- The Time of Miracles December 16, 2023
“It’s Christmas, Theo. It’s the time of miracles.
Russ shook his head and turned off the video. “Stupid move, Hans. You planned it all in too much detail. You had no flexibility. One New York cop with a gun, and your whole plan fell apart.”
- Hallowmas: Free Fiction for Fyretober November 1, 2023 November 1, 2023
The headless horse tumbled to a halt right in front of Wayne and Wanda in the middle of 28th St. As they watched, it became a headless red devil, a seven foot tall wooden statue in the middle of the road. That was no match for 28th St. traffic. An SUV and a Prius swerved ...
- Caladbolg: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 31, 2023 October 31, 2023
Wayne and Sean tore their eyes away from the scene before them. Wanda had recovered her composure to go try to care for Kevin; but once she got there, she just shook her head and looked at them.
Wayne looked at Sean. “So that’s it? The red devil gets away, and this all starts over again ...
- Saddle Up: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 30, 2023 October 30, 2023
Wayne dropped the bag of stirrups next to Wanda. Then he started pulling his other friends up near her, laying them one practically on top of another. If he could get them talking, he might hear clues to their nightmares; and if he used the Mathematics of Influence upon them, he might insinuate himself into ...
- Emil’s Last Words: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 29, 2023 October 29, 2023
Wayne peered out at Myra from under the table. “You haven’t… seen my crutches?”
Myra shook her head. “Nope. Were they part of your costume? A mummy on crutches?”
Wayne shook his head, grabbed the table top, and slid out from under the table. “No, just…” He looked around. “Just a bad joke. On me.” He pulled ...
- Pursuing the Wayfaring Cats: Free Fiction for Fyretober November 28, 2023 October 29, 2023
Crawling on his arms, his shoulders burning with the pain, Wayne struggled between the feet of the partiers, none of whom seemed to notice him. Of course they didn’t. Somewhere a puck was blinding them with the Mathematics of Influence.
He could clear their fogged brains, but only if he could stand up, look them in ...
- Cemetery World II: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 27, 2023 October 28, 2023
Wayne rolled to avoid getting stepped on by the Pushmi-Pullyu, but he failed. One of the rubber hooves caught him in the ribs, and he cried out. The people in the costume didn’t seem to notice. Then, worse, the other end of the Pushmi-Pullyu kicked his left crutch, sending it skidding under the doughnut case.
“No!” ...
- Lost in the Graveyard: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 26, 2023 October 27, 2023
The drive got progressively more tense as they went. Wayne admired his companions for their discipline: not a one spoke of what they saw and heard during the drive to the Galaxy. But Wayne could tell they were holding back. There were occasional sharp intakes of breath, muttered curses, and halting conversation starts the went ...
- Decision Time: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 25, 2023 October 26, 2023
Everyone stared at the now empty chair – everyone save Wayne. He looked around at all of the faces with their mix of shock and fear, and he said, “So what are we going to do?”
His wife looked up at him. “Do?”
“About the pucks, of course! How we going to stop them?”
Kevin paced over and ...
- Sanctuary: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 24, 2023 October 25, 2023
Kevin was still blinking the red flash out of his eyes when he heard Paula moaning. He turned back toward the house and tried to make out where her voice was coming from. He saw something moving in the bushes to the right of the porch, and he rushed over. “Paula, are you okay?”
She sat ...
- Three Attackers: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 23, 2023 October 24, 2023
Carol looked at the gravestone. “I wonder where they buried Gil.” Then she shook her head. “No, that’s not right, the authorities found his body.”
Wayne asked, “Gil?”
Wanda gripped his shoulder. “I’m sorry, hon, I forgot to tell you. He drowned in a fishing accident while you were in the coma.”
“Yeah,” Carol said. “Fishing accident.” She ...
- Worlds Collide October 23, 2023
Hubs pulled the black Rogue up to the curb between 2011 Resnick and 2015. “There ain’t nothin’ here, Wubs.”
“There’s something here,” Carol insisted. “Emil thought this address was important enough to leave it as a clue.”
“It’s just an empty stretch of road. There’s not even… There’s nothin’.”
Carol looked at her husband. “Why did you say ...
- Organized Chaos October 22, 2023
The annoying nurse, Wanda, was at Carol’s door. “Carol, you have a visitor.”
Carol resisted the urge to snap back. She really had no evidence that Wanda was connected to her accident, but she couldn’t shake the feeling. Wanda in the donut galaxy, Wanda at the crash site, Wanda in the hospital. Three times is enemy ...
- They Do It with Mirrors October 21, 2023
Wayne couldn’t stop grinning. Even if Wanda had to work and couldn’t be with him, he was determined to have his best day ever at his favorite place ever: the American Museum of Magic in Marshall.
Though if he were to be honest, visiting the museum would be a little easier without Wanda. He loved her ...
- What’s in the Box? Free Fiction for Fyretober October 19, 2023 October 20, 2023
Paula was distracted throughout her entire delivery route the next day. She missed five turns, putting her behind schedule from the first hour, and getting worse throughout the day. They were small things, but she was better than that, damn it! And these incidents would give Ben Schaefer an excuse to write her up for ...
- A Message from Carol: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 18, 2023 October 18, 2023
Excerpted from the Skëlëtön Crüe Writing Forum, October 15.
Kelly Goyer: Guys, has anyone heard from Carol?
Max Cook: No, and I’m beginning to get frantic.
Phillip Lawrence: I’ve started pricing flights to Michigan.
Kelly Goyer: Take a breath. It’s not that bad. I contacted her hubs, and he says she’s all right. She just has limited connectivity. But ...
- MVA: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 17, 2023 October 17, 2023
Wayne winced, giving out an involuntary cry of pain as his shoulders felt like he was a chicken being deboned. The door swung wide, practically dumping him to the ground.
Fortunately, Wanda was there to catch him. Always Wanda. What had he done to deserve her?
“Wayne, you ass! You should’ve waited for me.”
Wayne smiled up at ...
- Meet Me at the Galaxy: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 17, 2023 October 17, 2023
Paula Winn pulled her old green Chevy off of 28th St. and into the front parking lot of Myra’s Donut Galaxy. She usually parked out back, where it was less crowded, but not today. She wasn’t sure Kevin can take the walk.
She looked over at editor Kevin Fenton. The man looked pale, frail, and shaky. ...
- Cognitive Logic and the Mathematics of Influence: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 15, 2023 October 16, 2023
Myra felt the crush of déjà vu as she paced around her new office. It was more spacious and better furnished than her office aboard the Wotan-7 observation satellite had been, and the gravity was natural. There were subtle ways you could tell. But a cell is a cell is a cell.
And she was just ...
- A Death in Grand Rapids: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 14, 2023 October 15, 2023
Excerpted from the Skëlëtön Crüe Writing Forum, October 14.
Carol Scott: Guys, Grand Rapids is weird.
Max Cook: Well, of course. Emil lives there.
Phillip Lawrence: Would he live someplace that wasn’t weird?
Carol Scott: Ha, ha. Go for the easy joke, why don’t you?
Max Cook: Somebody has to, and Emil hasn’t been around to do it…
- Rendezvous, with Donuts: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 13, 2013 October 13, 2023
Wayne Hudson worked the latch of the passenger door of the van, this time with hardly any pain is at all. Then he swung the door open. That was a little worse, but it was still a small victory. He would take every one of those he could get.
Brutus the physical therapist – Wayne had ...
- The Sexton: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 12, 2023 October 13, 2023
Myra paced around her cell, fuming with every step and plotting her escape.
Officially it wasn’t a cell. Oh, no, it was The Office of the Archaeological Liaison for Project Gnat. And officially Myra was that liaison, the senior and most powerful archaeologist in the entire Wotan system as well as all the space within two ...
- A Package for the Editor: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 11, 2023 October 12, 2023
Paula Winn grumbled as she passed the old Victorian. Try as she might, she couldn’t not stare at it now. It was all she could do to keep her eyes on the road instead of looking for someone or something at the house.
That compulsion wasn’t part of the writer disease. Most people, maybe everybody, had ...
- Carol and the Skëlëtön Crüe: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 10, 2023 October 10, 2023
Excerpted from the Skëlëtön Crüe Writing Forum, October 1.
Carol Scott: Hey, Crüe, has anybody heard anything from Emil lately? He hasn’t pinged me in a while.
Kelly Goyer: Has he gone dark? Sorry, I’ve been nose down in my novel, so I haven’t been online a lot lately.
Max Cook: I’ve been off a bit, too, trying ...
- Reflecting the Unseen: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 9, 2023 October 10, 2023
The kittens were gone, and Luanna was furious!
But not foolish. She waited not a moment before diving to her left, rolling into a ball, springing forward into a corner, and cloaking herself in the wind. No physical attack would get through that, and magic other than hers was supposed to be abjured within her den.
Unless ...
- Dear Editor: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 8, 2023 October 9, 2023
The slush is… tamed.
Not defeated. My late mentor Paul Miller used to say, “The slush is never defeated. You can hold it at bay, but it always come back at you as long as you keep the doors open.” His late mentor, Leonard Sims, had taught him that back when they were editing Far Pioneers ...
- Above the Cemetery World: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 7, 2023 October 8, 2023
Myra leaned back in her chair, almost falling over in the process. The gravity had shifted again. “Carlin!”
“I’m on it, Myra,” the station engineer called from below.
“I don’t want you ‘on it,’ I want it fixed!”
“Hold on!”
That’s literally what she did, gripping the console and wrapping her feet around the footrest. The survey division had ...
- Reflections on Custard: Free Fiction for Fyretober, Day 6 October 7, 2023
Wendy pulled the van into the extra wide handicapped parking spot at Marge’s Donut Den. I tried for a joke. “Parking’s easier now.”
But the joke wasn’t that good, and Wendy didn’t have her sense of humor back yet. “There’s nothing easy about this, Wayne.”
I sighed. “I know. It was my accident, remember? I just… I ...
- On the Doorstep: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 5, 2023 October 6, 2023
Paula Winn settled back in the uncomfortable vinyl seat of the delivery van, and she let out along sigh. She looked at her dispatching app on her phone. It told her she had a whole thirty-seven seconds to catch her breath before she had to leave for the next stop. Paula was just tired enough ...
- Slow Answers: Free Fiction for Fyretober October 4, 2023 October 5, 2023
Myra was careful not to scuff her boots in the red-yellow leaves. Who knew what artifacts meant lie just beneath the thick cover? Archaeology was slow. Slow answers to slow questions. If you don’t take your time, you’re doing it wrong. She carefully lifted one foot at a time, and then lowered it cautiously, waiting ...
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