April 4, 2023

“Spring in Siberia” – A Novel by Artem Mozgovoy

Posted by in Book Reviews, Guest Posts, Writing
“Spring in Siberia” – A Novel by Artem Mozgovoy

Red Hen Press and Fictional Cafe celebrate today the publication of Spring in Siberia, the first novel by a young writer named Artem Mozgovoy. Born in Central Siberia, he finds solace in the literature he reads and begins to write. Spring in Siberia is his coming of age story, told in fiction. This excerpt is from Chapter 16. An interview with Kate Gale, Managing Editorand Executive Director at Red Hen Press, follows it. ‘I’m afraid that I love you,’ my classmate spoke quickly and quietly, but I managed to catch his words before they melted in the evening smoke. We were standing on the sixteenth-story balcony, on the top floor of the tallest building in our city. Neither he nor I lived in that block, but we knew that each level gave access to a…

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April 2, 2023

NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

Posted by in Writing
NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

AT THE FICTIONAL CAFÉ Welcome, all, to our second celebration of National Poetry Month, sponsored by the National Academy of Poets. The beautiful image for our posts this month was created by Marc Brown for the Academy. With over 1,200 Coffee Cub members in 74 countries, we baristas often find ourselves with an abundance of excellent poetry from our contributors, who reside literally around the world. Over the National Poetry Month of April we’ll be sharing some of the best recently submitted work. Each week we’ll publish several poets in a single post, so as not to clog your email inboxes. Look for the banner to indicate a new poetry post. We’ll also publish a few other special works because variety is always the spice of life! It all begins tomorrow and we’d love for…

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March 26, 2023

“Sal the Barber” by Frank Diamond

Posted by in Writing
“Sal the Barber” by Frank Diamond

“That’s a common mistake, mi amigo,” Sal Gonzalez says. He stops clipping, looks into the barbershop mirror at Larry Shanks. Sal stands to the right and a bit behind Larry; it would be the blind side, if not for reflection. “That’s my first marriage. I married my friend. And we’re still friends.”  Larry rolls his neck, says: “One day you look up and you’re roomies. Sex? Maybe. Sometimes. Schedule it.”  “And couples need that passion,” Sal says, resuming the clip-clip. “I married three times. Third time’s the charm. With Rita 33 years. I am blessed. Without Rita, I’m dead.”  COVID-19 had almost killed Sal three months earlier. He’d been on a respirator—torture!—and had pneumonia. It took eleven weeks to recover and get back to work.  “All the nurses on every shift knew Rita.”  “How old…

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March 22, 2023

To Wonder: Photograph as Art

Posted by in Fine Art
To Wonder: Photograph as Art

Natalie Christensen’s exploration of surface, angle, shape and color Artist’s Statement: The Deconstructed Self In 2014, I moved from the state of Kentucky to New Mexico, leaving my lifelong home and 25-year career as a psychotherapist behind. While it was an exciting moment, it was also a time of questioning and reflection. Like many artists who have come to New Mexico, I was immediately drawn to the distinctive Southwestern light. The beauty of the natural environment is evident to most people; however, my interest was in exploring the more banal peripheral landscapes which often go unnoticed by the casual observer. I began by photographing color fields and geometric shapes. I was interested in the way light and shadow could spark complex narratives, and quickly became aware these isolated moments in the suburban landscape were rich…

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March 20, 2023

Derrick R. Lafayette’s “Kaleidoscope”

Posted by in Writing
Derrick R. Lafayette’s “Kaleidoscope”

Today, March 21st, we celebrate the publication of Kaleidoscope, a short story collection by Fictional Cafe’s former Fiction Writer in Residence, and published by our own imprint! As the French author Marcel Proust once remarked, the mind evokes endlessly changing thought patterns, much like a kaleidoscope. And so reading Derrick R. Lafayette’s Kaleidoscope: Dark Tales, an extraordinary collection of five short stories and a novella, is like seeing the world anew through bits of colored glass.  What if . . . In this weird Wild West story an old gunfighter, accompanied by a Billy-the-Kid wannabe, arrives in a town to claim a straightforward bounty. But due to mistaken identity, they run afoul of a supernatural occurrence. What if . . . A loner, held captive for months in a mud castle, escapes but feels certain…

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March 16, 2023

“Cherry Black,” A Story by Levi Dodd

Posted by in Writing
“Cherry Black,” A Story by Levi Dodd

Once in a while, a story of uncommon power lands our e-desktops here at the Cafe. This is one of them. We think “Cherry Black” will keep you on the edge of your seat right up until . . . the end. Biting cold slowly moves up my fingers as they hover just above the doorknob, not close enough to touch it but close enough to feel the cold radiating from the shiny silver metal. How long have I stood here, frozen in place? It exhausts me to even consider turning the knob. A familiar sensation on my thigh distracts me from the looming dread of reality and before I’m even conscious of it, my hand has moved away from the doorknob to grab at this welcome distraction. I unlock my phone and open the…

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March 10, 2023

Michael Larrain’s “The Long Con”

Posted by in Writing
Michael Larrain’s “The Long Con”

for Sister Monica Joan  I’ve sort of lost track of time, but it must have been, oh, a dozen or so years ago that I put a rear-view mirror on my medicine chest, so that now when I shave of a morning I can only see myself in the past. And therefore, by a process I cannot pretend to understand, do I grow one day younger every day. As long as I keep shaving, I’m slipping backwards twenty-four hours at a time, growing gradually more limber, my synapses finger-popping like Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, my beard no longer bristling with silver but turning to a burr of golden blond. When I remember how to move the appropriate muscles in my face, I catch the reflection of something resembling a smile, teeth sparkling, eyes bright….

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March 6, 2023

An Interview with Artemisia’s Founder

Posted by in Interviews, Writing
An Interview with Artemisia’s Founder

Geoff Habiger Talks About Life As An Indie Publisher with Lorraine Martindale, FC’s Editor At Large Fictional Cafe is launching a new series, for which we don’t yet have a name . Maybe you can help? It’s a tandem publication, probably once a month, likely on a Tuesday. We’ll feaure a new novel from an indie author, the tandem aspect being an interview or a profile of the author’s indie publisher. The author’s book excerpt appears as a regular post, and the interview or feature appears in our Creative Nonfiction section (which is titled News, Reviews and Interviews on the home page). Our goal is to recognize – indeed, to celebrate – the relationship between an author and their publisher. To accomplish this, Jack and Lorraine are working as a team within Fictional Cafe. Lorraine…

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March 6, 2023

“The Painter’s Butterfly” – A Novel

Posted by in Book Reviews, Writing
“The Painter’s Butterfly” – A Novel

A mystical adventure by Rebecca Weber I love butterflies. My mother-in-law absolutely adored butterflies, so when we published the 2-disc CD of her musical works, a butterfly was the cover image. We have a big hand-painted Talavera pottery butterfly adorning our home. Last year, we published an excerpt from Sara Dykman’s book, Bicycling with Butterflies adventure with the monarch butterfly migration here at FC. So yeah, we like butterflies, including those in this youth novel, and we hope you will, too. This is Rebecca’s first novel! ** from Chapter 3 Chapter Three First Impressions Nova swiftly opened the white wooden door and a happy silver bell chimed out to say hello. Inside the place was cozy and welcoming, and her head pivoted around like a swivel chair as she took it all in. There were…

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March 1, 2023

“A Little Space for Happiness” by Michael Larrain

Posted by in Writing
“A Little Space for Happiness” by Michael Larrain

Poetry lives on in the soul I know this sentence, which I wrote here in 2014 when I first met Michael Larrain “selling blissed-out flowers from the back of his Jeep about two blocks east of downtown Cotati (California), sounds a lot like the first sentence in James Crumley’s finest novel, The Last Good Kiss. Which may or may not be coincidentally set in nearby Sonoma (California). It could also be something evocative about The Land that is Sonoma County. I don’t know. But you might want to find the time to read Crumly’s novel and endulge yourself in that first sentence. But before you do, please read (and comment on) this magnificent poem by our featured poet today. Another of his poems appears here in a week’s time. A Little Space for Happiness Between…

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