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THE THINGS I ALWAYS DO | Fiction by Benjamin Porter
I clean Grandpa before I clean the rooms. This makes it easier—to get it out of the way. Maybe it means I hate him, or I’m just chicken shit. Either way it has to be done quick, like setting a joint in one pull. Saw that once back in high school at a match where…
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THE PREACHER MAN | Fiction by Kimberli McWhirter
It’s not much of a town. Not many would dispute my word on that. Hardly qualifies as a wide spot in the road. But it’s home. Got some good people, some bad ones, some sittin’ on the fence ones, depending on who’s watching. And it’s pretty enough, in the way things usually are, if you…
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The Nitty Gritty Interview with Andrew K. Clark
By Charlotte Hamrick Where Dark Things Grow by Andrew K. Clark (Cowboy Jamboree Press, 2024) was a surprising and immersive read. Surprising because it was not what I thought it would be, which was a horror novel. It was much more, a step into a magical, mythical, yet gritty world set in The Great Depression…
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RADIO SILENCE | Fiction by Holly Hilliard
When I heard the news about Jackson Cole, I couldn’t stop thinking about the summer I turned sixteen—the summer I got a job at Cole’s Resort. I wasn’t hired as a lifeguard since I never passed any sort of certification test, but on busy days, my boss would wink and send me out to the…
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THE FRACTURED MIRROR: November Remembers
By EDWARD KARSHNER This was supposed to be a Halloween column about pumpkin spice, witches, and ghosts. Folklore teaches that life is unpredictable and we must learn to pivot when confronted by the unimaginable, like hurricanes in the mountains or a vile creature returning from the past “nursing a hard grievance” toward the drēam (Old…
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THINGS THAT ADD UP | Fiction by Elizabeth Murphy
Mama expected a boy, lo and behold got me, called me Paddy, short for Patrick. She was like that, determined to have things her way, not caring about the troubles she was inflicting on me. As if the name wasn’t trouble enough, she sent me to school at age four. I was the runtiest runt…
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HEALTHY HABITS: Move With a Purpose
By Valerie Peralta On my first day of acting class, the instructor asked my classmates and me – a hodgepodge of millennials and Gen-Xers – “What is acting?” After nodding to responses such as “a portrayal” and “a group of characters bringing a story to life,” Gail answered her own question: “Acting is action.” I…
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EVERYTHING IS JUST ABOUT THE SAME | Fiction by John Bovio
Amsterdam lights the shadow. That dark part of your soul. The winds off the North Sea cut to the bone. Can eat you alive. This city rages like a destructive and unpredictable fire. The people who come to Amsterdam and lack the good sense to leave usually are sent home. Sometimes breathing. After I killed…