Short Fiction Break News!

Short Fiction Break

At the first of every month, we take a quick break from sharing short stories to talk about what is happening in the Short Fiction Break community. Events in the writing lives of our Regular Contributors and Alumni are below. If you are an SFB reader, we want to know what is going on with you too. Leave us a link to work you are proud of in the comments.

SFB Senior Editor Bob Moulesong has entered into a publishing agreement with Penlt Publications, a small press publisher located in Indiana. They have agreed to publish three of Bob’s children’s books. The series will be titled The Adventures of Rugs. The theme of the series is designed to help youngsters (2-5) accept others who may have their own internal issues to deal with (ADHD, fears, insecurities, or self-esteem issues to name a few). Bob started the series for his grandchildren…

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One with the Water by Leanne Howard

Short Fiction Break

We are excited to bring you the 3rd place winner of the Becoming Writer Anniversary Contest.

For a long time she sat on the river bank and waited.

A pale-grey moon crept up, growing full against the dark sky. Willow trees stood silhouetted on the far bank of the river with their arms stretched out toward her, pleading like strung-out junkies. She began to shiver; she was only wearing a thin, cotton nightgown but she was barely conscious of the cold. Her gaze was fixed on the water in front of her.

She had made a decision. She didn’t want to be tired and sad anymore. It was time. She stood and picked out a tentative path down the bank to the river’s edge. With each step the sand gave way a little beneath her bare feet, leaving delicate, damp imprints in the dark.

The water was shockingly cold around…

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The Master Tailor by Leigh Dolinger

Short Fiction Break

We are pleased to bring you the 2nd place winner in the Becoming Writer Anniversary Contest. In 1977, Leigh (Leah) Dolinger moved to Israel from Cleveland, Ohio, where she became active in children’s education and literature. Along with raising her family and teaching, Leigh wrote for Olomeinu (“Our World”), a monthly Jewish school publication where she was a staff writer for almost 30 years, ending her work with them shortly before the magazine’s final year in 2008. She has also been published by FACES – Cricket Media, Feldheim Publishers (A Very Special Yarmulke), The Judaica Press (Baba Sali), and Jr. Mishpacha, a Jewish family weekly.  She is a member of SCBWI. Presently, she teaches English Language Literature and Creative Writing for ESL Baccalaureate candidates. Her work includes fiction, non-fiction and poetry, spanning pictures-books to adult material; no sci-fi, no fantasy, no sex, no hate and no violence. “Life is intense, enough.”

He was a master…

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In Memory of Flight by Bethany Gotschall

Short Fiction Break

We are pleased to bring you the winner of the Becoming Writer Anniversary Contest. 

Bethany Corriveau Gotschall is a museum educator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, where she coordinates public programs that include everything from lectures to fashion shows. She has written several articles for the museum’s magazine Cleveland Art and contributed the chapter “A Spectrum of Experience: Coordinating Interpretive Programs for Adults” to Interpreting the Art Museum, published in 2015 by MuseumsEtc. Bethany has recently begun writing fiction again, focusing on short stories and a science fiction novel. She also enjoys playing the cello, drawing, and cooking. You can find her on Twitter at @bethanyinCLE.

There’s a tickle in my nose from Mrs. Easton’s perfume. If I were to sneeze right now, I’d spray about sixteen thousand dollars’ worth of diamonds with a cavalcade of snot. There would be something wonderfully Duchampian about that, but the reference would probably…

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On Writing – Zombies

Today’s SFB blog comes from guest author Carla lee Suson.

Poetic Pause (a sonnet)

Today our SFB website expands to include poetry. Here’s our first poetic post.

Short Fiction Break

Silently screaming, slowly straining my
Soul. Tears of loss, fears of thoughts, steers to Cross.
Pleading pleas repeatedly. “Please reply!”
Silence precedes, death ties my noose in knots.
The rope, his claws, I let them grip my skin.
Chokingly, brokenly I run from fate,
From life, loss, love. I’m not magnificent.
I loved them too much, too little, too late.
Follow my sentence, I need your presence.
Hold my defense against sense in suspense.
Your light, your laugh, lifts my lopsided brain.
Sans you I sink slowly in sea, insane.
My heart rips as I poetically pause.
For with love comes death, writing is the cause.

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Resolve to Write

For 2016, resolve to write.