Something about the hot weather makes people come together. Maybe it’s all the time outdoors or the shedding of all those winter layers. From summer camp crushes to the “long walks on the beach” everyone claims they enjoy, summertime is a season of love. The Rolling Stones knew a thing or two about a “Summer Romance.” So do our members in this month’s issue. Here’s our “summer reading list.” Don’t worry, you won’t be quizzed on it the first week of school. Timothy Boudreau’s short story about unrequited love in mid-life hits hard at just how cruel the heart and its desires can be. If love is a language, perhaps not everyone can speak it. This month’s poetry comes from Chrysa Keenon, a Writing undergraduate student in Indiana. Her poems look at love as if…
Podcast: How To Save The World From Itself
As the Firesign Theater once said, “You know, this is the midst of the disillusionment and heartbreak season and with the recent outbreak of that suicidal strain of despair up in Boston [Philadelphia? Cleveland?], well, you’d better keep a close watch on your emotions.” Yes, friends, irrespective of the turmoil between The Donald and Hillary, the madness of ISIS, our police shooting people of color, we live in a desperate world. How can things be made right? A long-time surmise is an attack on earth by aliens might bring the peoples of the world together and unite our squabbling against a common enemy: little green creatures from Mars. The basic plot probably came from the most-prescient English author, H.G. Wells [also featured in last week’s Podcast of “The Time Machine”], and was aptly titled The War of the Worlds, published in…
The Call of the Whale
It all started with a little getaway in March. My girlfriend and I had booked a cruise and, in anticipation, I was gathering books to bring along. Those of you who are book nerds can attest to the anxiety of trying to pick out just a few books to take in your luggage. I was weighing my options, no pun intended, when I came across Moby Dick, that hefty tome of classic American literature which had eluded my syllabi in both high school and college. Now as an “adult,” I thought it was time to give it a read. When I told my girlfriend of my choice, she sort of looked at me sideways, then said that’s a bold choice for a vacation read, especially one where we will be spending a week at sea….
Podcast: “The Time Machine” by H.G. Wells
H.G. Wells was a true science visionary, as well as an accomplished fiction writer, exploring ideas such as burrowing into the heart of the earth, flying to the moon, and traveling through time. His novel The Time Machine was published in 1895 and has subsequently been adapted to radio, TV and film versions for over a hundred years. What you’re about to listen to is perhaps the finest adaptations I’ve experienced, created by the Alien Voices production company. Their production was released as a Simon & Schuster abridged audiobook, but I heard it on Mystery Play Internet Radio, one of my Old Time Radio [OTR] Internet radio stations. Here it is, and it is done well in two parts, each about an hour in length. Please click on the arrows below to listen to “The Time Machine” parts 1…
And the Winner is…
We’re excited to announce the winner of our Logo Design Contest! Congratulations to Dan Chu for submitting the winning design!! It captures the “round-the-clock access “of our virtual café while giving a nod to the effects of drinking coffee all day and all night. This is a big 3-inch in diameter adhesive sticker on circular vinyl, suitable for affixing to your car window, your bumper, your water bottle, your laptop or a porta-potty… you know, the usual sticker places. If you’re low on ideas and want to buck tradition, here are a few other worthy candidates: your Keurig (because, obviously.), your phone/tablet case (because let’s face it, who uses computers anymore?), your self-balancing scooter (because who drives cars anymore?), your coffee mug (because what’s better than an ad for an imaginary café on a real-life…
“Call Me,” a Podcast by Alain Bezançon
I assure you this is a simple coincidence but as some of you know, I recently returned from a six-month writing sabbatical in France, where I wrote the complete first draft of my latest novel, Anarchy, the third Nathaniel Hawthorne Flowers novel. My head and heart are still in France, so finding a podcast by a French novelist and podcaster might seem like the dog who can’t help but walk into the path of an oncoming car…. In any event, herewith meet Alain Bezançon, a technology entrepreneur by day, a very busy writer by night, and “Call Me.” Although this is a short work – perhaps a novella in print and about 40 minutes of well produced audio – I recommend you pay close attention to the details as you begin listening, for it all comes together at…
Science Fiction Podcast Month!
Tonight we begin the July podcasts and an all-science fiction series. We have a special treat for you: Each is a complete audio presentation so you can listen to the whole thing and won’t have to wait a week for another installment. It’s kind of like, um, going to the movies! So, watch out for monsters and instead watch your email tonight or tomorrow for the first sci-fi podcast from your friends here at the Fictional Café! Cheers, Jack
“The Scars of Our Lives” a Short Film by Natalie Rodriguez
Editor’s Note: Natalie explains the genesis of her short film: In one of my past college classes, my professor gave the statistics for the ongoing rates for anxiety, depression, and suicide amongst young adults. The concept of two strangers having more in common than they believe comes from my own struggle with anxiety and acute depression. It can be a lonely feeling and, sometimes, we convince ourselves that nobody seems to understand us, which was why I kept thinking about two survivors coming together for a story. The Scars of Our Lives is a story about two strangers, who realize that they share a similar past when one of them sees a scar on the other’s wrist. The story had originally started out as a short film, which is now online, as well as active in…
“The Spirit Books” – An Art Series by Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord
Editor’s Note: Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord creates handmade books out of morsels of matter from the world around her. She says: “The Spirit Books bring together my love of the book and my response to the natural world that we see and to the invisible one that lies behind it. I find evidence of that deeper world not in wide vistas and scenes but in small objects that I gather. While I enjoy the expanse of the horizon as I walk along the beach, I am drawn to the scattered piles of shells and driftwood I see on the sand. As I walk down the street on a glorious fall day, I find myself looking down at the fallen stems of the chestnut rather than up at the blazing orange maples. It is in the subtle shifts…
“A Place at the Table” by Dennis Vannatta
Sitting in his car outside Omar and Mary Broadhurst’s house, Reverend Sizemore hesitated. It was 12:20. Maybe he should eat lunch first. He was a big man with a big appetite, constantly tempted by the women in his congregation with cakes and cookies and pies and friend chicken and, oh, on and on, and because of his high blood pressure, he’d fight these temptations to the point of rudeness sometimes. But he did not like to delay regular meals. Still, the visit to the Broadhursts shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. Go in ask how Omar was doing, say a short prayer, get out of Dodge. He got out of his car, strode up to the front door, and rang the doorbell. Almost immediately Mary Broadhurst opened the door. She must have been standing…