The Crawfish Boil
By Alvin G. Burstein
The sultry south Louisiana afternoon was buffered by the shade of tall pines and oaks that dominated the lot. Scattered under the trees were rough-hewn tables, eight foot long plywood panels supported by sawhorses that elevated them waist high. Clipped to the two holes in the center of each table, [...]

She was always there.
In the corner of the bar with her cigarette burning in her hand, her long and slender holder tapering at the end and oozing smoke like dry ice. Her legs tucked beneath her on the bar stool, the sheen of her stockings alight.
He would sit and watch her.
She had never glanced his [...]

Graham picked up the phone and smiled. This was one call to his mother he was going to enjoy. He didn’t, as a rule, like phoning home. The old bat said the same things every time, complaining about his job, his prospects – or lack thereof, his flat, his clothes, his hairstyle – or lack [...]

By Alvin G. Burstein
The psycho-analyst’s 3:10 patient was on the couch, reciting her usual litany. Bored, he looked at his watch. He brought his watch to his ear, hearing nothing. He looked at its face again. The second hand was moving.
With the litany as a backdrop, he began to think. Her dreams about a deaf [...]

If you don’t know Jim Harrington’s excellent “Six Questions” series of interviews, you should.
Below is the schedule of posts for June at http://sixquestionsfor.blogspot.com/.
6/01—Six Questions for Tom Dooley, Managing and Fiction Editor, Eclectica Magazine
6/03—Six Questions for Linda Manning, Managing Editor, Aurora Wolf Literary Journal
6/06—Six Questions for Jason Stuart, Editor & CEO, Burnt Bridge
6/09—Six [...]

PASSION IN VENICE

By Cormac Brown

A woman knows the face of the man she loves as a sailor knows the open sea.
-Honore de Balzac
They were mute as their oars cut through the water. The once vibrant streets of one of the world’s most beautiful cities were now thirty to fifty feet underwater. Along [...]

MISS ELLIOT AND THE ELDRITCH
Written and Illustrated by Laura Neubert
I lost consciousness at Thornfield and awoke in Millcote. My muscles burned, my bones felt as though they had been splintered, and when my eyes opened, they were scalded by the light. A groan was pulled from me as I returned to the waking world. That [...]

Miss Elliot and the Eldritch
Chapter 5
Written and Illustrated by Laura Neubert
I stumbled out onto the roof and looked about me. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness inside Thornfield; and when once more exposed to the light of day, they were pierced by the murky daylight and ached.   The wind was stronger here, with smoke [...]

Miss Elliot and the Eldritch
Chapter 4
Written and illustrated by Laura Neubert
Before dawn had broken I was gone. There were no alternatives for me. A strange, grandiose thing had beseeched me to come to it, and its distress was so intense that it had ransomed a child in order to persuade me
But even had there [...]

“Marriage!” I gasped.

“Yes Jane, marriage,” St. John repeated.

“I did not imagine that you were in want of a wife.”

His eyes held no desire or passion, no spark of adoration. He spoke of the matter as though it were a business transaction.