May 11, 2020

“The Party,” A Short Story by William Torphy

“The Party,” A Short Story by William Torphy

Image: “He Said, She Said” (c) Katheryn Holt, www.kholt.com The Party It was the architect and the gun moll who captured my attention. The party was a casual industry event held in the Hollywood Hills at the home of a producer, one in fact who had bankrolled a film I’d worked on once, though all my ideas for it were rejected in favor of chase scenes and revenge murders. I was a screenwriter who had yet to see any credits on screen. I hadn’t worked for over a year and needed to hustle a project, any project, very soon.    I was out of sorts when I arrived since my wife Jen announced at the last minute that she needed some quiet ‘me-time’ that evening. She did, however, take time to dress me for the affair. Tight black jeans that were squeezing my balls. A fifty-dollar T-shirt a size too small that cut into my underarms. A tailored green cashmere sport coat that made me look like a string bean.   I’d been invited through a friend of a friend of a colleague, someone I’d never met but hoped…

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May 8, 2020

“Atlantis: The Lost Empire” — An Audio Arts Interview

“Atlantis: The Lost Empire” — An Audio Arts Interview

It’s been two decades since the Disney animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire first hit theaters and for twenty years, writer Tab Murphy, believed that the classic steam-punk animated film that he created was a flop. While he couldn’t deny that he had enjoyed the writing and brainstorming process, it hadn’t done as well in the box office as he would’ve liked, causing him to believe it had been a failure. . .up until now. Recently, Tab came in contact with “Atlantis: The Lost Empireposting,” a Facebook group completely dedicated to reliving and reposting their favorite scenes, lines and characters from his movie. Surrounded by so many people of different ages, from different walks of life who had all been inspired and entertained by the film he had helped create, Tab was finally able to…

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May 7, 2020

“My Girlfriend, the Narcissist,” Poet Natascha Graham

“My Girlfriend, the Narcissist,” Poet Natascha Graham

My Girlfriend, the Narcissist   She’s called Gillian. She’s got brown hair, and eyes the colour of a bleached winter sky.  She’s about 5’5″, but she’s tough.  My girlfriend was a narcissist. She didn’t like me having friends, or seeing family.  So, I didn’t really.  Gillian stuck around, though.  In fact, that’s when I first met her.  A few months in.  I met her on the school run.  She was standing in a driveway nudging gravel with the toe of her Converse.  I asked her if she’d lost something.  Her wedding ring, she said. Not that it mattered.  He was a cheating bastard.  We walked to school together, her black wax jacket similar to mine, though I envied its collar, and the zip doesn’t work on mine. It broke on Melton playing field when I bent…

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May 5, 2020

“Window Shopping,” A Short Story by Brian Wryter

“Window Shopping,” A Short Story by Brian Wryter

The sun was not bright like the day before. It was a gentle and calm sun. Clouds covered it and made it calm and gentle, but still the light from it gave the time the meaning of morning. The man woke up and brushed his teeth. He looked at himself in the mirror and felt deep shame. A kind of shame that made him not want to look in the mirror anymore. He put on his jeans and a white t-shirt that had a stain on the left shoulder from the pasta he ate the night before. The man didn’t look at the time and went outside his mother’s house. He didn’t say where he was going to his mother and two sisters. His sisters were in the lounge watching something that had a lot…

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May 3, 2020

Mario Loprete — Urban Paintings on Concrete

Mario Loprete — Urban Paintings on Concrete

Mario Loprete Artist’s Statement: I live in a world that i shape at my liking, throughout a virtual pictorial and sculptural movement, transferring my experiences, photographing reality throughout my filters, refined from years research and experimentation.  Painting for me is the first love. An important, pure love. Creating a painting, starting from the spasmodic research of a concept with which I want to send a message to transmit my message, it’s the base of my painting. The sculpture is my lover, my artistic betrayal to the painting. That voluptuous and sensual lover that gives me different emotions, that touches prohibited cords…  The new series of works on concrete it’s the one that is giving me more personal and professional satisfactions. How was it born? It was the result of an important investigation of my work, the research of that “quid” that i felt was missing….

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April 29, 2020

“A Very Vulnerable Place,” by Alexander Kemp

“A Very Vulnerable Place,” by Alexander Kemp

“You’re neither in Heaven nor Hell.” “Is this Purgatory?” The Old Man sighed. “Some call it that.” I looked around the modest cottage. The only furniture present was a wooden cross on the wall. Heat arose from the fireplace. The windows had thick black bars. “Have I been here before?” I asked. The Old Man pointed to the brown door. “Put your ear to it and listen.” Rushing over to the door, the knob vanished as I reached for it. I put my ear to the wood. No sound. “Close your eyes,” The Old Man instructed. * My elderly father pounded the table. “His eyes twitched. They opened. I’m serious, doctor.” “This has to be God bringing him back,” my frantic mother explained. Dr. North held his hands up. He said, “Eyes twitch. This happens…

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April 28, 2020

The Jack & Phil Show Returns! A Book Marketing Strategy That Really Works

The Jack & Phil Show Returns! A Book Marketing Strategy That Really Works

UPDATE April 28: Our apologies for the snafu last week! Technical difficulties, which have now been addressed and corrected. We hope you’ll come back tomorrow, April 29, to enjoy our presentation. Please make sure to register at the link below if you have not re-registered since the presentation’s postponement. If you aren’t sure whether you are registered or not, you can click on the link below to make sure. Are you the author of a book, self- or indie-published, fiction or non-fiction? If you’ve tried any of the latest (usually costly and relatively unsuccessful) schemes and strategies to publicize and market your book, you may have given up hope. Here’s a free webinar that will help you do just that, and have fun doing it! Take heart. Fictional Café founder and author Jack B. Rochester and…

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April 26, 2020

“Carson McCullers,” Poetry by Abigail George

“Carson McCullers,” Poetry by Abigail George

Carson McCullers  I will always love music, she said to me. Turned her   face away and became a sad ghost like all the people  that I have loved in my life. The sad ghost, dead snakes,   the religious, the ordered hide mischief in plain sight.   The geranium has a tongue and the sky appears to be   falling. The moon walks wider now. It curls up. The   red-haired sun does not know how to travel lightly in   summer. She swoons. She will fall at your feet if you  remove articles of your clothing. I travel light in these  heavy years. Waving earlier to the good women who   pass me by. With their white teeth and their sweet   breath. Bread to the soul. And the wind is sunburnt from  the form and shape of the river, to the…

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April 23, 2020

“Of Dark Energy,” A Short Story by G. D. McFetridge

“Of Dark Energy,” A Short Story by G. D. McFetridge

Something about the old man seemed unpredictable—motives hidden behind the vacuous glimmer in his eyes, the way he stroked his long gray beard, his thunderous laugh—and he had told the same story for years. His only son, Lukas, when he was a senior in high school had survived a car accident that killed three people. The other driver was drunk, and he and his wife died instantly. Her nephew died two days later. But young Luke walked away with cuts and a few fractured ribs.  The old man always said, “My boy was born just plain lucky.” Many years later after his father died of lymphoma, Luke thought it prudent to get a thorough medical examination, and everything seemed fine until the doctor telephoned to discuss the lab reports. He didn’t go into specifics but…

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April 17, 2020

“Cosmic Deletions,” An Audio Drama by David Copper

“Cosmic Deletions,” An Audio Drama by David Copper

Cosmic Deletions by David Copper is an audio drama about Kassidy, a broke, young woman who is recently unemployed, who gets a strange offer from a man, Max, who works for The Company who created everything. And that means everything.  And because of what she did to her boss at her last job, she is the perfect candidate to do something that Max cannot. Delete those who The Company deems unfit for the world they created. The only problem, Kassidy has her own agenda. She has her own deletions she wants to make. To listen and find more fun audio adventures, like Cosmic Deletions by David Copper, go to: https://fictionalcafe.com If you want to check out the website or meet the cast, go to: https://cosmicdeletions.com

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