The rise of science fiction as we know it stemmed from short stories published in feature magazines by authors like Asimov, del Rey, and van Vogt. Short stories are an ideal medium to convey snapshots of imaginary worlds while limiting exacting details that would detract...

A charging Charolais bull drops dead in its tracks for no apparent reason, leaving one of the survivors questioning its bizarre demise in the eerie short story, Suspicions by Jenny Twist. Lenny may work in a bank all week, but during the summer he is...

Smog obliterates the skies of a large city in the early nineteen-fifties, leaving the inhabitants sick and dying in the extraordinary novella, Shades of Black (The Life and Death of George Weeks) by Debbie Manber Kupfer. London no longer has clear skies, and a large...

Stories to Read by Candlelight, by Jean Lorrain, is a collection of short bedtime stories about the lingering grandeur of the past. The collection begins with the narrator and a seamstress named Norine, who would often tell the narrator stories. Some of the stories she...

Sparkles of the Season by Susan Jean Ricci is a short seasonal story. Sonia is facing losing her husband to an early death. Lars plays in the NFL but his wife doesn’t share his passion for the game, left at home with their son while...

The latest collection of stories from Rich DiSilvo is an intriguing, thought-provoking mix of tales. Published under the title Short Stories V: Speculative Musings, the book contains an eclectic assortment of short stories, starting with a disturbing look at how modern animation could fuel a...

Life is complex. Artists have attempted to unveil the meaning of life via different avenues of expression: music, art, literature, theater, dance. To some people, music is the ultimate medium of expression, a language all its own, a symphony of ideas, emotions, time and space...

Snapshots: A Collection of Short Stories, written by Eliot Parker, contains a fascinating set of stories. With settings in large cities and small towns, in Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky, each story is distinctly unique. Some stories are tinged with magical realism, while others are...

Sweet Temperaments by Tonwand North is a sweet office romance between two men who wanted different things from life, but they had no idea that they needed each other more than anything else. Lewis Fraser is a simple man with simple needs. He needs love...

Spring in Lilac Glen by Angie Ellington is a cheerful and joyous shorter novel that will delight her readers. Julianne (Jules) Baker is a successful photographer living in New York. But her dreams and paychecks are not as fulfilling as she had expected when she...