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Mound Visit is the second place winner in the Autumn 2023 Quarterly Short Story Competition. I lit a fresh smoke and hand-cranked the window down a few inches, watching the smoke swirl at my dashboard, fighting for a way to escape into the morning air. The rain relentlessly pounded the roof of my Lincoln Town Car. I was willing to wait it out, I spotted puffy white clouds and blue skies in the distance. Only a passing storm. I flicked the growing pillar of ash onto the sidewalk as a singular fat drop of rain landed on the ember, extinguishing it. I lit...

Semper in Memoria is the second place winner in the Autumn 2023 Quarterly Short Story Competition There's this guy who lives over on Main Street in that old dilapidated blue cottage near the school. The one all covered in ivy. He and his wife bought it way back during the real estate boom of the early 20's. They overpaid of course; but they were happy. They had some small gripes that would cost them a small fortune to repair/replace over time, but who doesn't? They lived there for over 30 years until the wife passed recently. Since then, he's let the place go to...

Moment of Truth is the first place winner in the Autumn 2023 Quarterly Short Story Competition. Mama always said that folks who come to your front door are either sellers or needers. By her seasoned estimation, that particular portal offers a transactional relationship at best. She insists that it’s the folks who come to your back door that you should pay attention to. Case in point: my daddy. He came to her front door one day with a fine leatherette case of the latest edition of The World Book Encyclopedia, volumes M - T, and somewhere between “Mastodon'' and “Orophile,” she fell in...

Great Point is the third place winner in the Summer 2023 Quarterly Short Story Competition. A deafening clash of lightning illuminated Eric’s sleeping quarters through the tiny porthole on the trawler boat’s starboard side. As the storm pelted the hull, echoing through the cabin, Eric slept soundly. The waxing moon cast ominous shadows through a deluge of rain, making the bunk beds appear to be crying or bleeding. Eric’s arm hung from the top bunk. He bent his knees toward his chest, unable to stretch without slamming his foot into the bulkhead. The room was six feet by three feet, with bunks on...

If No One's Around to Hear it is the second place winner in the Summer 2023 Quarterly Short Story Competition.                 She wakes to a gushing that tells her the tide is high today. She knows this already but still, after all this time, the affirmation calms her. It tells her that she has not totally dissolved into her surroundings, that she still needs outside reminders of the ocean’s rhythm. That she is her and not the sea.                 “You hear that, bubs?” The orange tabby curls further into himself, bracing one paw against her face. “Wooooshhhh,” she mimics the blue noise. She...