Holiday Delights
The landfills cry out as last year’s gifts reach them.
The Earth is dying from the waste!
Abandoned toys weep as they melt into mush.
Christmas with Rita: Sip and Be Merry Tea Review
The instant the tea arrived, I headed to the kitchen, turned on the kettle, and waited for the bubbles. Lifting the lid of the tea tin, I knew instantly that delicate Christmas-y delight lay in store for my soul. Sip and Be Merry from the Republic of Tea could only offer all I had hoped for…
Welcome Back
Did you see anyone in the afterlife? Did my Daddy, your dad and Andy shove you back to earth? Did they bar your entrance into Glory?
Emylle on Wheels – Episode #3
In this comic, Emylle, our heroine, who’s a woman in a wheelchair, with short, curly in waits at the bus stop. A large bear stands beside her.
The bear notices Emylle and sits down, starting a conversation by saying, “Are you in school?”
Epiphany
She liked fruit, especially peaches, but this one unnerved her, the sinister-looking stem seemed to be searching her out. She stared back at the periscopic pedicle of the soft, rounded fruit expecting a salvo of gunfire, but with a distinct crack, the peach exploded in a messy, fleshy burst of light. Silence.
Quarterly Issues
Submissions open for Issue 3, Volume 1: Unknown & Unseen. Submissions close Dec 31, 2022.
August 18, 2023
You weren’t in the casual class pictures that we took from time to time, or so I thought. You were not friends with my friends. I don’t think you had any, really. But I was at the front each time. And yet, somehow, I met you one day.
August 16, 2023
As a history fan, I thoroughly enjoyed the honest, in-depth historical setting, details, and experiential ways of life depicted in the book. Other history fans, particularly of the medieval period, will enjoy these elements as well. These historical pieces come into vivid clarity through Swanson’s writing in ways that non-historians could never offer.
August 15, 2023
May you find encouragement to face your own trials, commiserate in your own struggles, and generally just enjoy these works by the gifted authors and artists the world over.
August 12, 2023
August 11, 2023
Laid on the cold ground, eyes upon the stars, she held still.
If she didn’t exhale that breath and inhale another, everything could end….
August 10, 2023
…I was concerned about anyone in my department seeing my child anywhere near my classroom, but I hoped that I was close enough to the parking lot that no one would notice the late exchange…
August 7, 2023
Some books on these topics are dry, others difficult to read because of the intense content. However, Arthur Riley helps the reader welcome the discussion on these challenging topics through the beautiful wording and deeply personal, but somehow not overwhelming, insights of her own.
August 5, 2023
She lived in a street opposite “the cliffs,” which when I’ve been there since, weren’t cliffs at all…
August 4, 2023
Opening the classroom door, thirty pairs of wary eyes watched her quietly walk over to the teacher to introduce herself. Her gaze focussed on the floor. She wished she were invisible. Who is this stranger? Is she a new girl?
July 30, 2023
Dots align in constellations. Meaning makes its way out of my maelstrom and onto the page, legible and lithe. I believe I was hand-placed in this particular sky. I believe I will never forget again.
July 29, 2023
But perhaps it was the same with the dinosaurs everything going but without our knowing…
July 28, 2023
Vishnu knew that the prolonged pandemic had changed everything. His favourite – and the city’s best – football grounds had now become a den for poisonous reptiles and insects.They easily hid within the thickets of three-feet-high barnyard- and spear grass, and the tiny white-flowered parthenium.
July 27, 2023
I’ve had and loved cats of many colors and patterns, but my heart will always be most captive to the black ones: To their elegance, to their uniqueness within the seeming uniformity, and to the memories they evoke of those now gone. In history and in the now, black cats reign supreme.
July 24, 2023
Birch Point Lake Park is the perfect place in Maine to enjoy your favorite food truck and a day playing in the sun. Unfortunately, a rash of murders overwhelm the beloved trucks upending the lives of families now desperately determined to clear their names while clinging to their faith. Death by Food Truck mixes, bakes, and serves four faith-based cozy mysteries as the perfect palate cleanser for your next night curled on the couch.
July 23, 2023
I’m usually someone who sees the perpetrator within the first chapter but it took me much longer (almost to the end!) in Murder With Earl Grey Tea, which took me by surprise. Cozy mysteries rarely keep me wondering, which I found truly delightful.
July 22, 2023
Increasing the length of your shifts by an extra hour on a Monday with next to no notice…
July 21, 2023
I was standing in the aisle during altar call, the part of the service where people came forward to repent and pray. I felt a pull on my shoulder. I turned to see the pastor’s wife reaching up to talk to me…
July 17, 2023
The words wound their way around my soul so that I needed to read them to my husband. It became a series of poetry readings no one asked for, but I couldn’t help performing.
July 16, 2023
The story is only a part of the story. It only thrives if the world built under it can stand in the face of your readers’ scrutiny.
July 15, 2023
I’d ask so many questions.Tell me again about your mother Lily. Was she Mohawk or Shawnee?