John Richard Heath teaches at American University in Washington, DC. He has recently published poetry in Pendemic, Horror Sleaze Trash and the Boston Literary Magazine.  Rambling the High Hillside We ramble the high hillside, Dordogne a silvery worm in the valley miles below. Skywards, in the tractor’s wake, raptors conned shaved grass for mice as we addressed ham baguettes lightly garnished with blown straw. Dusty trees stuck in landscape stunned by sun, farmer transfixed in his high cab. Cursory wave as he rounds the last lap heads down the chestnut-lined lane to the hamlet of Aujac where later we find … Continue reading John Heath

Jane King is a full-time faculty member at the University of Phoenix, where she teaches online.  She is also a retired business lawyer.  After many years, she has returned to writing fiction.  She is also an avid animal lover—with cats being at the top of the list.  Her first short story is a complete act of love for the cats in our lives—all around the world. The Ten Lives of Hector, The Cat! Have you ever met anyone who is completely nondescript?  You have now!  I want to introduce you to Sheila.  Sheila lives a completely boring life in a … Continue reading Jane L King

Rachel Grosvenor is a British writer and tutor, with a PhD, MA and BA Hons in Creative Writing. She writes in various genres and forms, from travel writing to fantasy, and her work has been published in equally diverse places – from Cadaverine Magazine to the wall of the blue bedroom at the National Trust’s Baddesley Clinton. Rachel’s writing news can be followed on Instagram at @teachmecreativewriting, or on her website www.RachelGrosvenorAuthor.com.    Imaginary Arguments Oh, how fearless I am in the shower, when the river drowns my irate verse. How biting my retorts, how quadrangular my shoulders, how unfastened my … Continue reading Rachel Grosvenor

Marc Darnell is a custodian and online tutor in Omaha, Nebraska, and received his MFA from the University of Iowa.  He has published poems in The Lyric, Shot Glass Journal, Blue Unicorn, DASH, Stickman Review, The Poet, and elsewhere. Inheritance My fear of living is genetic– father all hammer on the roof, afraid to even laugh with us beneath, and mother frantic to keep his bed aligned and made,   always staring at neighbors while she talked in short, complaining sentences, but questioning nothing.  Their long gone passivity still marks all my life’s unfurling   hesitations– a branding that’s prodded me toward … Continue reading Marc Darnell

Vahid Husen Sayyad is from India. He is an educator and a writer. He mainly writes poems in Hindi-Urdu. He also writes short stories and dramas. Vahid has won a literary prize in poetry writing competition in India at The Taluka Youth Festival in 2012. The Lost King by Mehreen Ahmed Based on a plot told orally by Vahid Husen Sayyad Daisy was held under a dark, mystifying spell. Nestled by the cozy fires of her drawing room, she sat this evening on a rugged floor in her palace. She moped about an incident which occurred in her laboratory last … Continue reading Vahid Husen Sayyad

Howie Good is the author of THE DEATH ROW SHUFFLE, a poetry collection forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. Fables The Death of Historical Memory A former prodigy, in commemoration of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima, played a burning piano on the beach. And though the smoke choked him, and the scorching heat of the fire melted his eyeballs and peeled the skin off his face and hands, he just kept playing until the piano stopped being able to produce sounds. * PTSD I discovered under the couch a severed doll’s head I didn’t know I had. Now … Continue reading Howie Good

Fizza Abbas is a Freelance Content Writer based in Karachi, Pakistan. She is fond of poetry and music. Her works have been published on quite a few platforms including Poetry Village and Poetry Pacific. Room 411 She lay too confined on a hospital bed, a drape of selflessness over a camouflage of pretentiousness, she had never in her life been this selfish. A strange air of peacefulness protected her from the thankless cries that my larynx was involuntarily producing. Its obstinacy saved me from the hefty cost, and she finally responded — firmly held my hand, moved two pearl-white globular … Continue reading Fizza Abbas

Stephen McQuiggan was the original author of the bible; he vowed never to write again after the publishers removed the dinosaurs and the spectacular alien abduction ending from the final edit. His other, lesser known, novels are A Pig’s View Of Heaven and Trip A Dwarf. THE WRITING’S ON THE WALL. ‘I didn’t do it,’ Zed protested, ‘I swear it wasn’t me.’ Rhea raised an eyebrow, that familiar and infuriating look that belittled and accused at the same time. ‘You forget I used to help you out all the time,’ she said. ‘I know your work inside out. You telling me Archie or … Continue reading Stephen McQuiggan

Michael Lee Johnson lived 10 years in Canada during the Vietnam era and is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada.  Today he is a poet, freelance writer, amateur photographer, and small business owner in Itasca, DuPage County, Illinois.  Mr. Johnson published in more than 1072 new publications, his poems have appeared in 39 countries, he edits, publishes 10 poetry sites.  Michael Lee Johnson, has been nominated for 2 Pushcart Prize awards poetry 2015/1 Best of the Net 2016/2 Best of the Net 2017. Flower Girl (V2) (Tears in Your Eyes) Poems are hard to create they live, then … Continue reading Michael Lee Johnson

Danny P. Barbare has been published recently in Plainsongs, North Dakota Quarterly, and DASH. He attended Greenville Technical College where his poetry won the Jim Gitting’s Award. He lives in the Upstate of the Carolinas with his wife and family and sweet dog Miley. The Squirrels Poem The squirrel wanted to be    A poem So I told it to hop from word    To word And pause for awhile to    Think Then get down to the nut of    It Or plant the seed in the    Earth To grow into a tree one day    For a … Continue reading Danny P. Barbare