If you’re looking for short stories to read, be sure to
check out Curious Fictions. This
little known gem is a platform for short story reprints. The site will ask you
for credit card information up front, but all the content is completely free,
though tipping is encouraged. You can also subscribe to your favorite authors.
It is a great option for short story writers who too often
see their previously published stories vanish into a kind of oblivion a few
months after being published. I have uploaded a few stories there and like
having a no fuss place to give these stories a second chance to be seen.
Most recently, you can find my story, Short Straw,
on the site. It previously appeared in the Lost Worlds
anthology by Flame Tree Press (print only). The link for Short Straw in the
sidebar will now direct to Curious Fictions.
While I hope you'll enjoy the stories I’ve posted there, I know
you won't be disappointed with the site: it is stuffed with amazing stories,
easy to navigate, and easy to read on a variety of screens.
Here’s a little teaser for Short Straw:
“Don’t tell the trees your name,” the wild grasses whispered
as they batted their bearded heads against the linen skirt wrapped around Nina’s
thin hips. Her great grandparents, the first colonists, had brought rice and
wheat, barley and rye, and crossed their seeds with the new-world plants. But
the grains they produced were inedible. Still, they abandoned grasses
persisted, and the wild meadow won a few more inches of ground every year.
She looked up, past the settlement to where the tallest
branches of the forest canopy snared the sinking sun. “I have to go,” she said.
“If you must go, take us with you,” they whispered.
Nina closed her hands capturing two fistfuls of seed heads,
pulled them off their stems, and shoved them into her skirt pockets.
"There. Happy?"
“No.”
