Your baristas wish you and your loved ones a Happy Valentine’s Day! Each of us has chosen a V-Day message to share with you:   Caitlin: “Sometimes I think of you and I feel giddy. Memory makes me lightheaded, drunk on champagne. All the things we did. And if anyone has said this was the price I would have agreed to pay it. That surprises me; that with the hurt and the mess comes a shift of recognition. It was worth it. Love is worth it.” -Written on the Body by Jeannette Winterson:   (A little Valentine’s message for parents…) “Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.”  -Elizabeth Stone, A Boy I Once Knew   “The brain appears to…

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Sometimes you just get lucky. I don’t mean the “good luck!” kind of lucky, I mean the fortunate kind where you do something unanticipated while you’re in a certain time-space continuum and it produces unexpected and quite beneficial results. That’s what happened to me recently. Charlotte Pierce and I were having coffee at Caffè Nero, chatting about our mutual love of all things publishing. I said something – not sure of the exact words – but it had to do with Fictional Café. Charlotte immediately said how cool FC was and how much she would enjoy being a part of it. And now she is. Charlotte has worked in nearly every aspect of the publishing business. Her first position was as a regional editor for Outdoor Empire Publishing in Seattle from 1980-1985. She went on to serve as managing…

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With all the icky news coming out of Hollywood [and elsewhere] these days, here is a bright, shining blogsite with good news, embodied in its title: Women and Hollywood. Hop over to this link and see the story about our newest, fabulously interesting and creative, barista, Natalie Rodriguez! Today’s the last day you can help crowdfund Natalie’s forthcoming movie, “The Extraordinary Ordinary.” Take a look at the benefits – and swag – you can get by making a donation, large or small. Happy Holidays! Your Baristas

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Your baristas are delighted to announce the winners of our contest for the first Fictional Café Anthology: Genre Fiction 1st Place: Bill McStowe, “Love What You Find” 2nd Place: Beth Roper, “Ghost of an Idea” 3rd Place: David Sharp, “Lucy’s Monster” Literary Fiction 1st Place: Mindy Windholz, “Mirabilis” 2nd Place: Jenny Cokeley, “A Daisy by Any Other Name” 3rd Place: Amy Rivers, “Death and the Glutton” Poetry 1st Place: Suman Chatterjee, “A Beautiful Mind” 2nd Place: Allison Whitbeck, “Eyes” 3rd Place: Judith Manzoni Ward, “Sunday Morning Dreamscape” First place winners will receive our beautiful new FC coffee mug. Second and third place winners will receive a FC baseball hat. All winners will be featured in our forthcoming anthology, which is scheduled for publication April 15, 2018.   IMPORTANT: To receive your awards, please send an…

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Well, actually we have multiple winners. After trials, tribulations, and celebrations, our first fiction and poetry writing contest has reached its end. We are now busily tallying all your votes. Winners will be announced in one week, along with details about how we plan to move ahead with the 2018 Fictional Café Anthology. Thank you, everybody, for participating in and supporting the contest. It was a heck of a ride and we’re thrilled you were a part of it. As David Bowie would have said, You were all heroes, if only for one day. Stay tuned.

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Today, Sunday, November 12, is your last chance to vote in the final Playoff Round! All voting ends at 11:59 p.m. EST tonight. Winners will be announced tomorrow, Monday, at 6:00 p.m. EST. After you’ve voted for these works, they winners of Rounds 1 and 2 will compete for the Championship. Here are the contestants and the link where you can cast your vote: Allison Whitbeck, “Eyes” vs. Judith Manzoni-Ward, “Three Poems” Melissa Campbell Leon, “Loves” vs. Amy Rivers, “Death and the Glutton” Jenny Cokeley, “A Daisy” vs. William Masters, “Siren’s Lament” Click here to begin reading and vote for your favorite stories. Fictional Cafe Contest Championships final Round Voting ends Sunday, November 12, at 11:59 p.m. Let’s all vote so we can learn who our champions are!  

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