April 4, 2017

New and Old Friends – April Submissions

My mom recently shared this quote with me about the importance of maintaining friendships. Here at the Fictional Café, we like to pass these lessons learned on to our readers. Whether you’re a literary community like ours or an individual in the creative arts, connecting with others opens so many doors and opportunities. Life is all about relationships, and we hope you will enjoy yours with us and encourage others to join us! This month, a good friend introduced us to a new community. We’d like to welcome our readers and members from GrubStreet, a Boston-based non-profit that provides resources to writers of all levels, including workshops, seminars and networking events. Please check them out. In the spirit of the quotation above, we will be featuring work from both new members and long-time members this month. Before…

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April 2, 2017

Faux Fiction Audio: The Cast

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Interviews, News, Podcasts

Writing, reading, recording and sharing our creative work Our featured podcasts for March were the first four episodes from “Mickie McKinney, Boy Detective.” The show was written, directed and produced by Ruby Fink, who heads up her own audio studio and staff of talented, hard-working performers of Faux Fiction Audio out there on the Left Coast [where else?]. What began for Ruby as something simply fun to do has turned into her passion. What next? She hopes a business, specializing in producing podcasts and audiobooks for authors. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, you can continue listening to Mickie here [we’re up to Episode 5, “Brawn and Brain”], while you wait for Ruby and her cast to get Season Two up. You can also listen to the Mickie podcasts on iTunes [podcasts, store, search “mickie mckinney”]….

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March 31, 2017

Podcast: Mickie McKinney, Boy Detective, Part IV

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Podcasts

From left to right: Violet Faux as Samantha, Lucas Faux as Mickie, Leann Faux as Burner and Writer-Director Ruby Faux. Here’s the news, Fictional Cafe habitués: Although this is the last episode in the story of the chemistry lab explosion, it’s not the last in the Mickie McKinney story. If you like what you’ve listened to here, please head over to Faux Fiction Audio to listen to more. The next episode is “Brain and Brawn.” This is such a unique theme in today’s podcasting, featuring a teenager in middle school who solves mysteries and problems for his classmates. A tip of the barista hats to Ruby Fink, the series creator, and to all the folks who listened to weekly episodes on her site. They have inspired her to keep going. She and her talented team…

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March 28, 2017

Podcast: Mickie McKinney, Boy Detective, Part III

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Podcasts

Mickie’s back in this third, continuing story of the boy detective who solves mysteries at Maple Ridge Middle School in exchange for anything made of sugar. In this episode, Mickie and his sidekick Samantha Hayes (pictured) begin a new investigation: there’s been an explosion in the chemistry lab. Was it a simple accident or something more? The principal thinks it’s the former, but Mickie, of course, thinks it’s the latter. Enjoy this two-part, skillfully plotted, often humorous and always entertaining story. The second episode comes your way in two days, and more all week. Please click on the arrow below to listen to Mickie McKinney, Part III.

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March 26, 2017

Guest Blogger Clark Zlotchew – “Havana, 1959”

Posted by Mike Rochester in Guest Posts, News

Editor’s Note: You may recall Clark Zlotchew’s poetry in our December Submissions. I had a chance to talk with Clark about his experience in Cuba and his writing. Did this trip inspire the poem and photo you shared with us? Yes, my several trips to Cuba did inspire the poem “Dancing in the Tropics” but with a little help from what I witnessed in Haiti as well. These events took place in the last years of Fulgencio Batista’s regime, while Castro was in the mountains at the other end of the Island. I was there in 1957 and 1958. Those guns and pup tents on the roof of the Presidential Palace were protecting Batista. The occasional bomb blast in Havana was set by Castro’s agents. Castro took over the whole Island in 1959. Was it scary seeing…

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March 20, 2017

“Journaling Abroad” by Rachael Allen

Posted by Mike Rochester in Guest Posts, News

I’ve been studying in Italy for over two months, and have become a journaler. I’ve become a dedicated one too, sitting down to write for almost an hour each day in these flexible canvas-covered, orange-detailed notebooks I purchase from a bookstore off Bologna’s main street. In these journals, I recap my day. I write about the food I ate. I spiral into analyzing my emotions, then pick myself up with a second-person pep talk, occasionally feeling strongly enough to address myself by name. I am glad my Italian roommates don’t understand English well nor know the spot in the second drawer of my bedside table where I stack the journals, beside a jar of Skippy peanut butter from home and my monthly food allowance. What are these journals worth, really? Are they worth all the…

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March 17, 2017

Podcast: Mickie McKinney, Boy Detective Part II

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Podcasts

Do you remember your days in high school? Well, we do too, even though we didn’t have our own private eye running up and down the halls. This week, we continue the adventures of Mickie as he cleverly and humorously solves case after case for his fellow students. Further adventures await in the weeks to come, and next week we’ll have a very special treat for you – in addition to the latest shenanigans of our boy detective. Please click on the arrow below to listen to Episode 2 of “Mickie McKinney, Boy Detective.” Mickie McKinney is the brainchild of Ruby Fink, who wrote the story and developed this unique, original and exceedingly well produced podcast series. Ruby studied Film Production at Chapman University’s Dodge College, with a minor in Narrative and Dramatic Literature….

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March 14, 2017

Our Intrepid Barista in Paris

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Guest Posts, News

Simran P. Gupta, our newest Barista and a student at Simmons College in Boston, is doing her study abroad semester in Paris. For her, it’s Literary Paris, and we’re delighted to share her impressions, feelings, and experiences with you. Stumbling Through Paris: On Settling In During My First Five Weeks As I write this, I am sitting in Shakespeare and Company’s bookstore café, situated right on Rue de la Bûcherie with a view of the Seine and the Notre Dame de Paris. The winter weather is temperate, which means I can often sit at the tables outside this and other cafes, under a heated terrace with a blanket over my lap while I sip my chocolat chaud or café au lait. I often joke that I have “moved in” to Shakespeare and Co. It’s my…

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March 9, 2017

Roger Leege’s Amazing Photoart

Posted by Mike Rochester in Fine Art

Editor’s Note: Roger Leege’s Photoart combines analog photography with digital artist’s tools, resulting in a blending of reality and fantasy. The images below are from a series of “portraits”, both animate and not quite, that he’s been working on during the past couple of years. Click any image to enlarge. * * * About Roger Leege: I am a former painter, printmaker, and analog photographer (BA and MA, Visual Arts, Goddard College) who, as an early adopter of small computer technology, has become an advocate and evangelist for digital art and artists’ tools. I’ve been fortunate to have print, gallery, and online publication credits in the US, Canada, the UK, and Germany. I keep a portfolio site at rogerleege.net and use roger-leege.pixels.com for custom printing and online…

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March 9, 2017

Podcast: “Mickie McKinney, Boy Detective”

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Podcasts

Today and throughout every Friday in March, we’re excited to present you with a new original series podcast, “Mickie McKinney, Boy Detective.” We think you’ll be delighted, listening to these episodes, which are performed by the cast of Faux Fiction Audio and directed and produced by Ruby Fink. It’s been quite a while since we’ve published podcasts with such high production values. This is a very original and entertaining series about Mickie, a high-school lad with Sherlock Holmes’ powers of deduction, and his sidekick, Samantha Hayes. You’ll learn more about how all of this came to be and who the performers are in coming weeks, but for now, let’s listen to Episode 1! Please click on the arrow below to listen to Episode 1 of “Mickie McKinney, Boy Detective.” Faux Fiction Producer, Writer, Director and Editor Ruby…

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