PROSE
From Concentric Magazine: Infinity by David Landrum. Though the story could use another proofreading, the narrative—concerning two young lovers who endeavour to navigate their families’ divergent faiths—is thoroughly arresting.
The meal would be an examination. Like in school, I was being graded. (Landrum, Infinity)
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From Fictive Dream: To The Maxx by Thaddeus Rutkowski. On longing and moral squander. Unlike a lot of other flash stories, its abrupt and unsatisfying ending is a benefit to its general effect, rather than a check against it.
… she was more than a friend, so it was more than good to hear from her. (Rutkowski, To The Maxx)
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From Literally Stories: Wishbone by Jennie Boyes. A wonderful fable. Odd and engrossing and splendidly written. My favorite of the week.
Wind, sea-salt, and even War had not defeated it, and as Famine traced the silouhette against the sky, he could have believed the castle would withstand time itself, if such a thing were possible. (Boyes, Wishbone)
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From Mystery Tribune: The Same Gym by Emily Livingstone. The tale of a series of eerie disappearances at a small gym. The story builds considerable suspense in the beginning, but might have benefited from a slightly longer denouement. One thing I found quite distracting, which had nothing to do with the story itself, was the inclusion of intrusive quote blocks between paragraphs. I’ve seen other literary journals use similiar formatting, but I’ve never understood the purpose of repeating the text, enlarged and out of sequence, which, for whatever its worth, I would contend, is something better left to study guides and new articles.
I wanted to be a detective or someone in a choose-your-own-adventure. (Livingstone, The Same Gym)
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From New Pop Lit: The Perfect Candidate by Karl Wenclas. A fast-paced political satire.
Tall and lean, with the sober face of what passed as an intellectual. What used to be called a hipster, before hipsters became not an unusual species of animal, but the norm. (Wenclas, The Perfect Candidate)
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From Spelk: Creel by Steven John. The story of a terminally ill lobster-catcher. The story got me to thinking that “fishing” and “fisherman” are common terms, yet, “lobstering” and “lobsterman” are not. I wonder why.
Lobstering is a pastime now. Anything more than that and there’s online paperwork. Haven’t got a computer. Wouldn’t know where to start. (John, Creel)
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From Skyhorse Publishing: Lake of Darkness (forthcoming 5/5/20) by Scott Kenemore (currently available for preorder).
It’s a page-turning thriller that shows, once again, that more people should be paying attention to Kenemore’s work.” (J. Parypinski, author of Dark Carnival)
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From The Alembic: Gravitas by Paddytheduke. A comedy about dogs and weekdays.
… dogs don’t like Monday mornings any more than humans do (Paddytheduke, Gravitas)
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From The Dark Netizen: Treasures by The Dark Netizen. A flashfiction.
“You said grandma kept her treasures here before going to heaven.”
Grandpa smiled looking at the mess on his bed.“I never lied. They’re here.” (Netizen, Treasures)
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VERSE
From Sgehlert: Monopoly Empires by Søren Gehlert.
the truth hides in disarray
and dour shells
on phrenetic beach (Gehlert, Monopoly Empires)
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From Short Prose: Passion by Gabriela M.
I see you
the face of the lost stranger
dissimulating grief in autumn shadows (G. M., Passion)
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From The Drabble: The Code of Life by Tanzelle.
A, C, G, T
what will the next one in the sequence be? (Tanzelle, The Code of Life)
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