February 10, 2023

“Café Chimera”

A Short Story by Bill Suter Fictional Café may be getting upstaged by the goings-on at Café Chimera, and that’s a good thing. Calvin yawned, barely functional, as the road crew shuffled into the cafe before their morning rounds. He needed a path back to the land of the living, but this muddy cup of coffee wasn’t helping matters. “Too strong?” the server asked. “Chewy, but it will do.” “I’m sorry. I’m new here.” “Yeah,” he forced a smile, “I can tell.” “I could always cast a spell over it,” she suggested. “I’m better at that.” “Beer flavored?” He forced another smile in spite of himself. “Elderberry,” she said brightly. “It’s already in the syrup on your pancakes. I just need to activate it.” She gently waved a hand over his plate and stepped back…

Continue reading →

February 6, 2023

Deux Poèmes from Deux Poets

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Writing

Today, Fictional Café introduces two fine poems from two fine American poets in our virtual magazine. Please let us know what you think of their work in the Comments section at the end of this post. Frank De Canio Language Primer I might as well become a child again, since my substantial English goes as far as what my senorita comprehends. As such, my native tongue becomes a bar against pronounced exchanges with my friend. She understands enough of what I say to stumble through the meaning I intend, but not enough for me to get my way. Yet, speaking fluent Spanish to her peers, she leaves me feeling witless in my age, while she with rapid fluency endears herself to those in the proficient stage of verbal mastery. And I must wait on textbook…

Continue reading →

February 1, 2023

Robert Lunday’s Poetic Moments

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Writing

Little Man I need what I earn and could use a little more. But the little man in me needs none of it. He squats like an undiscovered arthropod and bottom-feeds on my mutterings. He sits in the position known as Lotus with his knees at forty-five degrees. The supposed virtues are his zodiac and if he’s naked you try not to notice. Fragment Please believe in me and do not doubt what I say. This foaming mouth is Aphrodite but the hands are Hephaestus clawing the air as he falls through the heavens in dismay. You break my heart but I take the pieces and make from each a thousand more. Gravel Gravel was on the menu. It was the thing you weren’t supposed to eat. It was there to make everything else look…

Continue reading →

January 29, 2023

“Man Does Not Live By Words Alone”

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Writing

Poetry by Dana Yost Rainbow Through the window the sun blew into a glass of white wine then refracted into a rainbow upon the skin of lemon-pepper chicken as we talked about Nazi death camps and soldiers killed by sniper fire in Vietnam. A teacher dead in the recent derecho. It was such a peaceful setting for death, wasn’t it? The seven of us around the table and one finally mentioned amnesty for draft-dodgers, and no one went berserk, no one even disagreed. We shook our heads at the insanity of war, at the cruelty of death, and my classmate posted photos on Facebook of herself in hospice, ready to die from cancer. “I’ll be here for the end,” she said from her living room couch, under a blanket. I looked for a rainbow but…

Continue reading →

January 27, 2023

“Oz 9” by Shannon Perry

Posted by Ruby Fink in Audio Arts

Welcome back Fictional Cafe Listeners, up next we have “Oz 9” by Shannon Perry. On an otherwise unexceptional Tuesday in 2042, Gated Galaxies fired off 400 of its Oz 8000™ ships, each with 50,000 “resting guests” tucked into stasis pods, plus a skeleton crew of up to half-a-dozen total no-hopers. It was a win-win for G2, as they’re known, as the Oz 8000 model was about to be declared “unfit for journeying to the nearest 7-Eleven, much less interstellar space” and recalled. G2 had a very large fleet of the 8000s, and a slight head start on the recall, as they’d paid off the head inspector to delay her report by promising the ships would be stripped and sold for parts. Instead, the ships were spit-shined, outfitted with some black market YugoPods™, and space aboard quietly…

Continue reading →

January 20, 2023

“Paper Dolls” by Rachel Gonzalez

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Writing

A Short Story by Our New Writer in Residence He has a collection of paper dolls and a workshop dedicated to them. It’s a perfectly maintained and organized room filled with tools of his trade. Xacto knives and self-healing mats, tacky spray for stubborn pages, creasing tools for the ideal line. There are no unruly folds or crinkled edges in his workshop. He’s a sentimental man. His favorite paper dolls live in a box on the highest shelf. Sometimes he pulls them out to admire them, or to take inspiration for his newest project. His process is very thorough: First comes the raw material. He can spot the potential of a page from a mile away. Be it the pattern or the texture or the pliability, he knows a good page when he gets his…

Continue reading →

January 13, 2023

“Crogan’s Adventures” by Chris Schweizer

Posted by Ruby Fink in Audio Arts

Happy 2023 Fictional Cafe Listeners! In honor of the New Year, I thought we’d start the year with a bang. “Crogan’s Adventures” by Chris Schweizer. From the pages of the award-winning graphic novel series comes Chris Schweizer’s The Crogan Adventures! Join us as we follow a line of heroes, villains, grifters and rogues – one extraordinary family’s journey through history! This episode, gunfighter Pyjama Ben Crogan has stared down death and danger with a quick draw and a fine moustache… but he has never faced an opponent quite like The Heart of Mabel Cottonshot! Starring Christopher MottAndrea LyonsGregg Taylor Amidst the spoils of battle, privateer Catfoot Crogan discovers something that will thrust him and his crew headfirst into the clutches of his most dangerous adversary! StarringScott Moyle as Catfoot CroganGregg Taylor as Admiral MonteroChristopher Mott as Tom DanderSloane Woodside as TheresaKevin Robinson as CarlosAndrea…

Continue reading →

January 10, 2023

Writer-in-Residence Rachel Gonzalez

Posted by melanie marston in News

I’m thrilled and proud to be the latest Writer-in-Residence for The Fictional Café. Writing is how I process the world, it’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do. And I’ve done everything I can to make sure that my life is absolutely saturated in stories. My publications include “The Baptism of an Atheist” for The Bitchin’ Kitsch and winner of the Samuel LaRue Finley Humorous Writing contest; “Hey, You Know What We Should Do?” for The Tunnels; and “Little Black Dress” and “Collegiate Correspondents” for Fictional Café. “Collegiate Correspondents” once again won the Samuel LaRue Finley Humorous Writing contest. Today I work in a public library and am pursuing a Masters in English Lit to become a professor and engage with young adults who were just like me in college. When I’m not writing and…

Continue reading →

December 23, 2022

“A Holiday Visit” and “Christmas Holiday”

Posted by Ruby Fink in Audio Arts

In celebration of the holidays, (and because I’m a sucker for a good story in front of a crackling fire), here are two vintage classics: “A Holiday Visit” and “Christmas Holiday,” performed by Chesterton Radio. There is a reason why the Golden Age of Radio is still the epitome of storytelling. There was a time when storytelling was a family event, when everyone would gather around the radio to hear the newest audio adventure, the sweet ending to a romantic tale. In times of hardship, radio brought a brief reprieve, in times of joy, additional cheer. So in honor of those long-gone days, please enjoy a few vintages voices from the past. A couple is in an accident on their way to visit her parents for Christmas. As they travel on foot through the snow…

Continue reading →

December 15, 2022

“Mother,” Poetry by Bharti Bansal

Posted by Mike Rochester in Writing

Mother Sometimes I look at the regrets of my mother trailing along the corners of her eyes As she wonders about her place in the world too often There is no secret to motherhood, I suppose Just a constant feeling of doing it wrong My father consoles her, calls her beloved A sincere way of reminding her of their own vows Yet when she wakes up at night, feeling the clutches of past on her throat, she simply lets him sleep without saying a single word I believe it is when a relationship turns into partnership as time moves along the edges of their bodies, Sometimes becoming a game, as they team up together, shake hands, pat each other’s back, constantly reminding themselves about the love that blossomed years ago This is how I see…

Continue reading →