My sister and I shared a Stretch Armstrong figurine as kids. He came with bandages in case we accidentally cut him and he oozed red goop. And he did. Often. Kind of like our perpetually-scraped knees covered in Mercurochrome. He was supposed to be indestructible but we were siblings sharing…

If you’ve bought an older home, there’s a chance you’ve tried to pull the carpet away from the baseboards — to check for potential hardwoods. You may have pulled up layer upon layer of past flooring choices. You may have researched how to sandblast paint off brick. The white brick…

Sad, emaciated bears in dry pools on an artificial ski mountain. Dancing bears in a Florida flea market. Scraggly bears in a nearly-closed roadside zoo. Bears in top hats on theme park stage that closed a few weeks later. …

I had a mustard seed necklace as a child. A tiny seed encased in a tiny glass globe, suspended on a chain. There was much accompanying explanation of faith and perseverance and the importance of tiny things guiding my larger life. I wore the necklace proudly, until I lost it…

I’ve been in a writing funk. It’s hot. I’m recovering from Covid and our dogs got skunked. We live in a suburban rural area where skunks roam. Our dogs are friendly. The skunks are not. …

I’ve always found writing micro fiction to be as hard as longer flash or short stories. Choosing details to include like dialogue or descriptions becomes a matter of words, not paragraphs or pages. My NFFD NZ Micro Madness shortlist micro is only 100 words but it went through major versions…

Imagine yourself in Paris. It’s nearing midnight. You’re at a train station that late because you didn’t know the Eiffel Tower lights up at 10:00 and you stood there staring at it for far too long. You’re miles from your Airbnb. The regular train station is closed for repairs and…

I loved Mad Libs as a kid and bought them on vacations at Stuckey’s. I created my own Mad Libs on notebook paper and made my friends and family fill in the blanks, hoping for an “Elephant that Ate Crackers in a Jukebox” or something equally wacky. As an adult…

I’ve watched enough medical dramas on TV to know there is something called an M&M conference that doesn’t involve candy — it takes a look at how recent surgeries went. …