“What’s your new book about?” An author can write 100,000 words, create an insightful tale of terror, humor, adventure, romance, and mystery, yet when someone—in this case, a writer-friend—asks, “What’s your new book about?” all the insightful words dry up. All that’s left is babble. I told my friend What Doesn’t Kill Her is a thriller. […]
Category Archives: Fiction
HAVE YOU EATEN?
HAVE YOU EATEN? Frederick placed the three plastic trays balanced on his arms atop the green cafeteria-style table. He sat, and after three hours of wandering through Chinatown, and another half hour queuing up at three different food stalls, it felt good to sit. It was just after the dinner rush and most of […]
Crossroad: A Short Story
Crossroad: A Short Story Even the windows shook when the lightning burst overhead. Our front room lit like a Polaroid time and again as light flashed through blinds I hadn’t closed. Rain, endless, came in a deluge. I looked up from the armchair again. My worrying at the clock wouldn’t get Dad home any sooner, […]
The Heist by Richard Brewer and Gary Phillips (Part 4)
The Heist by Richard Brewer and Gary Phillips (Part 4) Gonzales studied the screen of his homemade electronic device. The safe’s lock required a combination punched in cor- rectly on its keypad. But he wasn’t trying to hack the sequence. What he wanted was to short-circuit the alarm feature. He knew these modern safes were […]
The Heist by Richard Brewer and Gary Phillips (Part 3)
The Heist by Richard Brewer and Gary Phillips (Part 3) The three in the plane were dressed in casual but stylish attire, a trio out looking at Texas real estate their clothes said. O’Conner even wore loafers. Once on the ground, after the plane was checked in, they walked to the two vehicles they’d driven. […]
The Heist by Richard Brewer and Gary Phillips (Part 1)
The Heist by Gary Phillips and Richard Brewer O’Conner crossed his arms before his face as the blast from the shotgun knocked him down. *** Less than two weeks before, he’d gotten a cup of coffee from the ink-laden barista with the pierced lip and boxer’s biceps. At the setup on the side […]
Sentences: A Love Story
Sentences: A Love Story My Love for the Sentence I am in love with sentences. I am a philanderer of sentences, a polyamorous glutton, a syntax satyr, a serial sentencer. And I have no intention of ever changing my ways, no 12-step program for me, even though, with each passing year, I become more of […]
The Heist by Richard Brewer and Gary Phillips (Part 2)
The Heist by Richard Brewer and Gary Phillips (Part 2) “Zach Culhane.” “He solid?” The Financier’s chair was at an angle to the table and he crossed one leg over the other. “If by that do you mean is he a cocaine fiend or prone to maudlin drinking and spilling his guts to strippers, the […]
Sherlock Holmes in Verse
Sherlock Holmes in Verse (Sung to the tune of SILVER BELLS) Melodic adaptations of Sherlock Holmes in Verse By Daniel E. Lambert Dirty racetrack, muddy racetrack Running mile after mile In the air There’s a feeling of winning. People yelling Vendors selling Mugs of stout and good beer And after each race you will […]
Vig by R.G. Oram
Vig by R.G. Oram He just sat there, waiting. Sitting with his back gently resting on the chair. Hands on the table pressed together in the shape of a pyramid. His eyes looked straight at the two-way mirror. He was smiling at whoever observed from the other side, wanting them to witness his confidence, to […]
Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan (Excerpts)
Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan (Excerpts) The scream awakened him. Mordecai Tremaine sat up in bed with the sound of it ringing in his ears, and at first he could not tell whether it was real. Imagination and reality, fantasy and fact had become so entwined within him that, aroused suddenly from a troubled […]
Excerpt from Henning Mankell’s Novel AFTER THE FIRE…
Excerpt from Henning Mankell’s Novel AFTER THE FIRE… (Translated by Marlaine Delargy) Chapter II I watched as one boat after another disappeared, the sounds of the different engines gradually dying away. I knew who each person was out here in the archipelago. There are two dominant families: the Hanssons and the Westerlunds. Many of them […]
