She was sick, sick of being wanted, and wanted out. A story. — Shirley was attending a satellite reception for the annual Health Insurance Institute of America convention. She skittered through the crowd like a pebble on a sheet of water. People acted like it was a big privilege to be there. Her perspective? Not so much. She had been sick for days…

A drabble. (100 word story) I’m trying to simplify, but my attention gets drawn to a mountain bike abandoned in the yard. Beside it is a dead squirrel on the curb, eyes shut tight. From the window of a pickup a heavy guy with shaved head shouts. …

A short story about parents who take youth sports too seriously — It’s football season, and the suburban coaches are back with a vengeance. From his back deck, Nick Lasada could see his neighbor Frank Koplantsky in the kitchen spying on his party. …

Where do we go when we die? A short story about imaginary friends, growing up, and letting go. — By the time August arrives, I can feel summer starting to wane. A couple Augusts ago, I wrote the following story, which was first published on my Substack newsletter. At the time, I was tired of writing out of personal experience and wanted to push boundaries and get inside the…

A 100 word story — Here’s a new “drabble” — a 100 word micro fiction about a tree. In East Texas a pine tree stands by itself in what appears to be a meadow. It is surrounded by stumps. Why it survived the tree can’t say. Two crows circle above, conversing about what, we can’t…

An erratic stranger disrupts the vibe in a working class bar. A short story. — In my imagination, this story plays like a short film. I was trying to portray forgotten rust belt characters who would fit well inside an Edward Hopper or Grant Wood painting. You know, lonesome American types. …

Flash fiction about 2 students on the verge of graduation sharing a perfect moment in time. — This flash fiction began as a sketch I wrote in college. The scene is one I observed myself at a distance. Over the years I would come back and try to work the sketch into a story. It started to get somewhere when I realized I had to pull out…

Experimental philosophical flash fiction — This odd story was originally published in the magazine Cezzane’s Carrot. I’ve revised it here for Medium. I don’t remember too much about its formation. I think it started with the title, and I riffed from there, as if in a trance. If you have interpretations, please share them in…

Short story based on a murder ballad — Note: The following short story started as an experiment. I wanted to see if I could rewrite a folk song as a story. It is based on a murder ballad that goes by various names — “Johnson,” “The Three Butchers,” or “The Two Butchers.” I re-imagined it in a modern…

Watching a TV tennis match, a kid swears in front of his parents for the first time. — I’m in the den with Dad, watching McEnroe versus Borg. The tennis ball makes a fat popping when hit. I’m all for Borg because he’s quiet, patient, seasoned and wise, hanging along that baseline, waiting for McEnroe to come in. McEnroe is younger, brash, ballsy. He hunts the ball, smacks…

Sad guy drinking at a Texas hotel piano bar. Where did his life go wrong? Note: It being the end of the year, when many look retrospectively in the mirror with a cocktail mix of nostalgia, remorse, and regret, I thought the time was right to share an old story…

A winter solstice flash fiction. Are the stars infinite? Are we? We’ve stopped off highway 70 somewhere west of Topeka in the middle of a cloudless winter solstice night. My neck is stiff from the cramped back seat of the Honda. After this break, it will be my turn to…

You can learn a lot about yourself once you understand nothing. In 12 simple, easy steps, let’s look into what being a zero means and why it doesn’t matter. Zero is a cipher. You need nothing to complement your fullness. “Reality, what a concept,” Robin Williams once said. Zero is…

Magical realism in a Kafkaesque mode. What would happen if wings grew on your head? — What was making it so hard for me to fall asleep? In bed I would ponder what seemed like routine matters: tomorrow’s work agenda, the approaching visit from my father, the pressing need for a haircut. Why so much difficulty? Was it the winter time, the cold, the dull shadows…

A teacher reinvents first-year composition: essays are infinitely revised, never complete The teacher sighed. After attempting (for the first and last time) to teach Wordsworth’s Intimations Ode to back-to-back Introduction to Literature sections, he could not shake the uncomfortable sensation that he was a Don Quixote in a room full…

A short story for Fall about a divorced Dad’s shaky relationship with his son. This story was written a long time ago and was first published in the 1990’s in the online journal 256 Shades of Gray. …

A number of years ago on New Year’s Eve, I found a piece of paper lodged under the front tire of my car. The laser-printed copy was set in Times New Roman, 12 point. It was unsigned. This is what it said: The world comes at you in sprays of…

What happens when you remove the fourth wall? — Sitting on a high back wooden chair, you can see three of them, but not the one behind. You can’t say for sure whether the fourth is really there. Sometimes you think you feel a breeze at your back, that there must be nothing behind you but empty space. You…

A story set in Lake Powell, Arizona — I have no idea what part of my brain this story comes from. It originated in Summer 2020 as a sketch, a paragraph of free-writing — playing with setting and imagery. The muse called for a story, so write one I did, following her lead, taking notes. …

flash fiction — Her fingertips delicately hold a red plastic cup as she tramps past the VOX amp and stands near a six-foot tall roadie with seaweed hair, tipsy drunk, leaning into the music waves. Pilsner dribbles over the lip of her cup to the sticky floor. An iron suit approaches behind, crab…