Most read stories

Bedtime Stories

15271527 views33 comments11 fav

I want to read a story that ends unhappily ever after: one where the bad guy wins and no one gets the girl.

Open Wounds

15271527 views11 comment11 fav

Where the skin had grazed, shredded by the coarse gravel to form scabs, fascinated Jack. It reminded him of his youth and his own grazes, scratches and stitches. As a boy he imagined scabs were rough foundations of igneous rock, blood like lava pouring th

Osama Retires

15271527 views00 comments00 favs

Osama couldn’t see any reason he shouldn’t retire. No way he could top BP Oil in the Gulf or Pacific Gas & Electric in San Bruno.

5 Things I've Learned After 5 Years of Reviewing Small Press Books and Writing 2 of My Own

15261526 views11 comment22 favs

In today’s print-on-demand and digital world, there are unlimited avenues for aspiring writers to circulate their work, but deregulation and limitlessness often leads to chaos. Writers are more inclined to release unpolished work that fails to rise to the

Frothing At the Fountain

15261526 views44 comments11 fav

When I came back from California the second time, in the summer of 1965, I was the first around our town to wear my hair long, influenced by the Beatles. And I bought a bunch of blue caps that everyone in our gang wore, with the number “69” sown on

Laughing All The Way To The 2020 Election

15261526 views55 comments44 favs

After President Trump was elected, my first impulse was to spend the next four years cowering under the bed, whimpering.While I knew that I needed to keep track of what our new commander in chief was up to, watching the news made me too angry and too sad and just too…

The Sound Of...

15261526 views11 comment00 favs

What if Everything I have been doing Hasn’t been heard By anyone?

Snow

15261526 views77 comments11 fav

She talks about window treatments, how the place is maybe too much for one. Wants me to know she’s not much of a cook, and wants me to smell what’s in her oven and compliment her cooking anyway.

Water Hitting Water.

15261526 views44 comments44 favs

Jenny was certain nobody saw her when she took the slinky shirt from her father's store. It was blue with buttons shaped like cherries, the fabric light as air. She balled it up in her hand. Her father owned a chain of boutiques called Body Electric. The racks were…

Lovelandtown Tavern

15261526 views44 comments44 favs

James Hubert III sat at the bar. It was late. His wife and kids were long in bed and he knew he should be, too. But with the Lovelandtown lift bridge stuck in mid-air, a drink beckoned him. He sat next to Vince DeSantos, a small, stout man, with a bowling

Convenience Store

15261526 views33 comments22 favs

I’m casing the place; my boyfriend Jimmy is about to bust in and rob the store.

The Gallery of Wounds

15261526 views1616 comments99 favs

The blood is memorable/ as is the copper taste of that/ momentary certainty of lockjaw.

M+3

15261526 views88 comments55 favs

In the diffuse light of early morning you wear a sweat suit maybe and stand in front of a model-kitchen counter in a model-home kitchen

The Fourth Prague Defenestration: 10

15261526 views33 comments44 favs

But the restaurants put pig in every little dish. You couldn't eat there without encountering some portion of pig. It was in everything, including the cabbage. Who puts pig in the cabbage? I'm asking you. And in the dumplings too. For God's sake, give it

Blind date

15261526 views11 comment00 favs

“I'll have the Ribeye cooked medium rare,” says Bill, who looks over at Julia, blonde hair and disarming smile, and he thinks that she's not bad for a blind date. He doesn't like the way she butters her roll, however, and it agitates him that she spreads…

You'll Never Get Anything Accomplished on an Empty Stomach

15261526 views66 comments00 favs

The Star Trek marathon ends, and he flips channels. An episode of Full House is on. The cheesy plot lines and attractive women (specifically, DJ Tanner in the late seasons) have become a freakish comfort. In today's episode, the Tanners are baby sitt

Bag

15251525 views11 comment11 fav

No chance for Hallo, we sank into an unlit station doorway and he fumbled through my shorts.

How To Find A Galaxy In The Dark

15251525 views22 comments11 fav

I don't know what I'd expected from the week of mourning after my mother died but I sure hadn't pictured this marathon cocktail party. Our house is packed with people, food, booze and borrowed chairs. People I haven't seen in years keep turning up with casseroles.I'm…

Life at the Brew-Ha-Ha Pub

15251525 views66 comments55 favs

No matter what you may discover Or come to believe during the drinking life The question still remains: What if everyone was an accident? But still, while time may appear To be nearing its own end And the sun seems to be getting

Ritual

15251525 views11 comment11 fav

The dance draws deeper whirling witches weaving rhymes The fire spits fierce in the falling rain soon the spell will spill from secret times

Tongues

15251525 views66 comments66 favs

I feel his hand on my face, feel it brush past my lips, and I taste my sister's blood.

This Can't Be True, But I Remember It

15251525 views33 comments33 favs

She calls me by my name. She says I am her daughter.

So Twinkle Made Lemonade

15251525 views1111 comments88 favs

“Just how many different animals try to hide their nakedness?” “Only one. And that'd be us, idiot.”, Twinkle responded. “Then, why don't we mind sometimes showing our bodies?”, she then asked. Twinkle could see it was going to be another…

What I Learned From Magazines This Week

15251525 views55 comments44 favs

In his heyday, Burt Reynolds owned $100,000 worth of custom-made toupees.

Postcard from Shambhala

15251525 views33 comments22 favs

Dearest Z— There is no way to describe this place. It is a pendulum, caught at mid-swing or maybe just a millimeter on the up side. It is a sense of sweeping, a cleanness. Distant clouds remind me of the day we took the train and the mountains acted petulantly,…

ANALOG

15251525 views66 comments22 favs

We’re going to talk about our future like the Rick Dees Weekly Top 40. Like there are 40 great songs this week about our future.

~with every breath~

15251525 views11 comment22 favs

she goes jogging with the feet of an angel the sound of crunching leaves like wrapping paper torn open to reveal an expensive doll and the light in her mother's eyes.

Triolet

15251525 views1111 comments88 favs

the magic is our making

Settled

15251525 views44 comments11 fav

Zusman snored on the sofa as Motel gathered his belongings in the dark. He moved quietly as had become his custom in the mornings. Initially he had tried not to wake his nephew on his way to work in the…

A Serial Killer’s First Day in Medical School

15251525 views44 comments11 fav

To rival the professor in his knowledge of various body parts is impossible ...