by Helen Ivory | Mar 12, 2024 | Featured, Prose
Pleasing Evelyn Battersby Evelyn Battersby was a difficult woman to please, an easy one to disappoint. When her children brought their gifts on silver salvers she would sniff, wrinkle her nose, send them back to the kitchen. The paintings of...
by Helen Ivory | Mar 7, 2024 | Featured, Prose
Licensing Applications received at the Local Council for Permission for Community Events Henry leafed through the applications on his desk, sighed, picking up the first one. * Application no. 56/438/b Activity/Description: Cheese rolling. A large...
by Helen Ivory | Jan 8, 2024 | Featured, Prose
Into the Hills He found himself in the mountains because he had no intention of being near the beach. It was summer and he was dry. With friends, he had seen the sea, water, the Thames, so many times over the past weeks that he had driven himself...
by Kate Birch | Oct 31, 2023 | Featured, Poetry, Prose
Cellar Stories: Ash & Elder Sunday afternoon there’s always roast dinner. Then mum and dad go to church. The twins stay and wash dishes. Elder-twin picks up a plastic bag with unused Brussels sprouts inside. The cellar door is open. Elder-twin...
by Kate Birch | Oct 23, 2023 | Featured, Prose
Childhood’s Cave The worst times were Thursdays. They were the weekly meetings, when things were assigned, calculated, declared. A reprimand or an insult always brought her father home in the worst of moods. Her mother, on edge, the frozen mask of...
by Helen Ivory | Oct 18, 2023 | Featured, Prose
A Martian Named Smith A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil. -Robert Heinlein The last time we spoke, you were working for an off-brand convenience store on the gulf...