Quite the Life (and all in Times New Roman 10pt!)
Those wonderful and wise folks in charge of The Rabbit Hole anthologies honored my by including Rachel, Above the Clouds, While Flying in The Rabbit Hole Volume Four: Weird stories Special issue: Madness.
Read several authors’ work and enjoy.
Just read mine first.
And leave a glorious review.
Thanks.
Let me know what you think about this one. I share a first reader’s comments at the end of the piece.
Angie watched the old couple take booth 7. They sat on either side of the table, reached across and held hands.
She smiled. Limited income. Probably just got their checks. This is their big time out this month. Make ‘em smile. “Hi. I’m Angie. I’ll be helping you today. What can I start you with?”
The old couple smiled. They kept one hand out to each other.
The old man looked up, nodded. “Coffee. Extra cream, please.”
The old woman’s eyes smiled as she looked up. “Do you have ice tea?”
“Sweetened or unsweetened?”
“Unsweetened. I’ve got my own sugar right here.” The old woman patted the old man’s hand.
“Aw,” he said.
“Aw,” she said.
Angie returned with their drinks. The menus remained unopened on the table.
The old woman tipped a sugar packet into her tea and swirled it with her straw. “We know what we want.”
“Go ahead.”
“I’d like some homemade macaroni-and-cheese. Do you have that?”
Angie nodded, wrote the woman’s order, and looked at the old man.
“A meatloaf plate. Got one?”
“Sure do.”
The old man dumped two creamers in his coffee. “Met in a diner. Years ago. Saw your sign, stopped in.”
The old woman squeezed his hand. “Yes. Diners always have good, simple, stick to the ribs food. We have a long way ahead of us and don’t want to stop until we get there. That’s why we pulled in here.”
“Where you folks going?”
He sipped his coffee. “Reservoir. One town over.”
Angie drove a mental map. “That’s not far, is it?”
The old woman pointed out the window. “We want to be there at sunset, when the sun’s going over those mountains. All the colors of the mountains and setting sun reflect off the water.”
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They often say that there’s no place like home. I would often agree to this, except for the times where the job makes me want to wish I was somewhere else. The case of the Kuchisake-onna is one of those times.
The above is from Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 8 (the famous “No Dragons” issue). You can read the rest of Peter James Martin’s Kuchisake-onna On Teesside along with several other amazing stories between its captivating covers (and we both hope you do!)
Follow Peter James Martin on Twitter.
Have you been Harveyed?
The kind, wise, and wonderful folks at Sixth Element Publishing included four of my flash pieces in Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 8 and I’m repaying that kindness by showcasing the opening from each author’s work for the last few weeks.
Read
Enjoy!
Zara crouched down behind the pile of crates on the airship’s deck, the wind fiercely whipping at her blonde hair, making her wish she was inside the body of the ship with the other passengers, not out here in the dark night at the mercy of the elements. Her fingertips were turning white where she clutched at the metal rim of the container, fiercely holding on, knowing it was her only choice. This was the only way she got to live.
The above is from Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 8 (the famous “No Dragons” issue). You can read the rest of Melissa Wuidart Phillips’s The Rainbow Has Many Colours along with several other amazing stories between its captivating covers (and we both hope you do!)
Watch Mellisa Wuidart Phillips’s amazing short film (3m19s) Unbroken and listen to her internet radio work on Chapel FM.
Have you been Harveyed?
The kind, wise, and wonderful folks at Sixth Element Publishing included four of my flash pieces in Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 8 and I’m repaying that kindness by showcasing the opening from each author’s work for the last few weeks.
Read
Next up, a taste of Peter James Martin’s Kuchisake-onna On Teesside.
Enjoy!
“Hendricks? He’s dead, I believe. Murdered, if I recall correctly, a month ago. By members of his own coven, or so I am told.”
This was a reasonable summing up of the facts. Which is to say, to the best of my knowledge that Jacob Hendricks, third Earl of Cleethorpes and mediocre occultist, was indeed deceased. As such, until any evidence to the contrary was presented, I laboured under the assumption that this was indeed the case. One does not as a rule presume notices of death in The Times obituary column to be falsehoods.
It is The Times, after all.
The above is from Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 8 (the famous “No Dragons” issue). You can read the rest of Mark Hayes’s Mandrake along with several other amazing stories between its captivating covers (and we both hope you do!)
Have you been Harveyed?
The kind, wise, and wonderful folks at Sixth Element Publishing included four of my flash pieces in Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 8 and I’m repaying that kindness by showcasing the opening from each author’s work for the next few weeks.
Read
Next up, a taste of Melissa Wuidart Phillips’s The Rainbow Has Many Colours.
Enjoy!