His parents called him Little Rambo because he liked watching Stallone manhandle the bad guys on an old VHS tape. He rewound the tape over and over until he copied Rambo’s posture the right way and shot his own little arrow through the air into mimosa trees lining their property. He ran through the woods and jumped over fallen pine, charging after imaginary enemies, calling out and telling them that he was coming for them.… more
Category Archives: FICTION
Easy Money
FICTION by Eliot TreichelWith Alfie, sometimes you had to let him run himself out, the same way you did those big trout that used to choke the streams around here. Pull back too hard and it’s over. Better to let them go. Sometimes, though, you let a fish run like that and it means you’re going on a run yourself… more
Does Anyone Care How the Vegetable Oil Feels?
FICTION by Derek FisherI knew this fucking writer who every time he wanted to write something he’d go way deep in the zone and live the shit hard. I asked him do you call it method writing or some shit and he chased me with a butcher knife.… more
Sadie
FICTION by Tom HousemanEvery atom in my body pulled me towards the door of the sports bar, urging me to sit on the closest stool, sink into the cracked vinyl, and drink. And drink and drink and drink. Order a shot and let it rip through me like a chainsaw, spilling my guts all over the floor. … more
Two Stories
FICTION by John A. McDermottThere was nothing to slide off her finger. No reason to reach out to Toby’s empty hand, turn it up, and set something in the middle of his warm palm. Nothing gleamed in the dim winter light. The ring was on a baggage cart, on the tarmac beyond the window, packed in Toby’s suitcase. But she knew it was coming.… more
Dads on Phones
FICTION by Liz LydicPhonesy Johnson’s child, Phineous, is such a DICK!, the blog’s caption read. He wants to play ball, but Dad is CLEARLY so busy reporting to GOD that he cannot spend these 30 minutes providing his undivided attention.… more
Mr. Howard
FICTION by Kara VernorNone of them understood. You slap on a price tag and people want what they don’t need, which was why so much ended up on the street. How many bottles of $60 wine had he shipped that weren’t any better than the $20 bottles? Just because some guy probed a delicate glass with an obscene nose saying, …cherries, blackberries, vanilla, cigar… old shoe leather. It didn’t matter. People were easily duped.… more
Gloria Patri (An Excerpt)
FICTION by Austin RossAs they spoke, Solomon made a reference to a year he’d spent in prison, as though this were common knowledge.… more
Disciples of Suede
FICTION by Max HippIn a dream I conjured Cindy Pickens in a field of fire and lilies. She wore her apron and a frilly blouse before her clothes popped off like bubbles. Naked, she was Shannon Tweed, Queen of Cinemax. Her skin frothed and spat with heat. I woke up seething, convulsing. I gasped at the darkness above my bed while her burning image floated close.… more
When the Cold Wind Comes to the Glass Yard
FICTION by Jeff BurdIt brings with it roughnecks reckoning with reality they were warned against long before they laced up steel-toed boots and lit lights on their hard hats. They know the dust cough. They know how the mine spits them out until the cold wind pushes them stumbling in the dark with their bottles to the glass yard.… more
