Today, a story by the excellent Arthur H. Manners. Dark, yes, but with a beautiful thread of hope.
Woodsong – Flash Fiction Online
It hit me last night, as a chorus of woodsong filled our hiding spot: we’re never getting out of here.
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Posts Tagged ‘short stories’
Expect Reckless Posting
Posted in Funny, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2025, food, free reads, short stories, Thoughts on January 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I’ll be working on a cake recipe this weekend, and I’m thinking about it now. As I mentally work my way through possible iterations and prepare to release this recipe into the world (or at least the personal archive that is this blog), I’m thinking of this funny piece:
Look, I get it. You thought what you posted was innocuous. Still, did you stop to think about everyone who has ever lived and how it could make them feel?
I mean, it’s cake and not chili, but no, no I did not.
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Legend Reads Legend
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, alice-munro, Fiction, goals, inspiration, short stories, the greats, Writers, writing on May 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »
You may have seen that Canadian author and Nobel laureate Alice Munro passed away this week. A prolific titan of the short story genre, she published her first story in 1950 and continued to produce award-winning work in the many decades since. When asked how she got started in short stories, she said it was because that’s all she had time for.
She certainly made it work.
Here, award-winning Canadian author Margaret Atwood reads Dance of the Happy Shades by Alice Munro.
In this exclusive recording, The Handmaid’s Tale author reads the eponymous short story from the late Munro’s first collection in 1968.
If you’d like to read more of Munro’s work, here are 25 Alice Munro Stories You Can Read Online Right Now.
Enjoy!
“A story is not like a road to follow … it’s more like a house. You go inside and stay there for a while, wandering back and forth and settling where you like and discovering how the room and corridors relate to each other, how the world outside is altered by being viewed from these windows. And you, the visitor, the reader, are altered as well by being in this enclosed space, whether it is ample and easy or full of crooked turns, or sparsely or opulently furnished. You can go back again and again, and the house, the story, always contains more than you saw the last time. It also has a sturdy sense of itself of being built out of its own necessity, not just to shelter or beguile you.”
― Alice Munro, Selected Stories
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The Nebula Award Finalists
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, awards, books, Clarkesworld, genre fiction, inspiration, Nebula Awards, short stories, Uncanny, Writers, writing on March 22, 2024| 1 Comment »
Fun, new reading recommendations! SFWA Announces the Finalists for the 59th Nebula Awards – SFWA
Here are links to the short story and novelette finalists. Most are free to read. For the full list with info links (including those below), see Finalists for the 59th Nebula Awards | MetaFilter.
Nebula Award for Novelette
- “A Short Biography of a Conscious Chair,” Renan Bernardo (Samovar)
- “I Am AI,” Ai Jiang (Shortwave) — Goodreads / StoryGraph
- “The Year Without Sunshine,” Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny)
- “Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down The Moon,” Angela Liu (Clarkesworld)
- “Saturday’s Song,” Wole Talabi (Lightspeed)
- “Six Versions of My Brother Found Under the Bridge,” Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny)
Nebula Award for Short Story
- “Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont,” P.A. Cornell (Fantasy)
- “Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200,” R.S.A. Garcia (Uncanny)
- “Window Boy,” Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld)
- “The Sound of Children Screaming,” Rachael K. Jones (Nightmare)
- “Better Living Through Algorithms,” Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld)
- “Bad Doors,” John Wiswell (Uncanny)
I read this delightful short by R.S.A. Garcia with lunch: Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200 – Uncanny Magazine
You could meet him if you want but take off the recorder first. I tell you my story, but you have to ask him if you want to hear his.
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The T-4200, Take Two
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Escape Pod, evil ice cream carts, free fiction, genre fiction, more weaponized food, scifi, sff, short stories, speculative fiction, Writers, writing on February 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I have mentioned a story called “The T-4200” on this site in posts before. Originally published at Andromeda Spaceways Magazine in 2017 (yay), it was not available online (so sad!).
Until now.
That’s right, the good folks at Escape Pod looked at this goofy sci-fi adventure featuring a beleaguered civil servant just trying to do the right thing, dimension-hopping animals, and murderous ice cream carts and said, “Yes, please.”
(Fine, I may have added the “please.”)
The thing about Escape Pod is that they are an audio magazine. Because they also publish the transcript, this story (all 9,000 or so words of it), is now available in both audio and text formats.
Which means that you, fair reader (or listener!) are now able to sample the delights of this story for yourself.
Enjoy the audio performance or read the transcript at Escape Pod.
Escape Pod 923: The T-4200 (Part 1 of 2)
Escape Pod 924: The T-4200 (Part 2 of 2)
- Author (that’s me!): J.R. Johnson
- Narrator: J. S. Arquin
- Host: Valerie Valdes
- Audio Producer: Adam Pracht
I had a great time with this story. Hope you do too!
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Endless Possibilities
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #wotf39, free fiction, genre fiction, short stories, Writers, Writers of the Future, writing on January 31, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Today, I’m happy to share a lovely short story from friend and fellow Writers of the Future alum Elaine Midcoh.
Papa’s (Not) Gone – MetaStellar
Later, people wondered why I didn’t cry.
It cheered me up. I hope it does you, too.
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What We Can Become
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, free fiction, future, genre fiction, hope, inspiration, short stories, Writers on January 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Released today, Grist’s Imagine 2200 contest brings new, more hopeful, visions of the future.
Imagine 2200: The 2024 climate fiction contest collection | Grist
Grist’s Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors short story contest celebrates stories that offer vivid, hope-filled, diverse visions of climate progress. From 1,000 submissions, our reviewers and judges selected the three winners and nine finalists you will discover in this collection. These stories are not afraid to explore the challenges ahead, but offer hope that we can work together to build a more sustainable and just world. Through rich characters, lovingly sketched settings, and gripping plots, they welcome you into futures that celebrate who we are and what we can become — and, we hope, inspire you to work toward them.
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I Like Fun
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, free fiction, genre fiction, Jessie Mihalik, short stories, Writers, writing on February 28, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Jessie Mihalik, author of several series I enjoy, is putting out a short new serial called Books & Broadswords. As she says, “It’s strictly just for fun. :)”
Here’s the link to Chapter 1.
I set the royal mark on the counter, and the merchant’s eyes glowed, first with greed, then regret. “I can’t make change for that,” he murmured, his gaze on the gold coin. “You’ll need to go to the bank.”
“I don’t want change,” I replied quietly, trying to keep the barely contained excitement out of my voice. “I want books.”
Well, that seems like a fine start. Follow along online, and enjoy!
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Way to Go, Grandma
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, creativity, Fiction, free fiction, genre fiction, Marissa Lingen, Nature's Futures, short stories, writing on January 14, 2023| Leave a Comment »
For today’s bit of fun, here’s a Nature‘s Futures story by Marissa Lingen: So your grandmother is a starship now- a quick guide for the bewildered.
Your grandmother is becoming a starship! She has gone through many phases in her life already — infant, child, teenager, young adult, student, worker, in many cases spouse, parent, retiree. She has had hobbies like knitting, volleyball and carbon mitigation. She has travelled in planetary atmosphere whenever her circumstances allowed. Now she is uploading her consciousness into a starship! The circle of life is beautiful.
I am now going to imagine that my grandmother is a spaceship.
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When Sharing Isn’t Caring
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, creativity, drabble, Drabble Dabble Do, Fiction, inspiration, short stories, Thoughts, writing on December 3, 2021| Leave a Comment »
As mentioned the other day, I recently read a book starring interesting and complex retirees.* It got me thinking, and now I have a new drabble.
Enjoy!
When Sharing Isn’t Caring
There’s a lot to be said for the “sharing economy.”
My granddaughter DeeDee introduced me to the idea. Say, if you need to cleanup around the yard but don’t have all the tools. Because the neighbor is kicking up a fuss (and poor Mr. Kittikins), wasting Saturdays complaining about trees overhanging his fence.
And the things you can borrow these days!
Order up a tool here or there, pay a reasonable delivery fee and voila, the item comes right to your doorstep.
Like this nice policeman.
“Such terrible news about the neighbor. And no, officer, I don’t own an ax.”
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* Disclaimer: I also happen to be related to a number of interesting and complex individuals of a certain age, but they are in no way associated with mysteries or mayhem!
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