Title: Blind Man's Parade
Author: LA Hill
Excerpt:
   There was a gap in the procession.
   I squirmed a little in my chair. "Smitty?"
   "Yeah?"
   "Can I ask you...?"
   "Accident," he said. "Some folks call it Viet Nam."
   I let that sink in. "Really? Did you kill anybody?"
   "Nobody I had to look in the eye." He shrugged. "Ironic, huh?"
   Smitty talked about irony so much I was determined to figure it out.

Title: Stepping on the Cracks
Author: Lauren Gilbert
Excerpt:
   This neighborhood where I had grown up was like a fishbowl to a salmon; too small. Many times I had wanted to run away, once attempted and failed. Even now, as I calmly passed my neighbors, I contemplated leaving, just disappearing forever and hiding in another city under a new identity. But I began to understand… no amount of lies or plastic surgery could mask what I was. At that moment, I was struck with this urge, possibly for the first time ever: I wanted to go home. And so I did.

November 2009
Title: Loose Ends
Author: LA Hill
Excerpt:
   "What? The cane? Just makes one look like a man of means. I'd say it's more like a walking stick than a cane, anyway." Sam wondered for the ump-millionth time how the designers had actually engineered aging into their "skins." But that question inevitably led to the more troubling one: Why had they even bothered to? The advance scouting mission wasn't supposed to last more than a year, or two tops. Earth years, at that. Was the built-in ability to age just academic over-engineering? Or did someone have an inkling?

October 2009
Title: If Up Jumped
Author: LA Hill
Excerpt:
It don't make much sense to look out past these bars
Two feet beyond is as far as the stars
Oh, Sadie, turn out your light
No, sadie, it won't be tonight

September 2009
Title: Autumn
Author: Edward McDonald
Excerpt:
   They saw too. They were beneath canopy of orange and yellow, glowing in the setting sun. Not a spot of green. No bare spots. The huge maple was an arboreal bonfire. They were spellbound. Without moving his eyes, he patted the ground next to him. His girlfriend accepted the silent invitation. The three of them lay there with their heads close together and stared up into the colors until the sun set, taking the tree's glow with it. Reluctantly, silently, they got up together and resumed their walk. A block later they were skipping and laughing again. It may have appeared that they had already forgotten, but he definitely didn't.

August 2009
Title: While the Sun Was Out
Author: Scott Cooper
Excerpt:
  "Oh, yeah. Plus, when you add Spongebob to it, the juxtaposition is priceless. Like a car bomb detonating in the center of Disneyland."
   "Interesting interpretation. Are you familiar with this Bundy?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow.
  "Oh yes," I replied. "I am most familiar with this Bundy."
   She smiled, I smiled and as we walked and talked through the halls, she gave me her number and I gave her mine.

July 2009
Title: Herb Granger's Road to Salvation
Author: LA Hill
Excerpt:
  "Hell, Reverend, no offense," replied Herb Granger, "but man ain't made one thing in all eternity. It's all God's handiwork. He just uses men to do a little rearranging for Him is all."
   I thought this over. "So," I said, "if I'm allowed to extrapolate, uh, mayonnaise has a soul, too?"
  "Don't know that it don't, Reverend, but I'm an engine man. You want to know about sandwich spreads and the like, go down and ask over to the diner."

June 2009
Title: See You Tomorrow, Prof.
Author: LA Hill
Description: Wally the bartender tells the tale. Rick, Brady and Ramon have pulled off the heist, and it's a lot more than they had expected. Does Bleeker get his cut, or does he get left out in the cold?

May 2009
Title: Swine
Author: Megan Higby
Description: Piggy is strapped to a chair in a storage unit, and Sofie "The Sofa" wants answers, she wants them now, and she has a pair of pliers and a ball peen hammer that say she will get them.

April 2009
Title: The Morning After
Author: Megan Higby
Description: Jack just woke up in an alley. He's dirty, bloody, smells like piss, and his car is gone. He doesn't remember the night, and isn't sure of where he is. Nothing is clear except that, between him and the truth, there is a line of deserving asses waiting to be kicked.