Most read stories

If I Were a Chemist, Not Now, but Maybe In The 1920s

15801580 views1212 comments99 favs

She said, “I think I’m pregnant,” but I thought that the sidewalk looked cleaner than usual,

Chipping Granite

15801580 views55 comments33 favs

I sat at the kitchen counter, aware of a heaviness, a numbness, in my flesh, my bones, my mind. My dancer's body -- short, trim and 108 pounds -- felt as huge and unmoving as the…

Kanha's Dream

15801580 views00 comments00 favs

"Look at the grime on those curtains. Not fit for an Emperor. Pull them down. Put up fresh new ones. Not a spot." "Oh! Look at this throne. All uneven legs. The gems are not shining. The gold looks dull. Fix it, fix it, fix it!"

The History of Strands

15801580 views44 comments11 fav

We cannot love the past...

The Nude Pianist: A Novel: Chapter 37

15801580 views66 comments33 favs

—Frank, how is your sex life?

Catching Forks

15801580 views22 comments11 fav

Last night Jim taught me how to catch forks. Meaning, he taught me how to throw them. But he called it catching forks. It was late, and we were low down 3rd street, south of the Bay Bridge, the baseball stadium, all the people and cars, on top of a warehouse. There were a…

Wishing for the Shadow of a Perfect Cube

15801580 views1717 comments99 favs

Words darken with smut and irony over time.

Theater of War

15791579 views66 comments44 favs

We became The World Famous Shadow Puppet Theater because we thought that the best way to become world famous was to act as though we already were.

Sniping

15791579 views88 comments55 favs

Snipers wear camouflage clothing to avoid being seen. It wouldn’t do for a sniper to be seen because then the sniper might become the snipee.

Research Notes - Single Stroke Seven

15791579 views44 comments33 favs

It is within my nature, and many others I know, to cling to what’s consistent and certain: the battles fought in the war for survival and the organic camaraderie borne in the trenches. Sometimes the quest and the people we commiserate with along the way

Who Loves the Sun?

15791579 views55 comments55 favs

beat them with fists and purses.

Baby Catalogue

15791579 views22 comments22 favs

my mouth is open, ready to bite your tiny toes

This Is

15791579 views1616 comments99 favs

Have you ever spent twilight in a old pasture?

Date Night

15791579 views77 comments77 favs

Content may contain ordinary, everyday, and all around average happenings.

Dawn

15791579 views33 comments11 fav

Fat robins are chirping – loudly – at 4 a.m. They’re trying to delude the worms into thinking it’s dawn already The worms get up underground They’re grumpy, they bump into things They come up to the surface and Wham! That

Begonia {part five}

15791579 views22 comments00 favs

With a roar and short burst of flame, the dragon awoke, startled.

Martini Business

15791579 views22 comments00 favs

On Martini Business Nights the rules of decorum were written by Esquire or Playboy.The red bar-side book divulges the secrets brewed with ice, libation and a sleek chrome shaker, because its all about the accoutrement, and technique. Mr Boston said that, NOT James Bond. If…

Naked Launch

15791579 views1010 comments66 favs

I enjoy launching words into space. Please dangle a moment here while I prepare the next sentence. Ok. You can come in now. Take boiling for instance. And hawsers. The sound of words on a sheet of paper. The manifesto for a roll of sleep. Sleep is oblivious to…

First Ending

15791579 views1414 comments88 favs

His wife had just come from the gynecologist and was toying with her French fries.

Ajloun Castle

15791579 views1414 comments99 favs

the wind mistook your arms for wings

Zorro

15791579 views11 comment11 fav

Zorro lived in his mother’s basement until he could get back on his feet.

"The Misses Moses," from my collection Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives (Norton 2010)

15791579 views66 comments66 favs

The Misses Moses by Brad Watson from Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives The Moses sisters lived together, alone, in the fine old brick house near downtown where they…

The Three Of Swords - любовь среди волков

15791579 views22 comments11 fav

A look flashed across his face as if someone had hooked up his genitals to a car battery.

Paper White

15791579 views66 comments55 favs

With each step, that cold hand steals ever upward.

The Sextant

15791579 views1212 comments88 favs

I was hope, and you were what I can only call consolation, as day after day you remained a grief in my throat.

The Mojave Desert Remembers Ron Paul

15791579 views22 comments11 fav

The Mojave Desert remembers Ron Paul With tattered billboards Scraped and clawed by vehement dust

The Misfortune 500

15791579 views66 comments55 favs

When I first started out in my working career, I made it the habit of obtaining jobs with companies that were about to go under. (I wrote more books while on unemployment than by any other method.) I was a real bloodhound at sniffing out the pre-dawn od

"Is Your Stomach Making You Sad?" and Other Conundrums of 21st Century Life

15791579 views33 comments33 favs

The questions we ask ourselves define who we are as a culture. “What is the meaning of life?” “Is there a God?” “Does anybody really know what time it is?” “Where the hell did I put my car keys?” To see what…

Barbarian(s) Within the Gates

15781578 views66 comments55 favs

This writers' conference (sponsored by VQR, which had run its banner ad atop the Fictionaut home page in the summer of 2014, which begins to explain both my attendance and this essay) revealed itself as an apt subject . . .

Tourists

15781578 views66 comments33 favs

someone left graffiti on the billboard over: "God's a hard act to follow"; the one that made the news