Category Archives: Fiction

Gavin Colquist shrieked, his clothes catching on thorns and branches as he sprinted through the underbrush. By the time he had run the thirty yards to his car, thin red lines paralleled the rips in his polyester button-down shirt. His torn … Continue reading →

Ribbon Scrawl was tall and stupid. He was the kind of stupid you find in shuttered slaughterhouses, the kind of stupid you avoid if you’re smart. And you’re smart. Or you thought you were, until you found yourself locked in … Continue reading →

The aroma of vanilla floods my nostrils. Somewhere among the clutter of stalls, sweet vanilla cakes are offered to those with a sweet tooth and money to spend. Everyone wandering the stalls here has at least a little money to … Continue reading →

I sprint toward the other side of the highway, hoping to reach the shoulder before the car speeding in my direction reaches me. I misjudge its speed. It’s almost here and I’m only inches from the middle of the road. … Continue reading →

Enter the animal. He prowls like a cat. But he’s a monster unknown. He’s a creature prehistoric, an enigma that stalks the night looking for victims to satisfy his appetite for fresh flesh and streaming blood. The sky darkens and leaves in … Continue reading →

A medical bill, associated with my recent colonoscopy, arrived in today’s mail. It was for pathology work. I logged on to my medical records to find details of the pathology report. As I already knew, the pathology exam found nothing … Continue reading →

Her smile conceals savage fury of infinite intensity. Look closely enough and you’ll see bitterness escaping from the upturned corners of her mouth. Beware the simmering anger, hidden beneath her engaging grin, capable of erupting in full-throated rage. In an instant, the acrimony growing … Continue reading →

Material for books continues to spill from my fingers, onto the keyboard, and then splash across my computer screen. I’ve created a half-dozen plots in the last few days alone; every time I begin writing on one of the novels-in-waiting, … Continue reading →

While his wife, Elise, and son, Kennet, sat at their breakfast table overlooking the North Sea, eating smoked salmon and scrambled eggs with Jarlsberg cheese and juniper berries, Stefan Ruud pondered his previous night, spent alone aboard a small boat anchored off the Svalbard Islands … Continue reading →

“I’m motivated more by ensuring his failure than my success,” Bhavin Patel said. The beer in front of him, his fourth, sloshed over the sides of the glass as he slammed it down on the bar for emphasis. “He deserves … Continue reading →

Writing fiction is a dangerous endeavor, for it relies on a combination of experience and creativity. As we write, secrets seem to emerge from caves we think lie buried under a thousand layers of memories and experience. But are they truly secrets … Continue reading →

I posted a flippant question on a social media site recently, telling friends that I planned to write a story about a town I invented, asking who would like to be in the story. Eight people responded, giving me feedback on the … Continue reading →

Swift. Like a seasonal stream swishing down the side of a mountain after a spring downpour. That’s what it felt like. The world changed in an instant. The stream turned into a torrent and the torrent turned into a flood and … Continue reading →

This set of interrelated vignettes sprang from my fingers with little prodding. I don’t know the whole story here; not even the main parts of it. But I know there’s a story beneath this scenario. I know there’s more than … Continue reading →

I plunge into the underbrush, slashing at chest-high weeds in the choking thicket, my machete in hand. Long since dulled against reeds and briars, the knife’s once razor-edged blade makes it more useful as a club than a sickle. The noise of cold steel rustling … Continue reading →

Standish Cole, watching the morning sky as pale light blotted the horizon, hoped for signs of warmth and a day dry enough to take his tractor into the fields. If he couldn’t get into the fields today, the crops would be lost. … Continue reading →

“I offer you this advice as a handsel for the new year upon us: be as gentle with yourself as you are with those you love most dearly, yet measure yourself against high expectations. By so doing, you make yourself into … Continue reading →

What if even the most powerful volcano was simply a trick, a display of the amazing power of a fizzlewhuzzcan engine that melts rock and sprays it into the sky? What then? Nothing, of course. We’d simply come to recognize … Continue reading →

Cyrus Bedlam watched as the pieces of a cosmic puzzle slipped through the sky. The bitter taste of dark chocolate and kale. That’s the association that popped into his head as he watched the setting moon grind against the horizon at … Continue reading →

I listened to a voice in my head as it told a story. This voice was from a man who survived the siege but who wished he had acted, much earlier, to warn of what was coming. He failed to … Continue reading →

How can I write about such drivel as I posted earlier, my frustration with toilet non-delivery, in the face of the impending presidential inauguration? My answer is this: the little frustrations have their place; sometimes, it’s the little frustrations that … Continue reading →