LAST TEN FLASHSHOTS
INVADERS
By
Paul Ingrassia
“Listen up, marines,” said the lieutenant. “I
know you’re all worried about this mission. Hell, even I’m a bit nervous.
But let’s keep our objective in mind: our planet is dying, we need a new
home. We will conquer!”
“Yes sir!”
“I can’t
hear you!”
“YES SIR!!”
“Lieutenant, approaching
target city.”
“It’s almost go-time. Now remember, boys,
when you approach the human ear, make sure you land right at the opening and get
into the canal ASAP. It only takes them a fraction of a second to swat, and then
you’re history. OK now, ready… steady… ALL UNITS DEPLOY!”
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Paul
Ingrassia reads and writes short poetry and flash fiction in Westchester County,
New York. He is a Pushcart Prize nominated poet, loves the work of Adelaide Crapsey
and Robert E. Howard, and his family calls him a tree-hugger. In addition to being
a Repeat Flashshooter, his flash fiction has appeared in Necrotic Tissue, Flashes
In The Dark, Microhorror, and Niteblade.
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©
2009 Paul Ingrassia
A MOSQUE AMONG THE STARS edited by Ahmed A. Khan featuring
Lucius Shepard, Jetse DeVries, Howard Jones, Andrew Ferguson, G. W. Thomas and
others. 12 original stories. http://www.zcbooks.ca/5073.html
Now in a Kindle version at Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/A-Mosque-Among-the-Stars/dp/B0027P87LU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240829292&sr=8-1
PSEUDONYM
By
Sigerson Quinn
Burke used a million favors but he was finally sitting
across from Stephen Burst. The author hid his face behind a mask.
“Of
course, my real name isn’t Burst.”
“Jeremy Talon?”
“No, that’s not real either.”
“Talmage Pope?”
“No.”
“Bernard St. John?”
He shook his
head.
“I’ve used hundreds. But none of them is my real name.”
This was Burke’s one and only chance. He leapt over the table, grabbing
the mask. There was another mask underneath.
“Really, don’t
think anyone has tried that before?”
“Who are you?”
Burst pulled off the second mask. There was no face underneath.
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Sigerson
Quinn’s pseudonyms include Grayson What, Stephanie Mair, Gerrard Yonge Street,
William Lake and Robert Ashton Phillips.
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©
2009 Sigerson Quinn
Check out the new schedule of FLASHSHOTS for July/August.
http://www.gwthomas.org/schedule.htm
TWO
NIGHTS ONLY
By Robert Ashton Phillips
The traveling show stayed two
nights in Bremonston, then left, never to be seen again.
The star attraction
was a man named Sibor the Magnificient, who could bend bars with hands. From the
looks on many women’s faces the days after, he was magnificent, indeed. But
he wasn’t there when six bellies began to ripen. Six boys all bearing Sibor’s
thick brows and odd fingers.
Thirteen years went by and those children,
all tall, handsome and strong, came into their inheritance. The townsfolk locked
their doors, closed their curtains to the full moon, and cursed the day Sibor
ever came.
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Robert Ashton Phillips lives in the Beacon Hill, Providence, Rhode Island.
By day he works a desk but by night he wanders the dark streets, dreaming up stories.
Read his fiction at www.robertashtonphillips.com
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©
2009 Robert Ashton Phillips
Dark
Worlds Magazine #4 (Spring 2009) featuring "The Tale of the Baron's Tribute"
by Derrick Ferguson will soon be here! Issues #1-3 are still available. http://www.lulu.com/ragemachinebooks
BABYSITTING
IN HELL
By William Lake
Cranston had been surprised that there was
Child-Minding in Hell. Of course, Original Sin had guaranteed a nice supply of
babies.
He walked into the cramp quarters. It was filled with screaming
babies and middle-aged men-- they had been bankers, lawyers, company execs. Men
who never had any time for changing a diaper.
The babies didn’t seem
too happy about their caretakers either. Colic, flaming diaper rash, cramps, spitting
up, gas, in perpetua. The caretakers hobbled about trying to calm the infants
but the din never ceased.
A bell rang. Cranston turned away. Feeding time!
Not a bottle in sight.
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William
Lake is not related to Jay Lake but he is a Canadian who came almost all the way
back from stars.
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©
2009 William Lake
Check it out: FLASHSHOT: "Off Base" by Stevens R. Miller is now a 500 wrd. podcast at Escapepod. http://escapepod.org/2009/05/18/escape-pod-flash-off-base/
ALONE
By
Gerrard Yonge Street
Some men fear their insignificance, so they dwell
in the cities, close to the actions of history. Others do not need as much reassurance,
and live in a small town, surrounded by a picket fence. Others need even less,
living alone on a mountain in a shack, coming to civilization only when it suits
them. But the elder god lived entirely alone, never knowing another’s company.
No angels, no valkyries, no Satanic opponents. Could you understand him?
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Gerrard
Street is the pseudonym of a famous Toronto writer. Due to legal entanglements
he is currently writing only Flash fiction with one word titles.
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©
2009 G. Y. Street
By the Light of the Full Moon: Classic Wererwolf Stories
featuring Clemence Housman, Captain Marryat, David Garnett and others and edited
by G. W. Thomas http://www.lulu.com/content/431305
THE
OLDEST EMOTION
By Stephanie Mair
She had read all the Twilight books
and knew she wanted a vampire lover. You can find anything on the Internet.
They lie together on a bed in a motel. She could smell him. Mold, dirt, stale
water. He looked into her eyes with his own steely orbs. The eyes of a shark.
She searched there for the deep love she knew would be waiting there. Edward’s
kind of love. Old love. What she saw was old, but it wasn’t love.
“No,
I don’t—“ she began.
She tried to move but his body pinned
her effortlessly.
“Groceries never do.”
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Stephanie
Mair lives in Scotland. Her most recent publication was a how-to book for dominatrixes
called Whip It!! Whip It Good!
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©
2009 Stephanie Mair
Dark
Worlds Magazine #4 (Spring 2009) featuring "The Tale of the Baron's Tribute"
by Derrick Ferguson will soon be here! Issues #1-3 are still available. http://www.lulu.com/ragemachinebooks
FORGOTTEN
By
Grayson What
The poplars form stripes of shadow across the ground, like
the bars of a prison. Beneath lies a cairn of stone. In autumn, the whippoorwills
roost on the rocks and coo, singing their wordless spell.
No gravemarker
speaks of who lies here. No name, no deeds. Was he a hero who had fallen before
the darkness, his sword clutched in blood-soaked hands? Who placed the stones
over him, then went away, saying nothing? And why the ward that holds him in the
cold ground? The wind does not tell, only moans like the widow who cried in a
far land.
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Grayson
What is a fan of the novels of Guy de Maupassant, Arthur Conan Doyle’s treatise
on spirits and other liquors, and the cross-stitch of Frank Frazetta.
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©
2009 Grayson What
A
MOSQUE AMONG THE STARS edited by Ahmed A. Khan featuring Lucius Shepard, Jetse
DeVries, Howard Jones, Andrew Ferguson, G. W. Thomas and others. 12 original stories.
http://www.zcbooks.ca/5073.html
Now in a Kindle version at Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/A-Mosque-Among-the-Stars/dp/B0027P87LU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240829292&sr=8-1
WINTER
SOLACE
By G. W. Thomas
Six feet of snow this winter. Many cursed it
as they lifted their shovels over and over. Dirk didn’t mind. He liked the
snow. It wrapped the land like a blanket. A white security blanket. The ground
frozen to the hardness of brick. That was the minus forty. He didn’t mind
the cold either. Lots of folk complained and thought of hot, tropical beaches.
Not Dirk. He lived beside the cemetery. He preferred the winter. He could relax
and forget about the dead. And how they like to dig when warm treats await.
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G.
W. Thomas lives in Canada. Nuff said.
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©
2009 G. W. Thomas
By the Light of the Full Moon: Classic Wererwolf Stories
featuring Clemence Housman, Captain Marryat, David Garnett and others and edited
by G. W. Thomas http://www.lulu.com/content/431305
SHUSH!
By
Ajay Vishwanathan
The sight of yellow against white was beautiful, triumphal.
The bubbles started forming, swirling, bursting here, some more there, as the
stream steadied. As I watched the conquering act, many clamored to get to where
I was; I wished they would be quiet. Distraction could be its undoing I thought,
as I focused on the little miracle unfolding in front of me. It had started as
a stubborn drop, then another, then a nervous spurt, fidgety, then another, gruelingly
staccato. A jubilant smile quivered on my lips when it was over, as I sighed with
relief, zipped up and flushed.
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The
author is a virologist at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC),
Atlanta. When he is not working on finding a cure for AIDS, he is writing short
stories. Ajay, who started writing at the age of 7, has won several awards for
his writing from organizations like the Times of India, Mid-Day, and more. In
India, he enjoyed freelancing for a Mumbai daily, The Afternoon Despatch &
Courier. He frequently writes commentaries and cover stories for well-known Indian
American monthlies, including Khabar and Little India.
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©
2009 Ajay Vishwanathan
Check it out: FLASHSHOT: "Off Base" by Stevens R. Miller is now a 500 wrd. podcast at Escapepod. http://escapepod.org/2009/05/18/escape-pod-flash-off-base/
THE
LAST ADAM
By Gareth D Jones
The last man on earth worked in heart-broken
silence, carving a name onto a wooden plaque with meticulous care. Once complete
he placed it atop the last of a seemingly endless series of graves that had been
harder and harder to dig with fewer and fewer people.
He sat down heavily
and stared at his handiwork. He was no longer just the last man on earth. He was
now the last human too.
The plaque simply read: ‘Eve’.
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Gareth
has had stories published in over twenty magazines and translated into 10 languages.
He also writes reviews and drinks lots of tea.
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©
2009 Gareth D Jones
Dark
Worlds Magazine #4 (Spring 2009) featuring "The Tale of the Baron's Tribute"
by Derrick Ferguson will soon be here! Issues #1-3 are still available. http://www.lulu.com/ragemachinebooks
A
YOUNG DEATH
By Sara Tribble
“Drena, you have to kill it. The
blood is no good,” Will yells.
The unicorn was bleeding from her
side where someone failed trying to cut out her heart. I looked at the magnificent
creature; it was only a few months old and its single horn hardly a few inches
long.
This was why I struggled with the thought of ending this unicorn’s
life. It was young like my brother. Will was right; I walked towards it and stabbed
the young heart. It felt wrong but I had to do it.
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Sara
Tribble enjoys writing short sci-fi, fantasy, and humor stories. She recently
finished her first fantasy novel and is blogging her progress for other aspiring
writers to learn and have encouragement: http://www.saratribble.blogspot.com/
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©
2009 Sara Tribble
By
the Light of the Full Moon: Classic Wererwolf Stories featuring Clemence Housman,
Captain Marryat, David Garnett and others and edited by G. W. Thomas http://www.lulu.com/content/431305