Pointer # 20 – Wigleaf

* Online lit mags are publishing some of the most intriguing writing available today. Every Monday, I post a pointer to a site that offers fiction and/or poetry either as free content or as samples from subscriber issues. Today’s pointer is to w i g l e a f: (very) short fiction.

It’s been a pretty miserable week here on the Kitsap Peninsula– 10″ of snow, temps in the teens and single digits, downed trees resulting in two days without power county-wide. Things have cleared up now and the local mall is swarming with shoppers who have been cooped up the last few days. Post office resumed delivery two days ago– funny, but during the blackout I read a history of the Battle of Marathon and learned that the motto “Neither rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night, etc.” was actually the vow couriers of the Persian Empire pledged to their King.

Back on a regular posting schedule until Christmas.

*

Stories under 1,000 words. Good selection, impressive examples of narrative compression.

Fiction excerpt:

Lullaby
Meakin Armstrong

We lived above an auto repair shop in that part of town where they kept the warehouses and strip joints. Every morning, we awoke to hammering and clanging. When they were painting a car, a fine mist wafted through the bathroom vent and turned our tub, toilet, and sink murky blue.

Nights, the glowing roof sign for the Players Club leaked through the bedroom curtains, orange and red. Below our kitchen window was a hidden alleyway where the strippers took their breaks. I watched them in that alley on Mondays and Fridays, when Myfanwy was at Pilates. I liked watching the topless strippers while they yawned, stretched, and spoke on their cell phones.