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Melanin and the Pink Tube
Fiction by Sudha Subramanian Janice’s cries slice through the hardwood even before I knock. It is a frosty November morning, and the ten-year-old’s screech, spattered with words, is thawing the frigid air in the foyer. I slip my hand into the bag to feel the edge of the plastic tube, and my toes trace the…
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There’s No Stopping Time
A Review of Chris McGinley’s Once These Hills by Ashley Holloway Set in 1898, Chris McGinley’s rural noir saga Once These Hills introduces the reader to life in eastern Kentucky on Black Boar Mountain, a world relatively untouched by modernization. Until things change. Right from the beginning, the reader senses the strength and fierceness of…
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One Hundred Percent of the Time
Fiction by Rob D. Smith Maria Jaworski slid the Styrofoam container containing spinach ricotta pierogies across the window counter to her last customer of the evening. He was always her last customer. “Did you hear about the fire last night at the Parelli’s?” Eugene Mitchum leaned his beefy forearms across the food truck counter. “Never…
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The Savages of Civilization
A review of Gabrielle Filteau-Chiba’s Feral by John Yohe Gabriëlle Filteau-Chiba has exploded out of Quebec and into the francophone world in recent years, with a “triptych” of bestselling novels. The first, Encabenée, debuted in 2018, while her third novel Bivouac was published in Quebec in 2021 and France in 2022. The English translation of…
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Healthy Habits: Not What You Might Think
By VALERIE PERALTA I confess. On my journey to exercise consistently and eat what I should more often than not, I often focus more energy on exercise than nutrition. Yes, it’s easier for me to run five miles than it is for me to resist a double chocolate brownie smothered in hot fudge sauce and…
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Some Trouble Next Door
Fiction by Craig Rodgers The dogs won’t stop tonight. They’re barking, they’re yipping. The sound of their bodies hitting the fence with some force comes and comes again. Andrew turns the blinds but he sees only streetlight falling onto the road. He thinks, maybe I’ll go over there. He thinks, shut those dogs up. He…
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Country Craft: Look Up
Remember the Big Picture in Revisions By Stuart Phillips About a hundred feet down a gentle slope from our house stands the remnants of a small orchard from the 1800s. When we moved in, all that remained were five apple trees, branches so tangled from years of neglect they were almost barren. I pruned them…
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Abandoned
Fiction by Zachary Kocanda I joined a lot of Facebook groups after Theresa got sick. Our daughter Katie helped me download the app on my phone. It took an hour, but I did it. First, I joined a group for spouses of cancer patients, then a group where folks chatted about growing up during the…
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The Nitty Gritty Interview with Dan Crawley
By Charlotte Hamrick Recently, I read Blur written by Dan Crawley and published by Cowboy Jamboree Press. One of the many things I loved about this collection of Flash Fiction is the strong character-driven narratives. Each character has a distinct voice and a distinct story to tell. Whether it’s a Micro of few words or…
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A Stranger Selling J-Cloths
Fiction by Susan Carey I dream of it often. Haynes Farm. The pebble-dashing on the outside walls of the farmhouse was done by a cowboy builder and after a few months the white layer cracked off in big chunks revealing the house’s bare skin. I imagined the house was embarrassed, like a woman opening the…