A would-be astronaut’s manifesto. An Archivist who can’t help but record all of life’s statistics. In these thirteen small stories, Anne Valente takes us to worlds both fantastic and familiar, forgotten and foretold, and in tight, layered prose, she strives to unravel all the tangled questions we have about ourselves. From the field guides of anatomy to permutations on desire, these small stories are expansive and encyclopedic, a cataloguing of love and loss, an attempt to find a formula for everything that courses through us.

    YOU'VE TAKEN UP WITH DISTURBING COMPANIONSThere's a fairy in the garden,A monster in the closet,An alien in the back yard,And a ghost by the refrigerator...One mirror lies,One dragon makes an ally,One ring bites...And they don't make genies like they used to,Or gorgeous models...Or even princesses.

    Readers can experience all new stories; fresh and original, pure reading entertainment. Three-minute stories in this anthology, Giant Tales Beyond the Mystic Doors, are full of suspense, surprise endings, and fantastic thrillers. Interesting characters take readers to unexpected places. Terrible beasts wait beyond the mystic doors. Come discover unusual sunflowers and how to hang on when life is falling apart beyond the mystic doors. Enter if you dare! Sixty-one stories written by sixteen authors. Each tale is sure to take you to a new place with new characters. Moving with surprise twists and turns, this work of fiction is a real page-turner with first-rate quality. In essence, the three-minute tales of fantasy and suspense will keep you turning the pages for more.

    At times beautifully surreal then painfully stark, his stories reach into those parts of us that long to be gathered and made whole again."--Ronlyn Domingue, author of The Mapmaker's War and The Mercy of Thin AirClaffey is a collector of moments that throb to life, shapes appear out of the mist of memory as irreducible as the mystery of existence itself. Blood a Cold Blue is fueled by a masterful writer; powerful, unforgettable and mesmerizing. –Meg Tuite, author of Bound By Blue "In Blood a Cold Blue James Claffey infuses every story with rhythm and rot, doing things with words that I've never seen before and don't expect to again."--Ben Tanzer, author of You Can Make Him Like You and My Father's House

    Now, with little else but the memories of her to fill his days and haunt his dreams, he longs to be rejoined with his beloved Edie.

    It’s a haunting journey with surprisingly real characters — sometimes wonderfully odd, almost bizarre, but believable.”– Chris Irvin, co-editor of Shotgun HoneyHear them shriek.See them live.Watch them love / die.Pay your fee.Come one / come all.They’re on parade today.

    'Beyond 100 Drabbles' features 120 new miniature works, written by two of today’s most formidable drabblers. Jonathan Hill and Kath Middleton showcase some of their finest drabbles here, resulting in a collection that demonstrates the indisputable power of this popular flash fiction form. The authors cover a plethora of genres and even take the drabble one step further by interacting in a series of ‘challenge drabbles’. The stories are ideal for reading back to back, or individually in spare moments. The question is, can you stop at just one?

    Built for Pittsburgh merchants E.J. and Liliane Kaufmann in 1935, the house is as much a character as it is a setting. One September night in 1952, Liliane Kaufmann—tired of her husband’s infidelities—overdoses on pain pills in her bedroom. From there, Liliane’s Balcony alternates Mrs. Kaufmann’s mostly true story with the fictional narratives of four modern-day tourists who arrive at the historic home in the midst of their own personal crises, all of which culminate on Mrs. Kaufmann’s over-sized, cantilevered balcony. With its ghosts, motorcycles, portraits, Vikings, failed relationships, and many layered voices, Kelcey Parker’s Liliane’s Balcony is as dizzying and intricately beautiful as the architectural wonder in which it is set.

    He teaches fiction writing at Central Connecticut State University. Tom Hazuka's Flash Fiction Funny is a delight. Comical, silly, absurd, slapstick, quirky and always fun, it tickles. Well-crafted flashes by established and up-and-coming authors find humour in a wonderful array of characters and scenarios: waitresses, teachers, musicians, dentists, gynaecologists, Barbie dolls and superheroes; first dates, sexual fantasies, walks with ABBA and swimming with chickens. There are also porcelain wiener dogs. Some flashes reboot Shakespearean tragedy, Bible stories and fairy tales, others refresh the on-screen world of Google and PowerPoint. Ranging from Prince Charming's shoe fetish to a male model's emotional investment in yoga pants, this endlessly surprising anthology is light-hearted but also warm-hearted; its humour doesn't mock or belittle but offers moments of insight into growing up, growing old, loving and living. Enjoy! -Peter Blair and Ashley Chantler, Editors, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine (Chester, UK) You know those sketches on Saturday Night Live that go on too long? None of these stories do. The secret of comedy is timing, and Flash Fiction Funny is comic perfection. -Wesley Stace, novelist and (as John Wesley Harding) musician and host of NPR's Cabinet of Wonders It's no surprise that Tom Hazuka, one of the originating and still best editors of flash fiction, has produced another great collection-and these flashes are very, very funny. -Robert Shapard, co-editor of Flash Fiction Forward, Sudden Fiction Latino and the forthcoming Flash Fiction International

    The more she writes, the more their whereabouts, as well as their desperation, are revealed. The Monster Opera is a gothic literary noir, a genre-bending novel-meets-libretto that combines recitative with dialogue, aria with prose, and ultimately asks the question: Who owns a story? The Monster Opera is a multi-genre extravaganza and the second flash novel available from Bartleby Snopes Press. "The Monster Opera is a brilliant and beautiful work, a rising crescendo of action in a haunting tale of love. Many authors strive for that perfect note, yet Stohlman does the unbelievable, turning words on the page into a truly operatic monster which comes alive in the very first scene."--J.A. Kazimer, author of Dopesick: A Love Story and Shank"At one point I found myself pledging my life and allegiance like an old Camelot knight to the life and the legacy of the Opera. If a dragon were to threaten it for some dragon reason, I would've totally put down this pint of whiskey and slain it. Because this Opera must live on! Its safety is more important than my own."--Rob Geisen, author of The Aftermath, Etc."In a swell of lyrical prose that drips itself across the borders of music and literature, Nancy Stohlman delivers a self-aware story that sings out from the page like an opera trapped in the belly of an Old World curse. A love affair drunk on magical realism, somehow as ancient as it is avant-garde. "--Kona Morris, author of Godless Comics"I don't know shit about opera, and many would say less about literature. But I know plenty about these kind of monsters. And I know for damn sure you should be reading Nancy Stohlman."-- Benjamin Whitmer, author of Satan Is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers

    Pamela Chase desperately wanted this night to be memorable for her young daughter, Darla, who was turning seven years oldIt would be memorable, all right, but not in the way she'd planned...