June 15, 2020

“You vs. the Apocalypse,” by Ayman Elsayed

TITLE: You vs. The Apocalypse GENRE: Legal, Simulation, Strategy DEVELOPER: COVID-19 FRANCHISE: Pandemic Interactive PUBLISHER: Ayman Elsayed RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2020 The handling of the end of the world is on trial. Your only mission is to survive. Overcome struggles such as mental health, physical isolation and deteriorating resources by interacting with technology. Engage with others. Find a hobby. Judge your community. Protect yourself from yourself. Single-player Achievements Full Remote Compatibility RECENT REVIEWS: Very Negative. 99.9% of the 7,729,536,211 user reviews in the last 30 days are negative. Popular user-defined tags for this product: Closed World, Survival Horror, RPG, Retro, Sandbox, Social Distancing, Crafting, Souls-like —————————————————————————————————————– _________ / ======= \ / __________\ | ___________ | | | | | | | START | | …

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June 11, 2020

“Silenced,” The Poetry of Joan McNerney

Posted by Mike Rochester in Writing

Silenced What is never spoken of and pushed down becomes mold crawling over hearts. Strangling our voices, it scuttles through corridors, tunneling, warping each day. My body . . . this swollen thing carried by legs too thin and crippled to uphold it. Pushed down, tightly clamped in now full of pain, gasping for each breath. Smothered, silenced. street corners enveloped in exhaust fumes slate-like formations wait for light to change her carbon dress his face of ashes crushed within this granite body we eat grey food pulling empty air through narrow passageway to ink stain train smudged along blurred landscape of city inside myself searching a designer one clear line of perspective which distinguishes buildings from streets & points to where the synthetic sky…

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June 9, 2020

“The Alarming Misadventures of Henry’s Continuing E.D.,” by Len Messineo

Posted by Mike Rochester in Writing

“Have you no sense of humor?” Sylvia says. Earlier in the evening, she had jokingly referred to Henry—who suffers from male-pattern baldness—as “Cue Ball” in front of their friends at the Eagle Cove Yachting Club. Now Henry is sulking. He might have been a good sport about it, but Henry, an engineer having a keen intelligence for machines, has none for humans, especially Silvia. He reasons, falsely, that if only he could grow hair, he would escape his wife’s withering remarks. So, Henry sees his family doctor. The doctor writes him a prescription for Propecia. By now we’ve all seen the ads on television for the newly FDA-approved medication. A soft lulling music plays while a voice-over—as consoling as a funeral counselor—reads a list of possible contraindications: drowsiness, burning, tingling sensations, difficult bowel movements, seizures, and on and on with the tag…

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June 3, 2020

“The Outing,” A Short Story by Lee Marc Stein

Posted by Mike Rochester in Writing

They found his body at 5:00 am at the bottom of the stairs leading down from the sports deck to the pool. Claire Warner hears the announcement at 8:00 in her stateroom as she is curling her hair. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain. As some of you may already know, the body of our distinguished guest lecturer, Francesco Carlucci, was found this morning by our First Officer Paul Cornelius. We are guessing that Professor Carlucci missed a step, fell down the flight and hit his head. When we reach port in 30 minutes, an official Medical Examiner will come onboard to determine the actual cause of death. We promise to keep you informed.” Her husband was doing laps around the sports deck now. With the iPod blasting in his ear, he probably didn’t…

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May 28, 2020

“Mutt and Jeff,” A Short Story by Robert Pope

Posted by Mike Rochester in Writing

Friends who knew us back in the day called us Mutt and Jeff. We had buddy tattoos on our biceps, cartoon characters: Jeff tall in an orange striped suit and fedora, with a mustache like mine, Mutt short, with mutton chops, dark suit and top hat. I never told Tina, my second wife, why I had the tattoo because I got into bad habits with Mick a year into my first marriage. I wanted him nowhere near me and Tina, until the bad times hit. We had funny hours, Tina and I. She sold real estate, I worked from home, free-lancing web sites, buying and selling, investing. We made decent money, unpredictable, sure, but we talked about having a kid. That dropped off when things cooled in the bedroom. One Saturday, I drove by an open house to say hello when I saw her on the porch, talking with a younger guy in dark slacks, blue shirt. He had dark hair, styled, real regular white teeth. I put it out of my mind overnight. We had a nice dinner, and off she went…

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“You vs. the Apocalypse,” by Ayman Elsayed

“Silenced,” The Poetry of Joan McNerney

“The Alarming Misadventures of Henry’s Continuing E.D.,” by Len Messineo

“The Outing,” A Short Story by Lee Marc Stein

“Mutt and Jeff,” A Short Story by Robert Pope

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