The serious writer was aware of a paradox at the heart of his art: his inner world, the place of the strongest stories, was infinite, but it was also embedded in – if this was...

Sarucha (age 8): “Look, down there, I recognize it, ciudad de Jerusalén (the city of Jerusalem)! Jerusalén!, Jerusalén!” she exclaimed.

I had always been an atheist until I met Lenny. He was too wonderously complex and good for there to be no benevolent and intelligent force behind our marvelous cosmos. Lenny gave me the actual...

Absently, Quinn reached for the sheet to replace it over the aged mirror, but the back of his hand brushed against the cold surface and a strange shiver ran up his arm and down his...

Baumauer secretly fears Kalist – and Kalist knows it.

An overnight bag with the company logo – a white silhouette of a finch (which once perched on the curved back of a stallion representing cofounder, Orwell, but has now been ‘adjusted’) – sits motionless...

It takes both sides to build a bridge.

Yes, sir.” I reply instantly. My voice sounds needy – already.

What can you do if you are thirty and, turning the corner of your own street, you are overcome, suddenly, by a feeling of bliss – absolute bliss – as though you’d suddenly swallowed a...

Short fiction seems more targeted – hand grenades of ideas, if you will. When they work, they hit, they explode, and you never forget them. Long fiction feels more like atmosphere: it’s a lot smokier...

Lending my voice to a dedicated readership is a match made in heaven.

He’s in a side room alone with her and it’s far too fucking hot.

The usual short story cannot have a complex plot, but it often has a simple one resembling a chain with two or three links. The short short, however, doesn’t as a rule have even that...

The American girl isn’t ANY girl; she’s a remarkable specimen in a remarkable species.

Between the sands of time and tradition is a multitude of truths untold.

The farmhouse sat on a rise at the end of a long dirt road, in a clearing surrounded by fruit trees and ninety acres of pines. It was painted white, and peeling, and some former...

Ariana strikes me as the type of girl who is attracted to authenticity.

And next time? Eat the stupid cupcake.

Humans are aware of very little, it seems to me, the artificial brainy side of life, the worries and bills and the mechanisms of jobs, the doltish psychologies we’ve placed over our lives like a...

Baumauer has been lured into the exhausting habit of supplying Kalist with ever more exceptional quality work just to appease him and often survives all day and all evening without food, but Maxwell D. Kalist...

I imagine I should have told it to you before? I love you, Sejal.I wish for you to become my wife.Recently I’ve also opened a shop in North Dakota and thinking that, just maybe, you...

I’m an old man, now. I’ve been alone since my 17th birthday. I’d wanted to marry, have a bunch of kids, and maybe be a grandpa. The big family around the Thanksgiving table, laughing and...

She knew there were only small joys in life–the big ones were too complicated to be joys when you got all through–and once you realized that, it took a lot of the pressure off.

The short story, I should point out, is perforce a labor of love in today’s literary world; there’s precious little economic incentive to write one…

In the beginning we start with roses. The king’s flower right? Only they wilt in less than a day, especially when exposed to the elements. But Carnations? Oh, what a beautiful flower. They come in...

Oh no. I’m not gonna let you leave yet. I’m gonna show you the value of takin’ your time to get to work. I probably should have done this a long time ago.

The frame of the mirror was a deep mahogany and carved with an intricate design of what appeared in the dim light to be leaves and vines. The mirror’s surface was clouded with dust and...

Don’t suffocate in there.

I’d never make that a personal promise, but I will get you to a phone.

It is a happiness to wonder; — it is a happiness to dream.

I am your slut, Master – only yours.”Your eyes burn into mine and you too pause to relish your utter possession of me.

Ah, what happiness it is to be with people who are all happy, to press hands, press cheeks, smile into eyes.

Let’s start over shall we? Hello gorgeous. I’m Justin McKinley. I’m head baker at Le Chef Petite. I’d love to get to know you better. Can I seduce you with my vast knowledge of sweet...

Why ruin my sister’s birthday simply because the entire planet was going to hell in a hand basket?

You are a more powerful person than you might have ever imagined.” Maxwell D. Kalist.

There can’t be much development of action or theme in such stories, but at least there is some. By contrast, in the short short the very idea of character seems to lose its significance, seems...

What we often take to be the new is simply the old under some novel form.

The heart’s the trouble. It knows the monster but remembers the love.

Our aim is to make the world more beautiful than it was when we came into it. It can be done. You can do it–love yourself

While I AM sure of what I want, I’m equally unsure of how to attain it.

He paused, giving her a sweet smile of understanding. “You don’t have to start with the crown jewels, you know. You could start with my lips then work your way down.

Mama has such cleverly timed headaches I wonder if she has any at all.

Men circle like bees around honey, buzzing to communicate their sexual despair.

Thank you father, thank you. I know you watched me from above and protected me. I promise I shall serve the Magnarian Confederation with all my body and soul. I shall dedicate myself fully to...

He walked steadily, feeling them behind him. His stride did not falter; he pretended they weren’t there. He pretended that all was well—that those hideous things knew nothing about what he had done earlier in...

Inside the room there sat a rocker, which she sat on, and which had rocked her while she sipped the beer, because in spite of herself she had become so giddy to have so quickly...

But that which is called a Flower by any other name would still be as trusting and they were not to change her. In fact, she grew only more Hothouse-gorgeous as the bitterness poured down...

Fib!” Dr. Pedras feels for a pulse while another places gelled pads on her chest.

But the fantasy kingdom and trappings of success soon lost their luster, as I discovered that the most prestigious and remunerative of my resume’s way stations was also the most tedious and unfulfilling I had...

As he carefully made his way back to the stairs and awkwardly turned off the light, he did not notice that the dark shadow he had assumed was his reflection remained in the mirror. He...