By Sarah Brennan “Child please, you made it safely! Praise God.” My Aunt Ruthie’s exclamations of greeted me in the small arrivals’ terminal at the Key West Airport. After a day of travel from California I was relieved, and slightly energized, to have finally made it. The warm, humid, tropical air enveloped me as we … Continue reading Saying Goodbye in Key West
A Canadian Tragedy
By Sherry Wong But your profile says… A friend of mine helped me with the profile. She actually changed it for me. With my old profile, nobody ever contacted me. I may as well not exist. So, this friend suggested that I modify my profile a little bit. It helped, didn’t it? I got your … Continue reading A Canadian Tragedy
Watching Cricket with My Father
By R.B. Simpson Unsurprisingly, and like all my fellow boarders, the highlight of our school year was the Christmas holidays, straight after we had written our last end-of-year exam. Six weeks of unrestricted mayhem lay before us! We would rip our ties off and would be playing a last game of touch rugby on the … Continue reading Watching Cricket with My Father
The Room
By Joan Hyams Schmitz It’s been a calendar full of days since the boy entered the room, dumping his backpack on the floor as he flopped onto his bed for a power nap. This brief, impromptu trip home served one purpose—a quick trip to the dentist to repair a chipped tooth. Once the incisor was … Continue reading The Room
Nightmares and the Monsters that Breed Them
By Susan L. League Dreams have always been a part of my life, especially recurrent, other-worldly nightmares. My imagination was and still is that of a child. Born and raised in the deep south by an unusual mother, who was schizophrenic, undiagnosed, and untreated, so everything was real to her. There were aliens, who planted … Continue reading Nightmares and the Monsters that Breed Them
An Hour in the Life of a Five-Year-Old Pool Player
By Francine Rodriguez The parking lot in front of King Drew Place of Family on Central Avenue, was nearly full that morning in 1994. I didn’t recognize any of the cars filling the lot, stacked one behind the other. Gangster cars, black Suburbans, Escalades, and lowriders, like the ones in my neighborhood, like the 61 … Continue reading An Hour in the Life of a Five-Year-Old Pool Player
The First Date
By Ruby Pressman As we walked in to the Little Mexican Kitchen on Main Street, I leaned in to open the door, but Joel opened it for me, and I said, “Thank you!”, revealing my blue turquoise bracelet with crosses on it. I thought this might bother him, but he didn’t say anything. “No problem,” … Continue reading The First Date
Review of New Shores by Ciaran J. McLarnon
New Shores By Ciaran J. McLarnon Release Date: October 10, 2021 Review by Thomas Page Imagine, for a moment, if someone came up to you and asked you to draw a circle around where you lived. What would you include? Who would be within your circle? Now, imagine that person taking that map and throwing … Continue reading Review of New Shores by Ciaran J. McLarnon
Interview of Ciaran J. McLarnon
Interview by Thomas Page Interview took place on September 30th over Zoom PAGE: What inspired you to write this novel? MCLARNON: It started about six years as a short story. I didn’t have any idea that it would become a novel. I thought about it for about eighteen months. I wrote the first draft four … Continue reading Interview of Ciaran J. McLarnon
Crazophobia
By LKB Boe I coined a word today—crazophobia. Crazophobia is the fear of contracting a mental illness by being in close proximity to or touching a mentally ill person, or by hearing scary stories about the mentally ill. The common cure is to ridicule, ostracize, or otherwise demean the mentally ill person in order to … Continue reading Crazophobia
