea
Larry Clinton Thompson
During her business travels, Maggie had several sexual encounters. They were hurried and self-conscious and with married men as nervous as she was.
The Miracle
Jim Meirose
Jeffrey sat in the darkened bedroom, at the bedside of his dying younger brother. They had called him back from graduate school; they had said someone needs to care for Jacob...
|
Emergency Stop
Extract from 'The Restoration of Ami'
by Sam Hawksmoor
3.1.24
“You can’t go, Remy. You’re too old and it’s too risky. It’s dangerous, you’re dangerous on the road.”
2nd Extract from 'The Restoration of Ami'
Father Tresor
Sam Hawksmoor
4.1.24
The morning after Ami went missing...
By the Book
James C. Clar 2.22.24
100 Novels You Must Read Before You Die. What bibliophile could pass up such a tome? Not me.
The Book of Ashes - a new investigation - extract
Sam Hawkmoor 1.17.23
A Writer's Reputation is a precious thing.Searching for Wolfie
Searching for A True Story
Vincent Lowry 8.12.23
Papers exploded out of the drawer like confetti out of a party popper
Scenes From A Life - Stages
Martin Green
It's all bliss in retirement isn't it?
Mr Parker gets Carjacked
Martin Green
Highway Robbery
comes home
97, Coming to Terms & Goodbye
(An atheist faces his own death)
Michael Lee Johnson
Wait until I have to say goodbye,
don’t rush
Asha & Zuki
Sam Hawksmoor
Asha opened her eyes. Her tongue felt thick and she had a mild headache. Zuki lay beside her, her mouth agape. Still wearing her clothes and make up. They’d both drunk too much and she couldn’t let her drive home.
Ruby Valley
George Kotlik 1.19.22
My father met a stranger who told him about a nearby place called Ruby Valley where diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires were abundant and as plentiful as sand is on the beach ...
Mr Abrams Regrets
Sam Hawksmoor
The first client of the day. (extract)
Triptych
Abigail George 5.11.21
Risk is a mistake. There’s beautiful thinking in the red wildflowers of my sister’s hair.
Love in a Time of War
Larry Clinton Thompson 7.8.21
The German army marched into Chilon on June 24, 1940. Josette Lafleur was among the hundreds of people who watched the soldiers hang the Nazi flag from the balcony of the town hall.
Teleportation Denial
Sam Hawksmoor 6.22.21
“All I’m saying, Rian, is that just because someone thought of it, it doesn’t mean it will come true. Teleportation is bunk. Pure bunk. No one will ever beam up Scotty. It’s impossible ..."
Survival Shock - an extract from Mission Longshot
Sam Hawksmoor
Celeste was suddenly awake, a sharp pain in her heart. She found herself sitting on the floor of the revival cubicle with her legs drawn up being sprayed with some saline solution that made her flesh and eyes sting.
The Guru
Sam Hawksmoor
The patient sat upright on the chair; bare feet planted squarely on the floor as instructed. He was dressed in a pale blue hospital gown and seemed nervous.
Relief
Kim Farleigh 1.19.21
An educated bull story - never underestimate the desire to survive
We Feel Your Pain
Sam Hawksmoor
Would you pay someone thirty grand to be rid of your pain forever? Then this scam's for you.
Reporting for Duty
Sam Hawksmoor
Kruge stood looking at the formidable gates and a peeling sign. Bluette Resource and Recycle Management. Ring twice for the Keeper.
The Day Before the Pandemic Arrived
Sam Hawksmoor 2.25.20
A Son answers a Mother's call ...
Saving Santa
Martin Green
"But Claus, look, we gotta talk. You hafta get up to date".
The Man from Managua in New York City
Kareena Maxwell
I learned about your death on Facebook. A friend wrote some memoriam for you. By then, the drift between us was well established in the world and the daily earth ways of living our lives had gone forward.
Mad and starving I watch the starry dynamo in the machinery of Night
KAB 7.15.19
What is revealed in my hormone soaked body that seems to constantly yearn, always yearning for something, sometimes uncontrollably
Chasing Tedine
Caroline Greenblatt
There are two types of churches in Italy: the kind that have plastic, sham, charlatan candles, and the kind that have real, waxy candles with thick black wicks.
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Escape
Cassidy Sommer
She could hear the scrapes of shoes as they walked up to her bed. She could smell the dirty, electric air wash over her cool fragile body.
A Dereliction of duty
Sam Hawksmoor
Jeyna said a quick prayer of protection and entered the children’s bedroom. She quickly checked herself, tried to hide her surprise. The room was small, damp and far worse than any room at the orphanage.
PIN Number
Russell Helms
To verify your identity, I’ll ask two of your personal challenge questions.”
Tom-Toms
T. R. Healy
His head bent in frustration, Thomas Addison got back in his car and set his messenger bag on the passenger seat. He did not turn on the engine but, instead, took a couple of pencils out of his bag and began to strike them against the steering wheel.
GIRL with CAT (Blue)
Sam Hawksmoor - Shortlisted for the Rubery Book Award 2018
There was no warning this time. The enemy bomber swept in from the east flying low, spilling its deadly guts of cluster bombs onto the street market. Saska was running, heart in mouth, a hundred paces from the nearest underground shelter. Cat, her precious Blue Lynx was ahead of her, ears back, nearly sick with panic.
A Bagatelle of Maladies
Allen P Cook
It was not that he simply missed her. She was right in front of him. He felt diminished. It was as if he suddenly wanted to go out to Burger King for a 2 for $4 breakfast and the seat next to him was empty.
Can of Tuna
Allen P Cook
Her head travelled horizontally back and forth trying to get its bearings--restless wheat in a breeze. The Basilica of Nuestra Senora del Pillar lay in front of her, big as a football field.
That Sweet Young 'Thang'
John Richmond
They didn’t go looking for anything, no, they just wanted to listen to some good music, but the moment she walked in the door- everything changed.
Ma Maggie’s Legacy
Reed Sterling
When my cousin Genny Burke heads out to work, I roam through the old family house as I did when under Ma Maggie’s watchful eye, knowing full well nothing is as it was except for the insubstantial forms that the uncertain mind fashions into numinous facades and peoples with vaguely recognizable shapes.
The Splinter
Richard Krause
A splinter pushed into the soft tissue of Jacob's finger. He was charged with disposing of the wood, breaking it into small pieces.
Moving into the Salvation Army
Abigail George
Julia knew about closing doors on the past. Uncertainty flowed through her veins like harsh winter sandwiched between skyline and breath.
Sessions with the Psychiatrist
Abigail George
Today, I thought about the things I would never forget in my life, people who swam out of my reach touching my fingertips. People like Carol M., Vincent, my mother and my sister.
Linger - Extract from 'Winter in Johannesburg'
Abigail George
My dad is one of the lucky ones. His voice merges alongside mine like beautiful scraps of material. This is a story about a man but not about any man. It is a story about my father.
Dawid - A portrait of a marriage
Abigail George
‘You don’t touch me anymore, Dawid. We’re living a lie. Our whole marriage is based on a lie. That we still desire each other.’
Bill and Sissy
Abigail George
There were of course things that Sissy had said and did in her short life that she regretted. In the end, didn’t it make her stronger, she often thought to herself.
Johan
Abigail George
It’s winter. Johan is writing on his laptop in the kitchen while she’s making coffee. This love affair was finally going to turn into a marriage. This Saturday morning felt as if she was living on an island with her favourite things. Food and Johan.
Applying the law of giving
Abigail George
All I wanted was for Deon to love both of us. For the three of us to become a family. Now I listen to music to keep me sane in the evenings with no man around in my life. A woman who lost two men in the span of five years.
Come to my house
Abigail George
Elizabeth Light was like any other girl her age. She felt she needed to understand more of the world around her which is why she moved to Johannesburg in the first place.
The Woman in the Photograph
Abigail George
She had never met anyone called Siegfried before. Wondered what he was like when he was a boy being called on in class. Was he teased, mocked, bullied on the playground like she was for her ‘proper’ English?
You look so lovely, even when you cry
Abigail George
You’ve been living on a diet of caffeine and cigarettes for weeks now, Gus. Tell me what’s wrong. Tell me what’s wrong, right now.
Anton
Abigail George
‘I have a secret.’
‘So, tell me, what’s your secret, beautiful?’
‘Well, it’s my birthday and I’ve come out with a girlfriend to celebrate.’
Wanda's Daughter
Abigail George
Youth is falling. A clever winter dissolve. Light flashes during an afternoon storm and all I can remember is Johannesburg and failing miserably at school.
Genie
Abigail George
“What’s your name, angel?”
“Whatever you want it to be, sir? You looking for companionship?”
Whoops-a-Daisy-Angel
Charlotte March
I’d never met an angel. Not personally. But I know angels are blonde because Ella Keeling and Kayleigh Gent are blonde...
Moving into the Continental
Jim Meirose
They may come with sirens blazing and force us out of the house and then where will we live, where will we go?
J&K4Ever - First Chapter
Sam Hawksmoor
Jeyna listened as Martha lay dying on the hill. The wounds on her body were festering and angry. No one knew how she’d got there or why she’d been attacked.
Alvin and the Universal Theorem
Martin Green
What are the odds? It’s the Universal Theorem. It explains everything in the universe. I’ve solved it...
One Last Drink
Martin Green
It was almost eight on a January night in San Francisco. Outside it was cold and foggy. The bar was a small one, a neighborhood place where people stopped in for a drink after work. Right now Paul was the only one there.
Creative Writing and Claire
Martin Green
Like most people in my Northern California retirement community, I scan the obituaries (now called “life tributes”) in our Sunday newspaper. I rarely see anyone I know; most of those I worked or played tennis with have already passed on. On this particular Sunday, however, I saw a face that looked familiar
The Big Girl
Martin Green
Dorothy and I were graduate students in English at Columbia University in New York. We were in the same Shakespeare class and had gotten into the habit of going to the university café afterward for coffee. Somehow, we’d clicked right away and testing each other with Shakespeare quotes was a game we liked to play.
The Visit
Martin Green
“So you’re going to visit Irv Kane?” said Abe Silverman
“Yeah, I couldn’t say No to Julie”
Things I have no more use for
Abigail George
“God took you out of my life for a reason.”
Raj City
Abigail George
Youth excites me. The youth in men. The youth in women. I have to hold onto the fact that all of life, human life, humanity, flora and fauna, and the lost and found is a happy gift.
Jack Updike
Abigail George
You’re no longer here to talk to me, to listen, to dance with, to make love to, to admire, adore, worship ...
Flashbacks
Abigail George
Those years after the war it seemed as if everyone was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Leah
Abigail George
Doctor van Wyk, even my instinct is innocent. When I write courage is my source. It is hard to believe how far I have come. I have loved every man I have ever met. I have also trusted every woman I have ever met and I have been badly let down by females.
Johannesburg
Abigail George
'I loved the daily grind. The business side of it. Yet, I also felt crowded, pressured to be happy because of the heat of the day'.
The Storehouse of Images
Abigail George
Ghosts fill, fill and fill a bare room. Lost souls searching for a spiritual home. One of those lost souls answers to the name of Kevin Carter.
The Most Vital Organ of All
Abigail George
The dimensions of love are beautiful. They can inspire you to wuthering heights or not at all.
Felicity and Nadine
Abigail George
Felicity was painting her nails. It was an exotic colour. It didn’t really suit her mood.
Joseph's Wife
Abigail George
Waiting for healing rain. Here’s wishing for that release in the sky.
The curious language of Laura, Lynn and Peter
Abigail George
I was the angel. The good one. I was the one with the children and the husband. The glowing mother.
Across the valley’s face
Abigail George
Life must break you and when it does, when that reckoning comes, it comes with fire. Its flame flickers in the dark.
Back Home
Victor J. Castleton
With a mild screeching halt, I was back where I was twenty two years ago.
The Little men
Victor J. Castleton
It all started at the beginning of a winter season on the east end of the Island.
Home Upon a Many Summers
Victor J Castleton
Once upon a ninth birthday ...
Blunt Talk
Rick Edelstein
Did I just hear a bumper sticker?
Unsolvable, unfathomable, impenetrable.
Mom, Me, and Boyfriends
Sarah Fils-Aime
I never once woke to the sound of my mother sneaking in with a stranger, heels in her hand. I was not reared in a house where a new man would shuffle out while I ate my cereal. But my mother has had many boyfriends...
Moscow Olympics
Charlie Dickinson
The years passed. Nearly three and, as Andrei wrote, the war was dragging on endlessly and kept him there. He mentioned that fighting the mujahideen seemed as impossible as eradicating a fungus ...
Dispossessed
Andrew Lee-Hart
He arrived in Liverpool at about three in the afternoon, with darkness and lust in his heart.
Song for the Missing
Andrew Lee-Hart
The Reverend William Southall was many things in his life; vicar, mourner of two children, deserted husband, world famous expert on cats and worshipper of the devil; well that is what certain members of his congregation claimed, and they should know.
The First Supper
R.J. Fox (Extract from Love & Vodka)
Katya and I were seated on the couch side of the table. At first glance, the couch appeared comfortable, but in reality, it was far from it. It wasn’t the couch itself, which was rather stiff, but rather, its low height and overall proximity to the table.
Exiled By Fate
Charlie Brown
Your jealousy and flaming temper are things I learned to live with, something I want to experience again because your spirit energizes me
The Pick
Peter A. Wright
It’s not how fast you run—it’s how you outwit your victim. You have to pick the right one.
The Scrapbook
Abigail George
Divinity: Teenage Infatuation and Pharmaceutical Junkie. We make a ritual out of it. Of saying evening prayers. It is absurd like flying a kite when there is no wind.
After Leaving Mr Muirhead for God
Abigail George
Grief is waving at me. The animals with their gobbledegook. Geese with their social cohesion.
On Not Leaving Home
Abigail George
They look at you as if to say. You are not beautiful. You are not pretty. It is a pity. Shame. At least you are good for a laugh.
Pain
Abigail George on Marilyn and Arthur
Sir, I do not need you to save me and perhaps belittle me a little in the process.
Dear Husband
Abigail George
I am a little girl again when I see my mother kiss another man on the lips. I only ever saw her kiss my father on the lips. This man’s name was Uncle.
Scottie and Zelda Fitzgerald
Abigail George
You loved me to death I am afraid Scottie and now it is too late. I can never be a girl again and you can never be that boy again...
The Wild Bird’s Progeny
Abigail George
In a doorway stands an entire choir of voices that bloom in an oblivion and not one of those voices belong to me.
Water Never Forgets
Abigail George
That September I poisoned my body with food and my moods but understand this. It was my road, my map, my difficult choice, my path to experience, my journey. Speak thy name the plate seemed to say or forever hold your peace.
The Mysterious One
Michelle d'costa
Maya stayed quiet unless spoken to. I have always been intrigued by quiet, mysterious people. She was one of the few reserved people in class.
Life After Death
Namitha Varma
Silence had settled over our house, ready to get into its pajamas and go to sleep.
Ready For Action
Dave Metz
I was between jobs living in the woods outside town off Forest Creek Road. My wife had kicked me out. She said my dogs were too much and I needed to get my own place...
Roses
Nada Holland
I have a baby sister. It’s her I had hoped to hear from, this Sunday, Valentine’s Day. Her, I’d hoped to speak to on the phone.
Eponine in Paris - Pts One and Two
Excerpt From “The Third Eye of the Needle”
Novella by Dean Borok
Parisians went to church and prayed for a return to the old ways, but in their hearts they knew that these conditions did not just spring up from nowhere.
Cupid Bicuspid
Karl MacDermott
My psychologist told me to smile more.
The Secret Brotherhood of Sairam
Namitha Varma
The party was heating up. Akhil wanted a cigarette. Now. No one had any left. But where would he get one at this god-forsaken two am?
The night I needed nobody is the night I met you.
John Traynor
I’m a twenty four year old alcoholic. And like all cute hoors for the craic, I live above a pub and nightclub...
The Test - extract from The Heaviness by Sam Hawksmoor
Whatever you do - don't get on the bus...!
Stickball
Martin Green
We did sometimes play stickball when we could get hold of a broom handle and when the older guys weren’t playing.
Padomania
Martin Green
Max Birnbaum had come over for one of our occasional games of chess, more of an excuse to discuss the sad state of the world and to reminisce about our early days in New York.
The Job Interview
Philip Perry
“Rod MacInerney here to see Mr. Hummer, Mr. Richards and Ms. Toole,” he said politely to the security guard. The guard was dressed like a cop, had a badge, a gun, everything. His security uniform must have been too small. He bulged through it and his sleeves were rolled up to show off his biceps.
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