By: Michael C. Keith There are lots of people who mistake their imagination for their memory.       –– Josh Billings Billy-John Calhoun saddled up his horse, Rickets, in the corral of his windblown homestead north of Ashby, Nebraska, and rode it…

By: Steve Slavin Almost everything I know about women I learned from Bonnie. Although she was just 21 – two years my junior – she already knew more than most people learn in a lifetime. Bonnie was kind of pretty,…

By: William J. Watkins, Jr. For Garland Breazeale, his garden patch was a refuge. An Eden prior to the Fall. But on recent Saturday mornings, before the sun began its climb up the eastern sky, the patch would change. Garland had…

By: Clive Aaron Gill Martha steered her pickup truck down the steep road from Valley Center towards the Escondido High School bus yard. Dawn spread its pink-rose rays over morning clouds, softening the San Diego mountain peaks. She hunched her…

By: Michael C. Keith What you wear to the grave is always safe from criticism. –– Sander Howling Alison asked her 81 year-old spouse what clothes he wanted to wear at his wake. “Huh? That’s a weird thing to say….

‘Hazard of Shadows’ which is the book two of Chronicles of the Goblin King series by Mike Phillips has recently been released. While the author and the publishers boast to thrill you with the story, we bring to you excerpt from…

By: Gaither Stewart In my favorite place near the front window with the light from the street over my right shoulder I am reading an essay by Natalia Ginzburg when out of the corner of my eye I register a…

By: Antara Roy Bahadur, that was what we called him. Simply, Bahadur. No one knew his real name, or where he came from, or where, eventually, he went. He was always there; in the garden, tending to the plants, humming…

By: Michael C. Keith Authors have always faced a tough path: chronic rejection, no job security, and low pay . . . if you’re lucky.    –– Ron Charles Shad Newburg was excited that his publisher was arranging a regional…

By: William T. Hathaway My grandma forgets things. She’s got old-timers and mixes stuff up. She’s a sweet old gal but starting to lose it upstairs. She’s living with my parents now that she can’t take care of herself so…