Tom Jones Knew My Mother

A touching tale of a family's vindication.  By William Allun.

Losing Mrs. Jefferson

An imagining of the life of Thomas Jefferson, just after the loss of his beloved wife. By Shelley J. Alongi.

The General's Driver

Intimate moments in the wider context of war.
By Shelley J. Alongi.

Death and the Ambassador

"So far as I have been able to ascertain, my poor friend was not feeling at all well that night. He paced the Persian carpet between mahogany and ormolu. Above him the crystal of the chandelier tinkled faintly in the draught from the air-conditioning. Sometimes he coughed a little, but there were otherwise no outward signs of his distress. Apart from the ambassador, the house was empty."

An eerie, sultry short by Charlotte Appleton.

Teach Me to Make Smoke Rings

Love's very first blush, tenderly observed. By Joe Austin.

Maggie's Legacy

Discord, recrimination, reconciliation. By Laura Berry.

The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives

Departure

A Phone Call

Guitar Man

Back Home

It Comes Back

That "Time" of Year

Head for the Woods

On Top

And So It Passes

On the Drift

Out Here

I've Got a Touch of It Again

Terse, fine-tuned elegies on bygone friends and days.
By M. Blake.

Fenicksville

Hildie S. Block's anti-heroine, Haggar, lets it all hang out on the road to her father's funeral.

The Bright Red Shoes

A very mysterious fop upsets life in the neighborhood. By Gretchen L. Bourquin.

Kumango

An out-of-this-world rant. Short-short by Ovidiu Bufnila.

Bango Saradai

You kind of have to read it. Short-short by Ovidiu Bufnila.

The Fortress

"Laurel and Hardy Meet Star Trek".  A hilarious short. By Ovidiu Bufnila.

Slow Universe

A magical-realist poem on the final Big Bang. By Ovidiu Bufnila.

Animals Are Free from Sin

"It was December, but the sun was warm and left me feeling drowsy and sexual; thirsty for a beer and a cigarette. More specifically, I wanted two beers then sex then a cigarette and a nap. ..."  By Brian Childs.

Black-Out

"Dear Max, are you still alive? It has been three years since that fucking meteorite, or "magneto-asteroid" as they're calling it, started orbiting around the earth, obliterating the electrical energy and plunging New York, just like every other corner of the world, into a dark nightmare. ... " By Fausto Cicciò.

In the Key of Love

An adroit and ardent keyboardist plans and executes a romantic conquest.  By Christopher J. Cosenza.

You Are ... Goatee!

We're going to let author Tony DeCarvalho explain.

Were You On The News Today?

The future is foretold—but that may not help. By Tony DeCarvalho.

Consecutive Life

Does a convict with a multiple-life sentence know the future for all of us? Another by Tony DeCarvalho.

All-Powerful

A chance encounter on the highway takes the protagonist down a very strange road indeed. The latest by Tony DeCarvalho.

Every Breath

Do you think about 'every move you make'? Perhaps you should.  By Mark Fellows.

Do You Have An Ideal?

"And then he saw her. It all came back to him, in an avalanche of memories steeped in delusions, in life lessons. He felt weak in the knees."  Story by Misha Firer.

Anna Lisa 0.1

Read this—and laugh—before jumping into the Replicator.  Story by Misha Firer.

Perfect Folly

A couple's dream comes to pass.  But not without a few anxious moments.  By Louanna R. Fitts.

Theresa

Blonde, leggy, vain—smart—undercover FBI operative Theresa introduces us to Terry L. Forney's serio-comic noir underground.  From an untitled novel-in-progress.

The Troubled Sky

A young heroine is possessed of—and by—extraordinary powers.  Will they be enough to save her life? By Caitlin Gallacher-Turner.

Madia Mangalena

The Crucifixion, reimagined. By Michael Haulica.

Knee-high

Hope and friendship blossom during a vigil in the park. By Barbara Herrick.

Victor and the Fortune

In Honor of One Chief Accountant

Waiting for the Letter

Three sardonic, cryptic tales from Bulgarian Kaloyan Il.

A Futile Resistance

"New Year's Eve, 1999, and Seoul was no place to be. All indications from the Blue House were that the millennium bug wasn't a problem worth addressing, and would pass into the annals of the great misbeliefs of history." By James Jakimowicz.

Faith in Cats and Unseen Things

Wizards and ghosts and a child's world.  By Susynn Jane.

Slaughterhouse Gray

"Things were different before they opened up the slaughterhouse in Carlsboro. Before it came to town, you could smell the grass, heated by the sun. You could smell the sweet, earthy bouquet of wet dirt after it rained. These things you don't much think about until they're no longer there."  Story by Susynn Jane.

Polly

A view into the life of a courageous dying woman.  By Susynn Jane.

Three Authors Retell the Story of Little Red Riding Hood

An amusing trio of parodies of the much-loved tale, as seen through the eyes of Jane Austen, Herman Melville, and John Irving.  By Hila Katz.

Why Man Is Boss

Biblical brevity and wry pungency.  By Jo Neace Krause.

East Side Ice & Fuel

A finely-wrought "day in the life," at once tense and charming. By Caroline Lackey.

Righteous Man

On the gulf between the righteous and the right. By Charles Langley.

Topics of Conversation

A ruefully funny look at a date gone wrong. By Alberto Lopez.

Warmongers

Cracked Slide

Two top-notch first efforts by 23-year-old Brandi Lynch from the University of Central Arkansas.

I Got the Hots for Your Icon

A wry look at the trials of courtship on the 'net.  By J MacDonald.

The New Sound of the Men Working on the Train Gang

A bad date magically morphs into a serendipitous night of new music.  By Rey Martinez.

Time to Go Home

Note and rote are the extremes of an autistic man's responses to the insults of daily life. By Matt Maxwell.

Cry Havoc

Chaos in the run-up to Y2K.  A first for StickYourNeckOut, this is a play in one act, by Ellen McFall.

McPhadden the Magnificent

A small-time crook and magician is, apparently, something less than top-flight at either. By Walt McKinney.

The Sound of the Circle

A man's torn thoughts unravel his mysterious story.  By Michael P. McManus.

Hallie Rose

Love in the Time of Calculus.  By Corey Mesler.

Don't Hope for a Quiet Life

Waiting

Two magnificently aware and world-weary stories of love and loss.  By Ilana Petraru.

Giving Your All

Hold Very Tight Please

Tender stories of steadfast friendship (Giving Your All) and awakening love (Hold Very Tight Please) amongst gentlehearted, everyday Brits.  By Allan Price.

Best All Around

The reunion for the Class of 1987 turns predictably—well, you'll find out.  By Lea Valencia Pritchett.

Ten Minutes and Counting

An old hippie reminisces—on a deadline. By Rob Rosen.

Tunnel Vision

The rattlings of an earthquake shake the misconceptions of a habitual mind. By Rob Rosen.

Remember

An intriguing dream revitalizes a worn life. By Rob Rosen.

The Sound You Get with a Jade Mouthpiece

A tippling, middle-aged amateur jazz clarinetist contemplates music, international relations and his own sanity. By Fred Royall.

Snake Alley

It's Taipei, Taiwan. It's night, it's bitter-end. It's exciting. And it's not so exciting. By Fred Royall.

A Native Samoan in the Denver High Country

An engaging tale of animal rescue in the South Seas. By Fred Royall.

The Final Lesson

A supernatural tale set in Taiwan. By Fred Royall.

The Beckoning

A troubled, exhausted girl balances against the ineffable pull of the ocean's embrace.  By Darryl Schmidt.

As It Is On Earth

An aging gentleman agonizes over a life-changing event in the distant past.  By Debby Schyman.

Passion at High Elm

A beautiful and vital girl upends an ages-old family and place. By Tom Sheehan.

Inferno

The Poet

The Night Spirit

Three moody short shorts. By Durlabh Singh.

Please, Call Me Sal

There's always work in Tinseltown for a sensitive gumshoe with a walleye.   By Dale Thomas Smith.

Absolute Defense

A lawyer in a sleepy small town gets more excitement than he bargained for.   By Dale Thomas Smith.

Me and Maxie Bank Robbers? Na.

Octogenarian G.W. "Bill" Snell's elderly protagonists get into some pretty fierce fantasizin'.

Northwoods Standoff (novel excerpt)

Author Thomas Sparrow's protagonist Keith Waverly "... won't win any hero awards, citizen-of-the-year contests or even Mr. Congeniality. But reading of his well-intended misadventures and journeys to dark places of the mind can make even the moody reader conclude that life isn't so bad, after all."

Mountains Over A Valley

"They were going to get "the tiger" who was stalking mountains. Nine year old Johnny had often escaped her claws when he was visiting his closest friend, brother-cousin Elvio, in Brokenland Country. He dreaded this one hundred mile trip to Gunhill Road but he had no choice since his parents insisted he go with them to have a pseudo friendly atmosphere of fluffy clouds to prevail making the capture occur with less ugliness ... " By Jerry Vilhotti.

Reaping Sow

"My sister Connie's husband started things off by announcing that the "Star Spangled Banner" was his favorite song even and when I said it was stolen from an old British tavern song he called me a dirty commie liar and should be sent out of our free country.  This got us off on an uneven keel." Another by Jerry Vilhotti.

Hate Faces

"Her pinches hurt very much. She wore the same hatred on her face. Johnny wondered to himself if all the people in this place called Burywater, a hundred miles north of his beloved Bronx where he had been born among people who could laugh and cry and still believe a better day awaited, were born with that hate etched on their faces?"  More Jerry Vilhotti.

Calla la Moodonda

"Uncle Ear Johnny's father's oldest brother—and his father bore responsibility for the nickname born the day they all went to a movie and Uncle Seppe's ear could be seen covering one-third of it—with whom he would have a rivalry ... "  More Jerry Vilhotti.

You Got A Attitude

Guys named "Biagi" and "Leny one N,"
prison in Lewisburg, World War II and a whole lot more—at breakneck speed, in a couple of hundred words.  More Jerry Vilhotti.

Docta

"Wasn't it said among the first words in the epic Gilgamesh or the Bible if one weren't being too accurate with facts that those going crazy were indeed closest to God ... "  More fast fiction from Jerry Vilhotti.

Out of the Blue?

"Johnny could see the very first glimmer of orange light invading the pre-dawn sky as he drove to the city in what was beginning as a beautiful September day.  He had only realized how those not too warm days and cool nights were the most gorgeous days of the year when he was suspended for "over disciplining" a fifteen-year-old who had migrated up from Burywater to the Litchfield Hills where Johnny was teaching; where the locals were still trying to flush out British sympathizers and trying to talk American-Blacks into becoming slaves again." Another by Jerry Vilhotti.

Tick

A mother's addictive urges are perfectly enmeshed with her every move. By Regina Walker.

There Is No Gravity, The World Sucks

A passenger stoically seethes. By Regina Walker.

Breaking

The unnamed narrator is on the brink. By Regina Walker.

Sally Said

"Sally said that my knee bones stick out too far so that means I'm chicken footed. She also said my family is dirt poor cause we got plastic wrap in the windows instead of glass but momma said that plastic wrap costs more than glass so we actually got more money and we change the plastic a lot and people with glass only change it when it is broke." By Regina Walker.

Apocalypse

A vignette from the Smoking Wars. By Regina Walker.

From the Journey Stadium

Shirley J. Walker puts an eery twist on the theme of justice.

A Prelude to Blues

Somberly, sensitively, Stephen Wiley eulogizes the profound moment when love, loss and reconciliation jarringly intermingle.

Night Swimming

Velvet Elvis

Two very sensual short-shorts.  By Margo August Woods.

And Then I Die

A dreamlike reverie on contract killing. By Jill Yu.