October 7, 2016

A Ghastly Deluge: October Submissions

A Ghastly Deluge: October Submissions

The month of apple cider donuts and kids in costumes roaming the streets is always a fun time for me. From scary movies to crisp cool air, October is filled with signs, omens, of the impending darkness of winter. Our member contributions this month all have something a little eerie, even sinister, in them. We hope you enjoy our overflowing cornucopia of fiction, poetry, art, photography and video this month. Our first piece of fiction is a short story about a play. Bobby Mustin’s Theory of Evolution follows three people from the fictional play Titans taking heat from a couple who think their production is garbage. John Grey is our featured poet this month, bringing us poems about hell and dead men. You know, in case October wasn’t already Stephen King-y enough for you. Our…

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September 29, 2016

Win Real Coffee in the Fictional Cafe Sticker Contest!!

Win Real Coffee in the Fictional Cafe Sticker Contest!!

The Fictional Café (not a real café) is teaming up with Café Monte Alto (a real café) for a brand new contest. You may recall we recently came into some very real Fictional Café stickers. Well, you can win real coffee from Café Monte Alto by putting your very real Fictional Café sticker in the most creative place and sending us a picture of it. The person with the best sticker placement will receive an 8oz bag of any blend of coffee from Café Monte Alto and their winning photo will be featured on our website. Four more creative sticker affixers will each receive a 2oz bag of any blend of coffee from Café Monte Alto. To Enter: Simply email us and say you’d like to participate in the FC Sticker Contest and we’ll send you…

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September 16, 2016

Podcast: “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis, Episode 2

Podcast: “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis, Episode 2

Here we continue our September podcast of the Amazon/Audible audiobook, “It Can’t Happen Here,” with thanks to Amazon, Blackstone Audio, Inc. and the excellent narration by Grover Gardner. In this segment we see how Senator “Buzz” Windrip insidiously works toward becoming president from the perspective of Doremus Jessup, editor of a small-town Vermont newspaper. In case you missed last Friday’s first episode, it’s here. If you have any concerns about the sentiment of the American people or their feelings about the current presidential candidates, you owe it to yourself to listen to, or read, this novel. The Audiobooks version is available here on Amazon for a very reasonable price, or free if you take a one-month subscription.

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September 14, 2016

When Ghosts of the City’s Past Linger: A Review of “The Appearance of Annie Van Sinderen,” by Simran P. Gupta

When Ghosts of the City’s Past Linger: A Review of “The Appearance of Annie Van Sinderen,” by Simran P. Gupta

Editor’s Note: With this book review, we take great pleasure in introducing Simran P. Gupta, a new and talented contributor to Fictional Café. Learn more about Simran at the end of her review. We hope to be seeing a lot more of her writing here at the Café! When Ghosts of the City’s Past Linger: A Review of “The Appearance of Annie Van Sinderen,” by Simran P. Gupta Katherine Howe’s YA novel, The Appearance of Annie Van Sinderen, is a perfect combination of spooky and romantic. The result is an equally enthralling and chilling story. Perhaps most impressive is the fact that Howe has written a love story in which one half of the equation is a ghost– yet she never says the word. As summer eases into autumn, this is a perfect book to…

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September 9, 2016

Podcast: “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis, First Episode

Podcast: “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis, First Episode

In 1935, a well regarded novelist named Sinclair Lewis published a book entitled It Can’t Happen Here.  The story concerns a senator who is perceived as a man of, for and by the people. But when elected president, he reveals himself as a dictator and turns the United States into a totalitarian police state. This is a story which, 81 years later, still makes Americans cringe. Yet as we look toward the 2016 presidential elections, it’s hard to escape the fact that the Republican candidate frequently rings this bell. For further evidence of this view, read this op-ed from the Boston Globe by Joan Wickersham, “An eerily familiar fiction.” Once a stage play, the novel was never made into a movie. Fortunately, it was made into an Audible Audiobook, which we are excerpting here with…

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Welcome to the Fictional Café! Your baristas are interested in all genres of short fiction, poetry, excerpts from novels-in-progress, your photographs, art, and audio or video podcasts. We encourage you to share your work for publication in the Fictional Café. Click on the Join/Submit button above to learn more.

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