Johnny woke up on Saturday at 4:00 a.m. feeling the overwhelming need to take a shit. The evening before had been poker night — seven-card stud with a ten-dollar buy-in. Everyone brought a case of beer to the occasion. It was one of those increasingly rare nights of laughs between…
Face the blank page with courage
To always tell the truth,
Especially in fiction.
Dig to find the heart of the matter
That beats deep beneath the breast
Of each and every character.
Paint the walls of every room with vivid color.
Leave no important detail overlooked.
Describe the six…
She was a physical specimen, so gifted and so fast that some speculated scientists had made her in a lab. She never juiced or cheated, but she had feet like flippers and muscular shoulders the size of small boulders. Her childhood dream was to become an Olympic champion someday.
Nothing…
Hello Dear Readers,
I hope that month XX of the pandemic is treating you and your loved ones well. I don’t send out these newsletters very often, preferring to reserve them for moments when we have actual news.
To that end, I have a few brief announcements to make:
Hi there, I’m the editor of The Junction, a publication that publishes high-quality fiction, poetry, and humor. In light of Ev Williams’s recent announcement of changes afoot at Medium, there are many editors such as myself who are concerned about the future of our publications on this platform. This ever-changing…
The slanting rain spit against the darkened window of Ronnie Simpson’s Winnebago. He was writing a story about a writer, which is something he swore he’d never do, and he hated himself for it. The mixture of his hatred was equal parts self-loathing, pride, arrogance, and disdain.
Ronnie had long…
Roz and Ben were both band geeks. Roz was a senior and played the clarinet. She sat in first chair, the row ahead of Ben, all the way on the right. He played the trumpet but preferred goofing-off. Even so, he was good enough to be third chair despite being…
