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Tag: fiction

“Arizona Rattlesnakes” by Ethan (E.G.) Farrelly

Posted on November 25, 2019

“How d’ya s’ppose we git outta this here situation?” “Well, the cars are over there.” “Sure are.” “That’s probably our best bet out of here.” “’Cept how we gonna git […]

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“Off the Deep End” by Richard Risemberg

Posted on August 19, 2019

It was the kind of bar that would have had to struggle up several rungs of the social ladder to be considered a dive. Not that the clientele of “The […]

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“Romulus” by Charles Rafferty

Posted on August 5, 2019

It wasn’t like that. Our mother suckled us for years in the rank, familiar den. She chewed the deer meat until it was a fine paste she could drop into […]

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“The Night the Billado Block Burned Down” by Elizabeth Gauffreau

Posted on July 29, 2019

Then the Billado Block burned down, and I had nowhere to live. “Well, shit,” I said to the guy standing next to me watching it burn, “what am I supposed […]

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“South of the Nipple” by Paul Negri

Posted on July 15, 2019

It was just beneath the nipple of her heaving right breast. “What’s that?” asked Bordelli. Clarice didn’t seem to hear him. She kept bucking her hips and tightening her leg […]

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“Stripped” by James la Vigne

Posted on July 8, 2019

Having little to his name when he died, the reading of Henry Fromm’s will went quickly. Nothing surprising or contentious. On paper he never did anything surprising or contentious. He […]

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“I guess I never told you about Texas” by Robin Wyatt Dunn

Posted on June 17, 2019

I guess I never told you about Texas, long and sweet in the evening, boiling jelly, about mom’s temperature, stuck in the oven: The best and worst part of the […]

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“One Day” by Rebekah Ricksecker

Posted on May 20, 2019

6:47 AM The darkness turns gray; the misty fog rests over the water; the honeysuckle perfumes the air as white petals float on the still water. 7:03 AM Beneath the […]

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“The cops have Julia” by Robin Wyatt Dunn

Posted on May 6, 2019

I knew already, struck with the phantasm of a dream that I had taken the reins of my life at last. Like a drowning man finding the hole in the […]

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The Missing Brutal Honesty in the Final Walk-Through with the Soon-To-Be-Ex-Tenant by Erika Murdey

Posted on January 21, 2019

  Entry Door Yes No Damage to exterior? X Interior? X   [The lease says “no nails,” but upon her arrival in December it was a matter of days before […]

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“45th Parallel” by Robin Wyatt Dunn

Posted on November 26, 2018

We will not subside, for there can be no epiphany; we march into the sand for the egrets, hunting them with our knives. No other faith is real to me […]

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“Buddy” by Benjamin Austin

Posted on October 22, 2018

“Pickup for Angelo.” He leaned on the counter. “For who?” “Angelo.” He jerked his chin up—he had been told he mumbled. He had a deep voice and people often had […]

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“Ice Cream or Moxie” by Kristy Gherlone

Posted on August 12, 2018

In the heat of the summer, back when Willow’s mother slipped in and out of lunacy, sometimes she’d wake up at night to find her sitting on the edge of […]

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“Ship Inside a Bottle” by Charles Rafferty

Posted on May 14, 2018

       Her new boyfriend had a ship inside a bottle. You’d ask him how he got it in there, and he’d act like you had to be a […]

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“The Hitchhiker” by Michael T. Smith

Posted on April 16, 2018

It was late enough that she didn’t even feel tired anymore. Clarissa squinted so hard her eyes hurt.  She tried see through the fogged-over windshield as the onslaught of rain […]

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“Icing” by Melissa Bobe

Posted on February 12, 2018

She’d had a cupcake for breakfast every day for the last month. Thick on the icing, more often than not with sprinkles, occasionally filled with sweet cream or more icing. […]

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“Notes from the Spawn of Helicopter Parents” by Elizabeth Reitzell

Posted on January 1, 2018

The weed is helping. I can’t survive without it. Honestly, it more or less serves as a natural replacement for Lexapro, because fuck that shit. It’s like lightening your hair […]

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“The Confession of the Watcher at the Bell” by K.A. Liedel

Posted on September 25, 2017

The peace inside the giant glass bell is almost always short-lived. Soon the translucent, riblike curves will spark with electric-blue orbs, followed by clouds of glittering cosmic dust, followed again […]

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“This is What We Do Now” by Becky Shirley

Posted on September 18, 2017

You come home, half gallon of milk in one hand, the other snaking around my waist. Head buried in my shoulder, no words, just small noises that I can feel […]

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“Jigsaw” by Amber West

Posted on September 4, 2017

I was born a human jigsaw puzzle. I emerged from my mother’s womb, not as a whole baby, but in scattered pieces. The doctors worked non-stop as they assembled me. […]

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“Truth Conditions” by Natalie Einselen

Posted on August 14, 2017

Tsuki Amai’s wristwatch emitted a soft click, and she tugged gently at her ear to make sure, for the tenth time that day, that she was awake. Her mother hated […]

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“The Death of Paul Shephard” by Kristoffer Newsom

Posted on July 17, 2017

They rode together in silence for some time, the old man and the young one. Paul looked out the window, his blue eyes cloudy with cateracts, his vision clouded with […]

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“The Watcher” by Jenna Crosier

Posted on May 1, 2017

Every year, from the first I was assigned to the graveyard, I would watch the headstones from my place upon the highest pine tree. My job was to make sure […]

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“The Living Dead” by John Short

Posted on December 12, 2016

I opened my eyes, emerging from a dream but couldn’t remember anything at all. Shame really because I’d always considered dream space a bit like going to the cinema without […]

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“Blood Orange Soda” by Maya Rahman-Rios

Posted on October 10, 2016

Wait until your mother and brother have left the house. Then, call him. Four oh eight, five five five, seven three eight oh. You’ve had the number memorized since he […]

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“In Sartre Ward” by Michael Paul Hogan

Posted on September 19, 2016

  To be man means to reach toward being God. Or, if you prefer, man fundamentally is the desire to be God.        Jean-Paul Sartre   I am a prisoner, wrongfully […]

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“GET A JOB, LOS ANGELES” by Tadeu Bijos

Posted on August 15, 2016

Dude driving, dude driving vast expanses, dude fucking up on the GPS, dude asking for directions, dude getting off on the right off-ramp and hitting the ocean after three blocks. Dude making […]

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“Casualties, or I can’t f*#!ing understand this Ikea Diagram” by Dani Neiley

Posted on August 5, 2016

Hello, everyone! It’s Friday again and we’ve got another extra thing to share. When we were all talking, we realized we’ve all shared some of our writing on this blog […]

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Excerpt from “He’s Gone”

Posted on July 22, 2016

We at The Metaworker are excited to bring you something a little different this Friday. We’ve been given the opportunity to work with Impress Books, an independent publisher in the […]

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“Buzz Hunt” by Adam St. Pierre

Posted on June 20, 2016

     I don’t know how long we were up on that hillside, just Paul and me. We sat in a shallow trench, bundled up against the blowing snow and […]

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“Bathsheba Beckons” by Fred Owens

Posted on May 16, 2016

Tom Blethen faced two fifty foot rows of potatoes. He looked up at the December sky. It had rained, the field was all muddy, and it was going to rain again. […]

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/ubikwit/

“A Dream About a Sky That is a Sea” by Meli Ewing

Posted on February 1, 2016

I am getting off the school bus at the top of the driveway in the afternoon on a Friday. In real life, there were only two years where my parents […]

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“The Lunch Bucket Game” by Ronnie Clark

Posted on January 25, 2016

So I’m sittin’ in the lunchroom of the factory one day, chattin’ up the new gal.  She was a secretary.  Name of Suzie.  Only been there like two weeks.  We […]

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(flickr.com/ktylerconk)

“Write” by Elena Lucia Perez

Posted on January 18, 2016

Sit up straight, feet flat, pen poised – ready?  Now don’t think, just write what comes to mind.  Don’t pick up your pen, just keep writing.  I’m going to time […]

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Credit: (www.flickr.com/jw1697)

“Tinder” by Tadeu Bijos

Posted on October 26, 2015

Last week in the park, a small, violent dog kept sniffing the ass of a much larger, more docile dog. The sniff was aggressive and strangely confident; it felt incomplete existing only […]

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Credit: (www.flickr.com/muffmuff/)

“One Girl” by Ellen Webre

Posted on October 19, 2015

One girl bakes a hundred cupcakes and gives them away for free. One girl wastes perfectly good eggs on a car. One girl’s dog gets fat from all the junk […]

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Credit: (www.Flickr.com/medaugh/)

“Battlegrounds” by Marina Shugrue

Posted on October 12, 2015

The needle pricks my skin and I gasp as I shake out my hand. A little speck of red blood lands on the grey flooring. I take my towel and […]

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A deck of playing cards laid out in random order (Flickr: incurable_hippie)

“Bandile” by Darin Milanesio

Posted on October 5, 2015

Out by the creek behind our home, the moon and stars reflect off the water, and Bandile would often go out there. The trees were big, but he could still […]

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(Flickr: paula1841)

“Catfish” by Amethyst Hope Hethcoat

Posted on September 28, 2015

My room is black as an Olympic runner—except for the illuminated screen of my Sony Vaio which radiates like Chernobyl. My laptop is cherry red; vibrant and bold and sophisticated, […]

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“The Last Time I Spoke to Penelope” by Matthew Maichen

Posted on September 21, 2015

She led me out of my house in the middle of the night. I went with her because she was moving away the next day, and because I loved her. […]

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