 Solid Joe's Trombone by Mike Phillips. Mike grew up on a small farm in west Michigan. In addition to hard work and responsibility, his father gave him a very special gift. Each year during summer vacation, the television, affectionately referred to as "The Idiot Box", was turned off. This meant that when not tending sheep, mending fences, gardening, building furniture, chopping wood, or goofing off, Mike’s summers were spent reading. In memory of all the wonderful stories and things he didn’t understand at the time, Mike hopes that through his writing he can, in some small way, share this gift with others. Mike was previously published in the Fall 2007 issue of Midnight Times.
It was a dark day and the rain that fell from the heavens seemed to weep the passing of a good man. They came to his side, all the people of the little community... (continued)
An Alternative to Reality by Rob McLean. Rob graduated from Creighton University in 2005. He works as a freelance journalist and a proofreader for a publishing company.
Martin Wilton sat at his desk and turned on his computer. The hum of the machine soothed his soul like a lullaby. For now everything was better... (continued)
Charlotte's Cove by Scott T. Barnes. Scott grew up on a farm and studied Journalism and Spanish at California State University Fresno and business at the Claremont Graduate University. He has worked in a number of domains, including marketing, software sales, and teaching English as a foreign language in France. His short fiction has appeared in Bewildering Stories and The Lamp-Post, Literary Journal of the C.S. Lewis Society. He self published an oral history of his grandmother, and now spends half his time writing fiction and the other half working on his family’s farm. More of his work can be found at www.scotttbarnes.com (three ts).
We skirted the Mi’Kmaq graveyard and cut through a briar hedge rather than take Fool’s Chance Lane and risk being seen... (continued)
Group by Michael S. McGuire. Michael McGuire works as a developer for a major American investment bank in Manhattan. He is previously unpublished, and resides in New York City with his fiancee, Anne, and their cats, Shay and Fionn. Together they host seasonal wine and cheese parties.
I was overcome by the uncomfortable familiarity of anxiety-meets-relief as I entered the room. As usual, the others were sitting in a semi-circle in metal folding chairs, watching at me as I walked over to the lone empty seat... (continued)
Pain by Kevin Crawford. By day, Kevin Crawford works at a Pepsi bottling plant in Purchase, New York where he shares a cramped apartment with his girlfriend and her pet cat. By cover of night he stocks his home refrigerator with various sodas including Coca-cola, which he secretly enjoys much more than the product produced by his employer.
Brick Warren was in pain. The ache crawled across the surface of his skin, embedded itself in his pores, soaked its way to his heart and poisoned his blood... (continued)
|
SPECIAL FEATURE:
THE NAOMI CLARK INTERVIEW
Author of "Painless"
Friday by Rik Hunik. Rik is a half a century old. He builds houses to earn a living, but has written dozens of fantasy stories, including horror, sword & sorcery, mystery, humor, erotica, and science fiction, and frequently combines genres. Thirteen of Rik's stories have been published or accepted for publication in small press magazines and e-zines. He is currently working on his third novel, an alternate history fantasy mystery. Rik was previously published in the Summer 2007 issue of Midnight Times.
"Why can’t you just leave me alone, doc?" Valentine Biggs could tell right away that the woman was a head doctor. "I must’ve told my story a dozen times already"... (continued)
The Silence by D. L. Olson. A descendant of Norwegian homesteaders, D. L. Olson grew up in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, and earned a bachelor's and two master's degrees at UW-Madison. Following a stint in the U.S. Army as a top-secret Russian translator in Cold War Germany, he became a professional librarian at Ohio University. Since 1994, he has published twenty-seven stories in journals such as The Cream City Review, Eureka Literary Magazine, Ginosko, The Green Hills Literary Lantern, Green’s Magazine, Mobius, Toasted Cheese, Wild Violet, and Yemassee.
Awashhh-shhhh. Awashhh-shhhh. Again and again the waves made that soothing sound, as they imperceptibly swept away the skinny beach. Despite the rising heat, Jason Hartley was shivering..." (continued)
A Bottle of Poison or a Hand in the Box by Melissa Sihan Mutlu. Melissa started her writing career at the age of eight when she won her first writing contest. By high school she took an interest in the horror and supernatural genres. She spent eight years at Oakland University in the study of molecular biology and English, the latter being her preference. Melissa has written a full length novel entitled Mephestopheles, and is currently working on her second one, which is named The Cult of Grange Dyer.
The town of Sacharyn was located in the country of Devastis. The district of Gastûsck was the poorest district in Sacharyn. A dirt path, forty feet wide separated two rows of dwellings... (continued)
A Voice Among Echoes by Jeremy S. Adams. Jeremy is a high school government and economics teacher as well as a part-time college political science lecturer. He lives in Bakersfield, California with his wife and two daughters. His favorite authors include Leo Tolstoy, Ian McEwan, and Milan Kundera. Jeremy's fiction has previously appeared in publications such as The Writer's Post Journal, Storyteller, and Bewildering Stories, and he says he is "honored and grateful to add Midnight Times to the list."
My brother, Reggie, only wrote in the fury of what our mother called "sublime inspiration." Afterwards, he rarely remembered what he had written,... (continued)
|
