China Glaze White

With teeth, I pull the white sheets tighter around wrists and hands. I don’t want them smaller like Chinese foot binding. I want them gone.

Deep Space

I taste my wife’s lips as the dawn sets. God’s love rests in my breast pocket. “Go on.” It does as instructed, my eyes closed.

Bl Pawelek is a dad, hiker and writer. He grew up on a small Japanese island (kinda true) and wonders if his Master’s Degree in Literature was worth it (still not sure). There are stories, poems and plenty of art (Google search). The Equation of Constants and Ten Everywhere and the unfirm line. He tries to show mad love to everyone, especially you.

Skinny Jeans by Brian Baumgart

She holds the line, long fingers on the doorframe, skinny jeans slung low. With pitch and scream, her daughter rails about the lack of fairness.

Brian Baumgart is the Coordinator of Creative Writing at North Hennepin Community College just outside Minneapolis. He holds an MFA from Minnesota State University, Mankato. His writing has appeared in or is forthcoming from various journals, including Ruminate, Blue Earth Review, Blood and Honey Review, Tipton Poetry Review, and Blink-Ink.

Two pieces by Laura C. Alonso

Ballet Pink

Pale and lovely, these reliable shoes perform–allowing her to dance around all sorts of things you never see that take place behind the scenery.

Peach Skin

No sweet fruit to nourish the spirit, just a thin film that veils each day–velvet cheeks, never kissed . . . the souls of our unborn children.

Laura C. Alonso‘s work has been published in In Posse Revie, Linnaean Street, 3AM Magazine, SFWP, and other online literary journals. She is the former Senior Editor of Fictionline Press and former Fiction Editor of The God Particle (two sorely missed online venues), and she was  was a finalist in the Santa Fe Writer’s Project’s Literary Awards Program in 2001, 2002, and 2010.

Dream-Maker  by Joanna M. Weston

She sipped the wine; poured more into the glass. Pictured Tom, his hands on her shoulders, breasts. She lifted her glass again. ‘Dream-maker,’ she whispered.

Joanna M. Weston has two cats, multiple spiders, a herd of deer, and a line of prayer flags. Her middle-reader, Those Blue Shoes, published by Clarity House Press; and poetry, A Summer Father, published by Frontenac House of Calgary. http://www.1960willowtree.wordpress.com/

Lincoln Park After Dark by MM Wittle

“KAFKA ON THE SHORE” confounded two more theatergoers. Terrance sliced the salty, autumn air, “Molly’s?” Sasha tugged his hand. “Yes.”  They craved normalcy and cupcakes. 

MM Wittle is a Professor at Neumann University. MM has an MFA from Rosemont College in Rosemont, PA in Creative Writing.  Her thesis, “Family Guidance” and “The Education of Allie Rose” are two plays that won Thesis of Distinction from RosemontCollege. “Family Guidance” had a reading at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, PA and was selected for honorable mentioned at the 5^th Annual Philadelphia Theatre Workshop’s Playwriting Competition. “The Education of Allie Rose” was a finalist in the Philadelphia Ethical Society Playwriting competition.  For the past six years, MM has been a fiction board member of the local non-profit literary magazine, Philadelphia Stories and has written many book reviews and countless blogs for them. MM has also written four book reviews for the creative non-fiction magazine, www.brevitymag.com.

Copper Coast  by Helen Losse

The lake was drained to fix the bridge.  Sky blue water gave way to brick-red, sun-cracked mud. Copper Coast is a misnomer for what’s yet-to-return.

Helen Losse is a Winston-Salem poet, the author of two full length books, Seriously Dangerous (Main Street Rag, 2011) and Better With Friends (Rank Stranger Press, 2009) and two chapbooks, Gathering the Broken Pieces and Paper Snowflakes.  A reprint of Paper Snowflakes is forthcoming in March 2012 with the title Mansion of Memory.  A part of the proceeds from this chapbook will go to the Joplin (MO) Bright Futures Tornado Fund to help poor children affected by the 2011 tornado in Helen’s hometown.  Her recent poetry publications and acceptances include Main Street Rag, Iodine Poetry Review, Blue Fifth Review, The Pedestal Magazine, ken*again, Referential,  and Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont.  Helen’s poems have been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize and three times for a Best of the Net award, one of which was a finalist.  She is the Poetry Editor for online literary magazine The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature.  Helen uses nail polish to paint angel statues, so she looks for colors she wouldn’t actually choose for her nails as well as the ones she would.

Russian Roulette by Melissa Ann Goodwin

Yolanda loads one bullet, spins the chamber and slides the gun across the table. Grinning, but not in a good way, she says, “You first.”

Melissa Ann Goodwin is author of The Christmas Village.

Peach Lover by E.C. Norris

He kept her indoors, with dim lights, from flush eyes. A Creole love call shook the walls, window scraped open. Climbing out, winter flayed her. 

E.C. Norris forgoes regular bedtimes, with mixed results. 

Smoky Canvas by Dan Sicoli

The allure was bending her into shapes.  At first I thought she did it with mirrors, until I realized I had walked into a fog.

Dan Sicoli is an editor with Slipstream Magazine and press.  Car fenders, broken guitar strings, party dresses, and three-legged dogs have often made their way into his writing.  He also oven dries his own garden tomatoes.

Two pieces by Bruce Harris

Dark Room

He removed the closet door and took pictures with his camera. The fire marshal found traces of him and the door, but not the photos.

High Maintenance

She was beautiful, but keeping her home was impossible.  There were constant oil changes, carburetors, timing belts, tune-ups, you name it, and she needed it.

Bruce Harris enjoys relaxing with a Marxman.

Thank you for your patience and check back often.  Hoping to have the issue live by the weekend, and hopefully sooner.

Sincerely,

Nicole Monaghan

Founding and Managing Editor

This does not reflect a decrease of readers or submitters or love by the editor.  Rather, it is a reflection of the opposite–more readers, more submissions, a growing (and joyful) investment by the editor, and therefore a greater space between publications becoming necessary.

Thank you for checking in with NS, and please check back the first Monday of every month for new work!

–Nicole Monaghan

Founding and Managing Editor

No Bees Please

He bought bees, the man from the apiary.  I bought smoke.  We watched them fight the sweet seduction to fly right into it and burn.

Tangerine Scene

In the piazza, Elenora hides from the downpour.  Above from the veranda the tangerines fall.  She remembers the weight and never felt this small before.

Helen Vitoria lives and writes in Effort PA.  Her work can be found and is forthcoming in over fifty online and print journals including: elimae, PANK, MudLuscious Press, >kill author, Poets & Artists Magazine, FRIGG Magazine and Dark Sky Magazine.  Her chapbooks: The Sights & Sounds of Arctic Birds and Random Cartography Notes are available as e-chaps from Gold Wake Press, 2011, BLACKWATER: A PNEUMATIC DISTURBANCE is available from Red Ochre Press, 2011.  Her first full length poetry collection: Corn Exchange, is forthcoming from Scrambler Books, Winter 2011. She is working on a novel(la) in verse: Amsterdam. She is the Founding Editor and Editor in Chief for THRUSH poetry journal. Find her here:  http://helenvitoria-lexis.blogspot.com/

–Founding and Managing Editor,

Nicole Monaghan 

From September:

Wife Goes On by Gary Percesepe

In Amagansett, the wooden houses sag.  Her sunburned children walk the creaking floor.  She rests her feet on the blue sofa.  The ocean spills light.

A New Yorker living in exile in Ohio, Gary Percesepe just completed a novel titled LEAVING TELLURIDE, set in Telluride, Colorado. The novel features a goth girl named Anna, whose blonde roots keep showing above her Chrissie Hynde bangs. For more on the Tomboy No More girl you can go to NYC, or here: http://www.foundlingreview.com/May2011Issue1Percesepe.html    Or, well, OK, here:    http://wigleaf.com/201005bg.htm

Cherries In The Snow by Kierstin Bridger

The drifts were higher than our leg-warmers.  We promised those cute college boys, thought we’d return with our undies in our back pockets, but no.

Kierstin Bridger lives a renaissance life in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, designing, writing, reading and planning the next great adventure.  Her published works include Condomnation in the 2011 issue of the Porter Gulch Review, the one act play  in The University of Washington’s literary publication Bricolage.  Her short story Girl’s Room, was printed in UW Women’s Voices. Her flash fiction piece will appear Spring 2012 in Stripped: A Collection of Anonymous Flash Fiction from PS Books.   She is the 2011 winner of the Mark Fischer Poetry Prize.

From October:

Bahama Mama by Sara Lippmann

Their hotel had one of those kids’ clubs so parents could drink away their vacation, staring past the pool, silent, swirling celery snappy as whips.

Sara Lippmann is a writer inBrooklyn. Follow her on twitter @saralippmann

Lady Like by Len Kuntz

I used to study them—bright bruises the color of mustard and plums, shaped like continents or crafty creatures—mother’s artwork on a flesh canvas.

Len Kuntz is a writer from Washington State.  His work appears widely in print and online at such places as The Literarian, Boston Literary Magazine, Elimae and PANK.  Every few days he writes about life and other things at lenkuntz.blogspot.com

From November: 

Alpine Snow by Barry Basden.

Farther south, the snow’s pristine, but the Hürtgen’s dirty, trampled. We wait in holes, our weapons freezing, staring into darkness, afraid they’re coming for us.

Barry Basden lives in Texas and his writing has appeared in many fine places. He edits Camroc Press Review and has never had a manicure.

Shifting Power  by David Tomaloff

Sundresses and summer have replaced her boys and winter.  She walks lighter along the shore, casting names into the sea—beginning again, one by one. 

David Tomaloff is a writer, photographer, musician, and all around bad influence. His work has appeared in fine publications such as Mud Luscious, >kill author, Connotation Press, HOUSEFIRE, & elimae. He is the author of the chapbooks 13 (Artistically Declined Press), A SOFT THAT TOUCHES DOWN & REMOVES ITSELF (NAP), Olifaunt (Red Ceilings Press), EXIT STRATEGIES (Gold Wake Press) and MESCAL NON-PALINDROME CINEMA (Ten Pages Press). He resides in the form of ones and zeros at: davidtomaloff.com

From December:

Cherries in the Snow by Angel Zapata

Blood stains the toilet seat. “We’re not pregnant?” I ask, softly. She falls to her knees, wails. Outside, a snowflake melts on a child’s tongue.

Angel Zapata was born in NYC, but now lives near Augusta, Georgia. Some of his fiction and poetry has appeared in The Boston Literary Review, Long Live the New Flesh, The Best of Every Day Poets, and The Flash Fiction Offensive. He is author of the Trestle Press short story horror series, The Man of Shadows. He also edits 5×5 Fiction: 25-word stories told in 5 sentences of 5 words each. Visit http://arageofangel.blogspot.com and http://5x5Fiction.blogspot.com

Curtain Call  by M.C. Harris

He showers and hangs the towels in the wrong configuration.  She deals with the damp spot, grown cold, with the flaccid sadness of surrendered condoms.

M.C. Harris waits for the approaching supernova, and writes.

Photo by Kierstin Bridger

Curtain Call  by M.C. Harris

He showers and hangs the towels in the wrong configuration.  She deals with the damp spot, grown cold, with the flaccid sadness of surrendered condoms.

M.C. Harris waits for the approaching supernova, and writes.

Two pieces by Joanna M. Weston

Starry Pink

Starry pink she went. Up for grabs under the tent.
Pushed out, shoved into country beyond trees or sky.
Just there, with him. That kiss.

Cherries In The Snow

Bright scarlet, carmine, maroon drops. Leading down the
path to the lake’s edge. Grey water and sand. No body.
Just feathers, yellow claws. Snarling cat.

Joanna M. Weston has two cats, multiple spiders, a
herd of deer, and one dead mouse. Her middle-reader,
‘Those Blue Shoes’, published by Clarity House Press;
and poetry, ‘A Summer Father’, published by Frontenac
House of Calgary.    http://1960willowtree.wordpress.com/

Photo by Kierstin Bridger.

Two pieces by Victoria Large

 Meteor

She thought rock stars were more like doomed astronauts than real stars:  blasting off, soaring until someone grabbed the escape hatch, and then hitting Earth.

Hot Lava Love

It was all tacky and sweet.  He bought her a convenience store rose and a six-pack of hard lemonade.  Alone in the garage, they kissed.

Victoria Large is a Massachusetts native who holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. Her short fiction has appeared in such publications as Blink Ink, Cafe Irreal, Umbrella Factory Magazine, and Wordriver, and she has a story forthcoming in matchbook.

Photo by Kierstin Bridger

Three pieces by Angel Zapata

Emerald City

In her dreams, the road’s yellow, not black. She’s sober; hasn’t killed anyone with her car. Afterward, the curtain draws back. That’s life in prison.

Cherries in the Snow

Blood stains the toilet seat. “We’re not pregnant?” I ask, softly. She falls to her knees, wails. Outside, a snowflake melts on a child’s tongue.

Don’t Feed the Hand Models

Fingers flex shadow, become elephant trunk. “Make a dog,” the boy requests. Momma shifts digits—ears, muzzle. Flashlight off, wall animals disappear. “Again,” he says.

Angel Zapata was born in NYC, but now lives near Augusta, Georgia. Some of his fiction and poetry has appeared in The Boston Literary Review, Long Live the New Flesh, The Best of Every Day Poets, and The Flash Fiction Offensive. He is author of the Trestle Press short story horror series, The Man of Shadows. He also edits 5×5 Fiction: 25-word stories told in 5 sentences of 5 words each. Visit http://arageofangel.blogspot.com and http://5x5Fiction.blogspot.com

Photo by Kierstin Bridger

Tyin’ The Knot by Kierstin Bridger

Blinded by love, sure.  She felt the rope’s grip slacken,
heard the hardwood crack.
They both fell even harder when their
tree swing gave way.

Kierstin Bridger lives a renaissance life in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, designing, writing, reading and planning the next great adventure.  Her published works include Condomnation in the 2011 issue of the Porter Gulch Review, the one act play  in The University of Washington’s literary publication Bricolage.  Her short story Girl’s Room, was printed in UW Women’s Voices.  Her flash fiction piece will appear Spring 2012 in Stripped: A Collection of Anonymous Flash Fiction from PS Books.   She is the 2011 winner of the Mark Fischer Poetry Prize.

Photo by Kierstin Bridger

Three pieces by David Tomaloff

Shifting Power 

Sundresses and summer have replaced her boys and winter.  She walks lighter along the shore, casting names into the sea—beginning again, one by one. 

Super Bossa Nova

I dreamt of you, a pirate ship, dark and fast approaching. I was a Royal Naval Fleet, no match for a galleass such as yours.

Absolutely Shore

Windows make bad lovers, though they tend to make great cops.  The salt makes its way to my lips, reminds me which side I’m on.

David Tomaloff is a writer, photographer, musician, and all around bad influence. His work has appeared in fine publications such as Mud Luscious, >kill author, Connotation Press, HOUSEFIRE, & elimae. He is the author of the chapbooks 13 (Artistically Declined Press), A SOFT THAT TOUCHES DOWN & REMOVES ITSELF (NAP), Olifaunt (Red Ceilings Press), EXIT STRATEGIES (Gold Wake Press) and MESCAL NON-PALINDROME CINEMA (Ten Pages Press). He resides in the form of ones and zeros at: davidtomaloff.com