40 DAYS + 40 WRITES — FLASH FICTION

“So, that thing is permanent?” asked Solomon, the piano man, pointing at the flat, silvery round disk that his producer was holding. “It’s virtually …

So sorry. My permanent record has been ruined. As we got to the end, I simply couldn't write anymore. Not sure why. Thinking I will miss you all.…

Robin knew that the “permanent record” was often wrong. Even birth certificates and death certificates were filled with inaccurate information. Grave…

Originally a grimoire was painstakingly constructed. Botanicals collected, old papers shredded, boiled, and blessed. The botanicals were laced into t…

"I saw Mom and Dad today. They are doing fine." My brother has just texted me photos of my parents' shared gravestone; my dad on one si…

Her attempts to achieve something were interrupted by her father telling her that women never achieved anything. His attempts to make love were inter…

Brian is sitting at the keyboard staring at the screen. He can hear the ticking of the clock. He can hear the dehumidifier turning on downstairs. He …

Writing and art are always interrupted by life. Today was no exception. To be continued… — Mugsy

Jon had been thinking about this for a while, he pulled out his best pen, and sheet of crisp paper and began: Dear Moira, First, I want to than…

“Ебать,” she thought. She had put up with his bullshit for almost four years, and now they were denying her citizenship. She had been very careful to…

Four adults in the pool enjoying a sunny California day with the fourteen-month-old toddler boy. The grandparents were enthralled with their first gr…

As the youngest of six, I always felt submerged under the ebb and flow of my older siblings activities. My senses were overwhelmed by their blasting …

The ring was too big and now it was gone somewhere in the tide flats. The extensive tide flats of North Beach were like a primordial brine soup in th…

As she thrashed the covers to surface from the dream, Daniel, reached out patted her a few times and rolled over snoring. It was a recurring dream of…

Lenette was the fortunate one. Being three years younger than her sister, Marjorie, meant the path had been cleared. Marjorie served as the parents’ …

Jimmy Ray was a Langley. His ma, pa, and his eight brothers and sisters was all Langley's. His clan had been around for a long time - probably si…

“Where the hell did you get those boots?!” Jamie was shocked to see her little sister Bobbie about to leave the house in black thigh-high leather boo…

Tom had always had issues with his feet. His feet had been operated on, put in casts, been braced, etc. It was an endless source of focus for him. A…

Twila Winters dressed to the nines. She was blessed with legs that went all the way to the floor, and she strutted in four in red stilettos. Her blac…

"How am I supposed to pee?" she wondered. She knew standing was involved, and the toilet seat should be up, but what should she do with her…

Everyone preached preparedness. There was even a day when hundreds of volunteers took half a day off to play dead or injured to test the first respon…

Buddy was eighty now. Marjorie had written to him when he was an infantryman during the mid-60’s. He was technically her second cousin, but he looked…

“Van Leeuwenhoek was a distant cousin of mine,” my student Barry Brooks claimed at the start of a private meeting with me about his failing grade in …

Dear Cousin Wes, I’m your cousin Mindy’s daughter, not sure what that makes us in the “removeds” but somehow we’re still related. I would have writte…

Until 5 years ago, I had no idea who Corrine Kelly was. She is now the only cousin I have ever met. She is a portal into my past and a friend of our …

Mavis wasn't sure how they were related. He was a little mop of a boy, spindly with hair that stuck out in spikes and skin a deathly pale as if…

I’m looking to buy a car. Not just any car, but a car in which I can make my escape. This means that the vehicle must be able to break relatively fre…

Lost: Two metal round chimes connected by a leather cord, left at Legion Park in North Everett around July 18th. These chimes are filled with my own …

“Seal all the boxes and put ‘em on Craig’s List,” her son-in-law stated. “ But what about her poetry, short stories, plays and all the artifacts? The…

Abby did the only thing she could think of. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I just remembered a story my aunt told me–about a client who died and she …

“I’m not sleeping in there! It’s disrespectful!” Fran was adamant, at least as adamant as it was possible to be after three beers. She was ready to c…

Free to a good home: Grandma I don’t take up much room. I don’t eat much. I pick up after myself. I can make you soup if you’re feeling poorly, I bak…

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Staying in a millionaire’s guesthouse was a lot like staying in a very exclusive resort. So exclusive that you saw no guests or staff, and sometimes …

Margaret had been married for sixty-three years to a man she once loved but had forgotten why. “Mom, is there anything I can get you,” her daughter i…

It stank. Apparently, Texas smelled of barbeque sauce everywhere. Expensive hotel or tenement, same odor. The air reeked. Business trip. Husband took…

About 20 people were at the internment for Pearl. Close family, mostly. A few people from the Parish, though Pearl didn’t attend church in her later …

Roger had specified, "No church service, no preacher who doesn't know who the hell I am. Have me cremated and throw my ashes in the backyard…