Otherside Gigs, an excerpt by Sandy Maren

“Girl, you look beat.”  Abraham’s freckled hands paused their whittling, and his ice-colored eyes slow-danced over me.  “Where you been?” “Doing my job.” He pointed his knife at my boots.  “And sidetracking into sand country.”  He sniffed the air.  Bastard can pull...

A Bit Rough at the Edges by Tom Sheehan

Sarah Beaufort was a city girl. She knew the tremors of gutter trash, the promise of dust and debris rising in the slightest wind, what was surely heading down the road to her… and the whole lot coming for her single-parent mother, Abbie. And Abbie, bereft at times,...

Swan Song of the Pareto Optimalists by Josef K. Strosche

We met Sachin Srivat while touring Goa.  He approached us during intermission of a reading by the Portuguese-language author Victor Appadoo in Margao, offering to buy Elise a second Pinot.  Only then did he learn that I was Hugo Garcia Mohr.  Elise accepted his offer,...

How to Take It Like A Man by Austin Eichelberger

Jason steps back, across the off-white kitchen tiles, his mouth slightly open and his eyes darting to the floor and the cabinets around him. “Naw, man,” he mumbles, then takes a swig of his Pabst and walks out of the room. I blink at the sudden crispness of everything...

The Economics of Spooning by April L. Ford

“I can’t do it without getting hard.” “Please try.” “How?” “I don’t know!  Think of something that doesn’t make you hard.” “Then what’s the point?” Jackie pulled away from Kyle.  She stared at the wall she and her dorm mate had covered floor to ceiling with trophies...