April 17, 2024

Michael Larrain’s “The Life of a Private Eye”

Posted by in Member Writing & Art
Michael Larrain’s “The Life of a Private Eye”

As we continue to celebrate National Poetry Month, Here is Part 4 of Michal Larrain’s epic poem. Parts 5 and 6 will appear here in the next two weeks. Thanks to those who have shared Comments – the author and your editors love to hear what you think! The Life of A Private Eye A Noirvelette in Verse By Michael Larrain Part 4: Zounds! Original illustrations by Katherine Willmore Once there was a man who didn’t flirt with his nurse.Once there was a wife who let her husband slide.Once there was a day when nothing bad happened to anyone,a day that had slipped god’s mind. It might have gone unnoticed,had not the Creator of the Universe hired me to look into it.I figured god could afford it, so I charged twice my usual rates,plus expenses….

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April 10, 2024

Michael Larrain’s “The Life of A Private Eye”

Posted by in Member Writing & Art, Writing
Michael Larrain’s “The Life of A Private Eye”

As we continue to celebrate National Poetry Month, Here is Part 3 of Michal Larrain’s epic poem. Thanks to those who have shared Comments – the author and your editors would love to hear what you think! This new episode, in our opinion, is a real doozy – and so is Katherine Willmore’s exclusive, exemplary artistic rendering. Watch for it! The Life of A Private Eye A Noirvelette in Verse By Michael Larrain Part 3: The Spider Pool She had trained enormous Amazonian butterflies, each the size of a man’s hand, to land upon her person in a pattern either random or preordained, and stay there for a space of hours, forming a living evening gown, their wings slowly fanning, black and green bands of breathing velvet. Speculation was running rampant as to her technique….

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April 3, 2024

Michael Larrain’s “The Life of A Private Eye”

Posted by in Member Writing & Art, Writing
Michael Larrain’s “The Life of A Private Eye”

Part 2 of the Epic Poem about a Los Angeles Private Eye If you’ve already read Part 1, you’re probably eager to read Part 2. If you haven’t read Part 1, then you oughta. Then you’ll want to read Part 2, because before you can finish it, next week we’ll publish Part 3. The Life of A Private Eye a Noirvelette by Michael Larrain Original Artwork by Katherine Willmore for James Crumley, in memoriam Part 2 How could I be dizzy if I didn’t exist? was my first question. I was asleep one moment and the next being carried on a sedan chair through tall rustling cornstalks by even taller women’s beach volleyball players whose legs went straight to the penthouse. When their shoulders touched the corn, it turned into salt water and they were…

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April 1, 2024

Fictional Cafe’s National Poetry Month, 2024

Posted by in Member Writing & Art, Writing
Fictional Cafe’s National Poetry Month, 2024

For the 4th year, Fictional Cafe spends the month of April celebrating poets and their poetry. April Fool’s Day notwithstanding, welcome to America’s National Poetry Month! We have a full month of great poetry, written by our own Coffee Club members, to share with you. Two highlights: please welcome our new Poet-in-Residence PS Conway! Just last month PS published his first collection of poetry in a book entitled Echoes Lost in Stars. It was an immediate hit bestseller. Grab your copy from your favorite bookseller. This guy loves to write, and we’re saving a special spot for an excerpt in two weeks. But first up for the month is a frequent contributor, Michael Larrain, who has written a six-part epic poem entitled “The Life of A Private Eye.” It’s engrossing, and we just published Part…

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February 9, 2024

Steve Schleicher: A Remembrance

Posted by in Audio Arts, Member Writing & Art
Steve Schleicher: A Remembrance

One of the saddest things about someone you know dying is thinking about all the “coulda shoulda” things you wish you had said and which now must remain unspoken, unshared. This is sad when you’ve only spoken with this person on the phone, yet always really liked him. This is especially sad when the person dies unexpectedly, as did FC’s Audio Arts actor Steve Schleicher.  All we’re left with is the memories of the relationship we had with the person who has passed. In the case of those creative people —artists, short story and novel writers, poets who have graced our pages at The Fictional Café—we come to realize we only get to know certain aspects of them. Indeed, often it is a rich aspect, but that loss only means we carry a heavier one….

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February 6, 2024

An American Family in Crete

Posted by in Interviews, Member Writing & Art, Writing
An American Family in Crete

Veteran FC Barista and lifelong iconoclast Jason Brick moved his family and his writing to the Greek Island of Crete for a year to learn about another people and their culture. We were delighted to hear about his Odyssey and eager to find out what it was like, so Jack interviewed Jason recently and got these comments and photos back to share with you, our faithful Coffee Clubbers. Please share your Comments and ask Jason any questions you may have. He’ll be back. Jack: What in the heck are you doing in Crete? Jason: I’ve brought my family to Greece for a year so we can experience what it’s like to live in a country and a culture distinct from America. We’re on the island of Crete, which is off the coast of mainland Greece—the…

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February 4, 2024

“Zzzzzz….” A Short Story by Dan Brook 

Posted by in Guest Posts, Writing
“Zzzzzz….” A Short Story by Dan Brook 

“Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.” Feeling a little sticky with sweat and having butterflies in his stomach, Anatta was getting anxious and slightly panicky. He realized the irony of racing to the San Francisco Zen Center, but he could not help himself. He was rushing to get there, just so he could sit still in silence to calm his mind, supposedly to see “the nature of reality” as he had read somewhere. It wasn’t the only irony, to be sure, and he got agitated thinking he was running late, though he was actually on time as usual.   Exiting the MUNI station, as Anatta did each week, he was still in…

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January 28, 2024

Meet PS Conway, Our New Poetry Writer-in-Residence

Posted by in Interviews, Member Writing & Art
Meet PS Conway, Our New Poetry Writer-in-Residence

After a grueling quiz with poet PS Conway, administered by your Fictional Cafe poets Yong and Vera, along with me, your founder, on the six most fascinating drinking establishments in Ireland, an explanation of a potato famine, and a perfect recitation of Molly Bloom’s soliloquy in James Joyce’s Ulysses, we have anointed PS Conway our new Poetry Writer-in-Residence for 2024-25. Delighted with his perfect score we capped his nomination with this interview below, which confirmed him as an excellent choice. Another P.S.: we choose a Fiction Writer-in-Residence and a Poetry Writer-in-Residence every two alternating years. Expect to see, and read, a lot of PS’s captivating poetry in both images and words. JACK: Hello, faithful members of Fictional Café’s Coffee Club. I’m here with Vera West, our former Poetry Writer-in-Residence, to interview Vera’s successor, PS Conway,…

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January 25, 2024

As I Make You

Posted by in Writing
As I Make You

A Flash Fiction by Matthew Bala Image Courtesy of Al Quino, unsplash.com Bulging my fingers into the spinning clay, I look into the rotating bottom and let my tears glisten there—the figure moves faster than my hands can shape, and I’m left with only a few touches to produce the right form.  The pad of my thumb grazes the orbiting ovoid, trimming up and at its waist into some obscene shape; surrendering a chuckle, I retreat my hands, looking at this earthly bong I’ve now made. The long snout stretches for air, its bottom rounded to the sides of the hog pan.  My palms now fondle the roundness of my creation, feeling the argil beard my cupped hands and cuticles of bending fingers. Deliberately, I close my two arms in on each other, shooting my…

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