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November 19, 2024

Five Poems by James Cole

*Featured Image courtesy of Aaron Burden on Unsplash.com* This week we have James Cole in his first appearance on FC. James combines his unique style with clever and thoughtful word play. We hope to see more of his work in the future! What would you wonder if wondering was free? What would you wonder if wondering was free? Would you wander in widdershins with stark jubilee? Would you invest in smart rhetoric and declare no designs, and make certain statements your heart undermines? If wonder was easy and you could spare its expense would you wonder like Arp and eschew common sense? If wonder went on sale with a bright yellow tag could you wonder like bread in a shelf-stable bag? If you wondered with warranty and budgeted first would you save your receipts and…

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October 28, 2024

“The Grays of Truth” A Novel Excerpt

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Book Reviews, Guest Posts, Interviews, Writing

*Featured image courtesy of mumu limlim, https://openart.ai/@beautifulworld8?tab=creation* In Reconstruction-era Washington and Baltimore, city elites are turning up dead. It’s Tuesday once again and we would like to entice you to read the excerpt from a new novel, The Grays of Truth. Written by bestselling historical true-crime author Sharon Virts, it’s a gripping tale set in Washington, DC, and Maryland in the late 1860s, and is based on true events. In Virts’s hands, the settings in and around the nation’s capital and Baltimore come alive as she reveals the cruelty and cunning of various members of a rich and respected family, one death after another after another. After reading the excerpt below and the bio about Sharon, we think you’re going to want to learn the whole story by reading this novel, written by a master…

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October 4, 2024

“A Life Lesson From Jimi” by Fiona Sinclair

Posted by Malik White in Writing

*Featured Image courtesy of Thomas Kelley on Unsplash.* It’s always a pleasure to see a returning writer on FC. Fiona Sinclair, an excellent writer who has published with us before, has written a new piece that is guaranteed to keep you interested from the beginning to the end. Tom first heard about it crouching over an illicit transistor built by an enterprising boy in tech class. It was breaktime, he and his mates were tucked behind the outer wall of the gym; their “secret” hiding place teachers turned a blind eye to.  Each band Radio Caroline announced was met with a choric wail by the boys, because most knew attending the festival was a fantasy.  Except for Tom. I could go, he thought to himself, tallying in his mind his not inconsiderable savings account, product…

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September 26, 2024

“Satan’s Shadow” by Thomas J. Misuraca

Posted by Malik White in Writing

*Featured image courtesy of Peter Forster on Unsplash* Today we have an excellent horror piece by Tom Misuraca. We don’t get a lot of horror, so this is a welcome treat on FC. Tom is also a prolific writer, so we hope to see more from him in the future! The decrepit station wagon sped out of town. Russell clutched the wheel, squeezing until his biceps bulged. Next to him sat his wife, Trudy, her flesh and clothes caked in mud. Her long, curly hair frizzed by the swamp humidity. Russell felt immaculate compared to her; only his boots were dirty. “It is done,” Trudy repeated over and over, rocking in her seat. They drove away from the sun and away from the evil presence that had haunted them. Russell feared they would never escape….

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September 16, 2024

Rachel Gonzalez’s New Story

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Member Writing & Art, Writing

Rachel is our Fiction Writer in Residence, and she has written an outstanding new story for us, “Scrappy Metal.” It takes a very contemporary – and ironic – perspective concerning technology and its ever-encroaching desire (read between the lines: AI) to take over our human lives. It’s not only current but it’s also very funny. One of the most enjoyable stories we’ve published. Please let us know what you think of it in the Comments section at the end. Scrappy Metal Photo credit: IRobot.com I crushed another Cheez-It in my hand and sprinkled it on the floor. “God. Would you stop that?” My roommate’s shrill girlfriend, Molly, screeched at me. Although she was always here she didn’t actually pay any bills, so I didn’t have to listen to her. “Hey, I’m just feeding the little…

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August 26, 2024

3 Poems by Sarah Daly

Posted by Malik White in Writing

*Featured image courtesy of Andreas Rasmussen on Unsplash* This week we have some wonderful poems by Sarah Daly. Don’t let their size fool you. They may be short, but these poems are full of emotion. Enjoy! At Day’s End Leaf after leaf drops on the autumn path. They piece a rich quilt of crimsons and golds and corals which cover the dirt; my feet crush them, obliterate them, grind them into the soft earth. But the landscape does nothing to penetrate November’s loneliness. Stars Incandescent circles weave through the night sky, their shadows traversing our tangled limbs and signifying joy, joy, joy. In the Now Don’t say it, whatever you think, don’t say the words, we are trapped in this reality TV lifestyle (go along go along) don’t open your mouth, there is no more…

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August 23, 2024

“Journeys in the Dark” created by Robert Best

Posted by Ruby Fink in Audio Arts

Journeys In The Dark a post-apocalyptic dark comedy. Created by Robert Best, directed by David Barr, and produced by David Barr and Alan O’Brien. Journeys in the Dark is a mix between Of Mice and Men’s Odd Couple and the post-apocalyptic dark humour of Red Dwarf. This audio drama follows the adventures of our two mismatched heroes Hod and Baulder. Throw in supernatural monsters, bandits, and the daily fight for survival and you’ve got an absurd dark comedy audio drama podcast that’s sure to tickle your funny bone while making you question reality. It wasn’t always smooth sailing. Recorded in 2016 but left on the cutting room floor. Years of delays, international moves, and more than one child almost left this gem buried in the dust. But in late 2023, the winds shifted, and production…

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August 19, 2024

Winner’s Curse: A New Novel by L.A. Starks

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Book Reviews, Interviews, Writing

Editor’s Note: A Weekend Arts article in The New York Times caught my attention with its title, “Blending Poetry, Ritual and Data on Oil Drilling.” It’s about an installation created by Imami Jacqueline Brown she calls “research art” and in which says she wants to “demystify oil and gas production.” It was the last thing I ever thought I’d see pursued in art, but then again reading Winner’s Curse was a revelation of its own: a novel set in that same business, which its practitioners used to refer to in the Texas drawl, as “th’ awl an’ gaas bidness.” The notion of a “winner’s curse” is explained on the first page of L.A. Starks’ engaging new novel, the fourth Lynn Dayton thriller. It stems from the fact that drilling for oil was (and may still…

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August 8, 2024

Poignant Miles of Lakeside Boneyard by PS Conway

Posted by Malik White in Member Writing & Art, Writing

*Featured image courtesy of Pau Sayrol on Unsplash* Here is another beautiful piece brought to us by our Poet in Residence, PS Conway. Take a look! Clouds hang low o’er Doolough Valley wispt and haunted like we ghosts who recall the horrors of hunger recall a child who fed like sheep eating grass beside the Dead felled roadside recall the cold that bites so deep through gossamer skin, nowhere to hide from the damp, from the cries carrion crows pull out the eyes of a frail father whose name remains oh so forgotten oh so long ago but the land ne’er forgets its recollections will ne’er relent nor forgive a foreign aristocrat’s neglect for the blight of poverty’s anguishes the poor, the chosen folk of Jesus Christ no loaves nor fish for you and I…

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July 4, 2024

Pablo, by Ronan Hart

Posted by Malik White in Writing

*Featured image courtesy of Ben Hershey on Unsplash* Everyone handles grief differently, and Ronan manages to capture this excellently in this short story. Enjoy, and happy Independence Day for those of you who celebrate! He’s sitting at the top of the steps leading down from the decking to the lawn, facing away from us. His head is bowed, showing the bald spot on his crown, ever-expanding, immutable, and I ask mum if he should be putting sun cream on it if he’s going to be sitting out there for so long. She pauses in her plate drying, gripping it so tight that I’m worried she might shatter it, before sighing and setting it on the workbench with a disregard that would have earned my seven-year-old self a stern reprimand. She closes her eyes for a…

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