Short Fiction and Poetry

Every night he painted wide crosses on large canvases, and when he woke the next morning, a pale featureless figure would be stretched [...]

It was Di’s friend Marnie who introduced her to her colleague,  Rupert. ‘Oh you’ll love him,’ Marnie enthused. [...]

My ex-boyfriend sits at the edge of my marital king-size bed. Finn looks exactly the same as the last time I saw him, except, [...]

I was awakened by the sound of someone driving nails into the lid of my coffin. Quite rude – a girl’s got to have her beauty sleep. [...]

“She has some nerve, Claire,” Sebastian said. Sebastian sat across from me in the booth [...]

They were left there to wither in the cold and wet like a metaphor for their love.  Once fresh and beautiful, now dark and wilted. [...]

I drifted aimlessly among the familiar-faced strangers for as long as I could. I needed to get away from the cacophony of voices [...]

It’s a cold evening. I enter the double doors of the brick building and rub my hands together to warm them with my breath. [...]

The figure sits centered in the middle of the painting, the idea of an easy chair floating around her, a woman with chin in hand [...]

The blue pumpkin variety, from Queensland, is the color of the sky at night, when there’s a full moon, with a bit of fog. [...]

The sanctuary was hidden deep in the glaucous forest, a place where the air smelled of earth and sky. [...]

There are women in small towns that stand outside the bar with a Canadian in their right hand and a cigarette in their left [...]

Detective Frank Sturgeon kept the roller skates found that summer on Pier 48 in remembrance of a girl named Annie. [...]

Two hours and twenty-seven minutes. That’s how long he had. Two hours and twenty-seven minutes until the killer murdered again. [...]

Blood told. It told whom to wed and whom to kill, who ruled and who kneeled. It told Leonora’s betrothal at sixteen to King Marcus [...]

Tara lay lifeless in her bed. The overcast evening sky taunted her, for it was nearly time to go to work. [...]

Fleeing to the New World was supposed to bring safety.  That hope proved to be a cruel deception. [...]

The manager of Rusterman’s Restaurant is much annoyed when Wendy, the new hostess, interrupts him [...]

We strong-armed our stepma. Halloween is all about blackmail when you’re ten years old. Gimme a treat or I’ll play a trick on you [...]

Doug Byrne’s store, between Cundy’s Harbor and Five Islands, is a ramshackle Downeast  barn. Some years ago, he painted the place white[...]