Tag: dark
-
“Spiral” and “Ma’Donna” among 20 works of memorable short fiction – Turn & Work 2025 Shortlist Favourites
Thank you to media review blog Turn & Work for including two of my short stories among 20 featured in their 2025 Shortlist Favourites list. From the blog: “These are the 20 most memorable stories I linked to at other sites – some of the best short fiction and creative nonfiction I read this year.”…
-
“In Another Life” nominated for Best Microfiction 2026
Thank you to Ink In Thirds literary magazine for nominating “In Another Life,” a piece of surreal short prose, for inclusion in the Best Microfiction 2026 anthology. Judges this year are Meg Pokrass, Gary Fincke, and Diane Seuss. “In Another Life” was published in Volume 6, Issue 1 of Ink In Thirds and is available…
-
Inkd Publications: Cthulhu Dreams: That Sinking Feeling
Cthulhu Dreams: A short story anthology of horror influenced by or reflective of Lovecraftian themes. For sale at Barnes and Noble online. My contribution, “That Sinking Feeling,” is a quasi-memoir of the time I lived in a commercial loft space built by family members. The place was horrific, an abandoned call center, and we did…
-
Fictive Dream: The Almost
The Almost: a school bus driver passes the early morning hours in rural Florida reading her favorite romance novel while idling in her bus before the kids show up. As the sensual language of the book, “Heather’s Rake,” provides her with an escape from the mundane, she finds comfort in the tension and anticipation of…
-
Slipstream Press: The Gun Looks Wrong
“The Gun Looks Wrong” – a poem about a game of Duck Hunt gone, well, Slipstream, is featured in the 45th Annual issue (“Strange Days” theme) of Slipstream magazine. Founded in 1980, Slipstream features the work of both new and established writers. Charles Bukowski, Gerald Locklin, Wanda Coleman, Lyn Lifshin, David Chorlton, Jim Daniels, Ron…
-
Graveside Press: If: Gathered Here Today (anthology)
My poem “If” is included in Gathered Here Today: An open casket of art and poetry, an illustrated anthology produced by Graveside Press. If you like spooky poetry, you can buy a copy (it’s absolutely bursting with unsettling gems.) An aside – lots of web traffic lately from west central Florida. Welcome! If …the cold…
-
The Scavenger
“I watched a wake of turkey vultures slurp up bits of cow…” The Scavenger, a rural Florida gothic serial killer tale, first dramatized by Creepy Podcast and later picked up by Illustrated Worlds Magazine – is reprinted below. (First, though, this photo…taken from my grandparent’s 40 acre homestead in Arcadia, FL, where this story is set. Crazy place!)…
-
Green Hills Literary Lantern: Ma’Donna
The Harborside Mobil Stop-n-Go shines its beacon, its big old sign with all the gas prices, the ones that go back and forth a few cents every day for reasons I’ll never know, way up high for the boats to see. After closing, all the lights in and around the store go out except for…
-
BULL: Spiral
She spits through lips painted green. She means disrespect but I see DNA. In spit is a stamp that can clone or convict you. I suppose that an artist’s work, to its maker, does both. I can understand the desire for distance.… “Spiral” – a story about bodies, minds, and masks. About devotion and disillusionment.…
Kelli Dianne Rule: Author 