From now on, my introductions will be fifty words long. Because it only makes sense. I am 'Thinking Elsewhere.' This issue of 50 to 1 is packed with great flash fiction literature. Contributors include: Jim Harrington, George Shaw, Mark Budman, Shannon Peil, Catherine Baird, Alice Folkart, and Joanna M. Weston.
Glen says 'eNJoy.'
1st line by Joanna M. Weston
This armful of weeping dragons drips embers down my neck and I have only a tissue to wipe their snouts with.
Joanna M. Weston has had poetry, reviews, and short stories published in anthologies and journals for twenty five years. Her middle-reader, ‘Those Blue Shoes', published by Clarity House Press. And poetry, ‘A Summer Father’, published by Frontenac House of Calgary.
This armful of weeping dragons drips embers down my neck and I have only a tissue to wipe their snouts with.
Joanna M. Weston has had poetry, reviews, and short stories published in anthologies and journals for twenty five years. Her middle-reader, ‘Those Blue Shoes', published by Clarity House Press. And poetry, ‘A Summer Father’, published by Frontenac House of Calgary.
On the job by Alice Folkart
Mohamed settled into seat 32C, adjusting the apparatus bound to his thigh so that he could sit comfortably. He couldn't help but think about the explosion first tearing through his flesh, then ripping outward into the cabin, the wings, the air, fragmenting everything. It wasn't time. First, maybe, some tea.
Hawaii is a good place to write. Alice Folkart likes it because there are just enough other writers to commune with, and not every other waiter or bell boy is an aspiring screen writer. She wonders what the missionaries did without the Internet.
Mohamed settled into seat 32C, adjusting the apparatus bound to his thigh so that he could sit comfortably. He couldn't help but think about the explosion first tearing through his flesh, then ripping outward into the cabin, the wings, the air, fragmenting everything. It wasn't time. First, maybe, some tea.
Hawaii is a good place to write. Alice Folkart likes it because there are just enough other writers to commune with, and not every other waiter or bell boy is an aspiring screen writer. She wonders what the missionaries did without the Internet.
Document by Catherine Baird
I hereby sign my life over to you. I hope you enjoy the guttering cough I get every winter or when I laugh suddenly, the period pain that always surprises me with no baby at the end, and the way I wake each night, around three or four, forever frightened.
Catherine Baird writes drama, fiction and poetry. Hear her perform as the featured poet at Samuel Dow's pub, Nithsdale Road, Glasgow, Scotland on the 1st of February 2010. Her work has most recently been published in Gutter Magazine (guttermag.co.uk) and The Gold of The Day Anthology (frontierwriters.wordpress.com).
I hereby sign my life over to you. I hope you enjoy the guttering cough I get every winter or when I laugh suddenly, the period pain that always surprises me with no baby at the end, and the way I wake each night, around three or four, forever frightened.
Catherine Baird writes drama, fiction and poetry. Hear her perform as the featured poet at Samuel Dow's pub, Nithsdale Road, Glasgow, Scotland on the 1st of February 2010. Her work has most recently been published in Gutter Magazine (guttermag.co.uk) and The Gold of The Day Anthology (frontierwriters.wordpress.com).
Sexist by Shannon Peil
"You're saying you'll let me do... anything," he confirmed with her for the third time, still incredulous. She was obviously starting to doubt whether the statement was such a good idea.
"Anything at all?"
She nodded.
"I want you to make me a sandwich."
She slapped him. That was offensive.
Shannon Peil is a 24 year old living in Boulder, Colorado who works a desk job he'd rather not write about. He gets published occasionally but spends most of his time editing and publishing for others at http://amphibi.us. He also fights crime.
"You're saying you'll let me do... anything," he confirmed with her for the third time, still incredulous. She was obviously starting to doubt whether the statement was such a good idea.
"Anything at all?"
She nodded.
"I want you to make me a sandwich."
She slapped him. That was offensive.
Shannon Peil is a 24 year old living in Boulder, Colorado who works a desk job he'd rather not write about. He gets published occasionally but spends most of his time editing and publishing for others at http://amphibi.us. He also fights crime.
I Was a Cat Once by Mark Budman
My cat plays snowballs on the deck. He bends his paw at an impossible angle and throws a ball up. He follows me around or herds me toward his feeding bowl.
I can see a cat we cremated before him in his eyes. All cats share one soul. Me too?
Mark Budman's works have appeared or are about to appear in such magazines as Mississippi Review, Virginia Quarterly, The London Magazine, McSweeney's, Turnrow, Connecticut Review, the W.W. Norton anthology Flash Fiction Forward, and elsewhere. He is the publisher of a flash fiction magazine Vestal Review. His novel My Life at First Try was published by Counterpoint Press to wide critical acclaim. He co-edited the anthology You Have Time for This from Ooligan Press; a new anthology is forthcoming in 2010 from Persea Books.
My cat plays snowballs on the deck. He bends his paw at an impossible angle and throws a ball up. He follows me around or herds me toward his feeding bowl.
I can see a cat we cremated before him in his eyes. All cats share one soul. Me too?
Mark Budman's works have appeared or are about to appear in such magazines as Mississippi Review, Virginia Quarterly, The London Magazine, McSweeney's, Turnrow, Connecticut Review, the W.W. Norton anthology Flash Fiction Forward, and elsewhere. He is the publisher of a flash fiction magazine Vestal Review. His novel My Life at First Try was published by Counterpoint Press to wide critical acclaim. He co-edited the anthology You Have Time for This from Ooligan Press; a new anthology is forthcoming in 2010 from Persea Books.
The Local by George Shaw
It’s like Assault on Precinct 13, someone said, and you could see what they meant, if you looked around. Things had been that way a while. Coming to The Palais had been a pleasure once. It had become a duty and then an act of selflessness. Like a hospital visit.
George Shaw is a sometime teacher, builder, potter, scrubber. Now lives in Warwickshire and writes stories and poems in his kitchen.
It’s like Assault on Precinct 13, someone said, and you could see what they meant, if you looked around. Things had been that way a while. Coming to The Palais had been a pleasure once. It had become a duty and then an act of selflessness. Like a hospital visit.
George Shaw is a sometime teacher, builder, potter, scrubber. Now lives in Warwickshire and writes stories and poems in his kitchen.
What’s Good for the Goose by Jim Harrington
Claudia located the yearbook section for the senior class, uncapped her Sharpie, and obliterated Ethan’s smiling face. Next she called the switchboard at Cumberland, asked for the registrar’s office, and cancelled his registration for fall classes. If the baby meant she had to give up her dreams, why shouldn’t he?
Jim Harrington lives in Huntersville, NC, with his wife and two cats. His stories have appeared in Apollo's Lyre, Camroc Press Review, Every Day Fiction, The Houston Literary Review, Long Story Short, MicroHorror, Flashshot and others. He currently serves as a flash fiction editor for Apollo’s Lyre. You can read more of his stories at www.jimharringtononline.net.
Claudia located the yearbook section for the senior class, uncapped her Sharpie, and obliterated Ethan’s smiling face. Next she called the switchboard at Cumberland, asked for the registrar’s office, and cancelled his registration for fall classes. If the baby meant she had to give up her dreams, why shouldn’t he?
Jim Harrington lives in Huntersville, NC, with his wife and two cats. His stories have appeared in Apollo's Lyre, Camroc Press Review, Every Day Fiction, The Houston Literary Review, Long Story Short, MicroHorror, Flashshot and others. He currently serves as a flash fiction editor for Apollo’s Lyre. You can read more of his stories at www.jimharringtononline.net.
