April 4, 2023

“Spring in Siberia” – A Novel by Artem Mozgovoy

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

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 Jack B. Rochester in Writing

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 Jack B. Rochester in Writing

“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 20, 2023

Derrick R. Lafayette’s “Kaleidoscope”

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Writing

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 Jack B. Rochester in Writing

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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“Spring in Siberia” – A Novel by Artem Mozgovoy

NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

“Sal the Barber” by Frank Diamond

Derrick R. Lafayette’s “Kaleidoscope”

“Cherry Black,” A Story by Levi Dodd

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