Flash Fiction Draw Challenge Draws for May 2026 from Mike Mayak. (May 4, 2026)

Posted on May 4, 2026 by jeffbaker307
Photo by Dhia Eddine on Pexels.com

First, here’s the prompts for the May 2026 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, then my usual long-winded explanation:

A War Story

Involving A Football

Set in A Chapel

Now, on to the details.

Hi! I’m Mike Mayak, I also write as Jeff Baker and I’m the current moderator for the monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, which was started by ‘Nathan Burgoine a few years ago and carried on by Cait Gordon and Jeffrey Ricker. It’s a monthly writing challenge mainly for stress-free fun that anyone can play.

Here’s how it works: the first Monday of every month I draw three cards; a heart, a diamond and a club. These correspond to a list naming a genre, a setting and an object that must appear in the story. Participants write up a flash fiction story, 1,000 words or less, post it to their website and link it here in the comments. I’ll post the results (including, hopefully, one of my own!)

As I’m no good making videos I did the drawing offstage. So, the results were the King of Hearts (a War Story), the Seven of Diamonds (A Chapel) and the Eleven of Clubs (A Football.)

So we will write a War Story, involving a football, set in a chapel.

We’ll have the results here in this same space around Monday May 11th, 2026.

So, get to writing and I’ll post the results next week! And I’m putting the 2026 Flash Draw sheet at the end of this message, again! (* indicates those have been used.)

Thanks for playing, and I’ll see you in about week!

And have fun!

——mike

Clubs

1 A Cat

*2 A Crown From a Theater Prop Room

*3 Contact Lenses

4 A Vintage Comic Book

5 A Bunch of Bananas

6 A Manhole Cover

*7. A Bag of Ping-Pong Balls

8 A Suitcase Full Of Money

*9 A Plastic Toy Horse

10 A Book Of Stamps

*J A Football

Q A Jack-O-Lantern

K Modeling Clay

HEARTS

A Science Fiction

2 A Sword-And-Sorcery Story

3 A Thriller

*4 A Romance

*5 A Fantasy

6 A Mystery

7. A Comedy

*8 An Ancient History Story

*9 A Horror Story

10 A Fairy Tale

J A Story Involving a Chase

Q A Whodunnit

*K A War Story

DIAMONDS

A. A Boat in Hudson Bay

*2 An Abandoned Prison

*3 A Mexican Restaurant

4 The Golden Gate Bridge

5 An Egyptian Pyramid

*6 A Roller Coaster

*7 A Chapel

*8 A Skating Rink

9 An Abandoned Highway

10 A Stable

J. A Church Steeple

Q. A Walk-In Freezer

K. The Bottom Of the Ocean

Posted in 'Nathan Burgoine, Cait Gordon, Jeffrey Ricker, Monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge | Leave a comment

“Cardula And the Locked Rooms.” Jack Ritchie Mysteries Reviewed by Jeff Baker. (May 4, 2026)

Posted on May 4, 2026 by jeffbaker307

“Cardula and the Locked Rooms,” the fine collection of Jack Ritchie’s crime and mystery stories featuring his private eye character Cardula is out now from Crippen & Landru and it is well worth the wait. Featuring all of Ritchie’s stories about the P.I. who prefers to be a night stalker of the dark shadows, Cardula narrates the tales in the first-person with plenty of Ritchie’s trademark humor.

Ritchie never reveals much about his P.I. protagonist but drops some broad and clever hints, such as this from “The Return Of Cardula.”

“I had arrived at my office at nine p.m.

I closed the window against the night air, hung up my cape, and proceeded to unlock the door to my waiting room.”

The first of the stories, “Kid Cardula,” which opens the collection is not narrated by Cardula, nor is he a private investigator. Cardula, needing money, is an aspiring boxer and the tale is told by “Manny,” the promoter to whom the vam…I mean, the boxer presents himself. Like the rest of the stories in the series it is great fun.

The collection is rounded-out with several more of Ritchie’s fine stories, these featuring seemingly “impossible crimes.” Including one with his other series detective Henry Turnbuckle.

Longtime Milwaukee residents will probably recognize city landmarks and streets scattered throughout the book; Ritchie was a lifelong resident of the city.

Add to this a wonderfully informative introduction about Ritchie, his career and the stories by the book’s editor Brian Skupin. And the cover illustration by Joshua Luboski, which leaves little doubt that Cardula is not a man to be trifled with.

Oh hell. Just get the book. Read it. Enjoy it. It’s Jack Ritchie. Like his character Cardula, a man of singular power…

—end—

Here’s a link to Crippen & Landru: https://crippen-and-landru.myshopify.com/products/cardula-and-the-locked-rooms

Posted in Books, Crippen and Landru, Fiction, Mystery, Short-Stories, Vampires | Leave a comment

“River Road” by John M. Floyd. Reviewed by Jeff Baker. (May 3, 2026)

Posted on May 3, 2026 by jeffbaker307

John M. Floyd’s mystery short-story collection “River Road And Other Mystery Stories” (Crippen and Landru, 2025) features seventeen enthralling mysteries, mostly of the Ellery Queen/Edward D. Hoch variety, meaning fairly-clued whodunit puzzle stories, more often than not featuring Southern settings (John Floyd is a Mississippi writer after all.) and realistic characters.

Floyd’s detectives are appealing; Sheriff Ray Douglas operates in a very finely drawn locale: Pine County, Mississippi. Private Eye Tom Langford’s setting is a bit more urban. Both of them are aided and abetted by female allies; Sheriff Douglas’ “sometimes girlfriend” Jennifer Parker and Langford’s fiancee Debra Jo (D.J.) Wells. Characterizations, of our main characters especially, feel real, human and identifiable with the sort of people the reader would know.

Floyd’s locations are perfectly described; readers can see, hear smell and feel the dusty roads, country stores and other places his detectives explore and crimes occur.

Floyd’s descriptions and dialogue are masterful and a lot of fun to read:

Workwise. I try to stay on the correct side of the blurry line between

right and wrong, and I am neither well known nor powerful…

And

She was one of those folks who could probably assemble a parachute

within thirty seconds and give you all the specifics on air density and

rate of descent, and then forget to put it on before she jumped out of the plane…

After two groupings of stories featuring Douglas and Langford, the final grouping of stories in the book takes readers to locales as varied as Wyoming, Arizona and even the Wild West of an earlier century.

In short, John Floyd’s “River Road” is an entertaining collection (actually Floyd’s seventh collection of short-stories), and a must-have for any mystery reader.

—end—

Here’s a link to the Crippen and Landru website: https://crippen-and-landru.myshopify.com/products/river-road-and-other-mystery-stories

Posted in Books, Crippen and Landru, John M. Floyd, Mystery, Reviews, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

“Upwardly Mobile.” Friday Flash Fics for Friday May 1, 2026, from Jeff Baker. (May 1, 2026)

Posted on May 1, 2026 by jeffbaker307

Upwardly Mobile

by Jeff Baker

“Oh, crap!” Alonso said. “There goes another one.”

The two men stood in the supermarket parking lot and watched as a beam of white light from the sky lifted up one of the parked cars and took it away.

“Glad it wasn’t mine.” Edward said.

“Hey, yours is an old junker,” Alonso said. “Besides, it’s still in the shop, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Edward said. “Hey, thanks for the lift anyway.”

“Anytime,” Alonso said.

The aliens had arrived several months before. They had established little contact and their ships hadn’t landed. They broadcast a message to the governments of Earth that Earth was in the section of space that they owned and they were “borrowing” things.

Mainly unoccupied cars.

It’s like a bad SNL sketch,” Edward’s Dad had said. “THEY have arrived and THEY want our cars.”

So far nobody had figured out why.

“Looks like yours is still here,” Edward said, pushing the shopping cart as Alonso fished his key out of his pocket and clicked open the trunk.

“Yeah,” Alonso said as they started loading the trunk with grocery bags. “Hey, somebody on NPR said most of the cars are being taken from public lots, not from people’s driveways.”

“Tell that to my neighbor,” Edward said. “She says space people took her car from her driveway last week. I think it was repoed.”

They slammed the trunk shut.

“Hey, thanks again for…Watch out!” Edward said.

An intense white beam of light shot down from the sky. In another moment, the empty shopping cart rose into the air and soon disappeared into the clouds.

Alonso and Edward stared up after the vanished cart.

“Looks like the store’s not getting that one back,” Edwardo said.

“Hey, I bet the aliens are bored teenagers!” Alonso said.

—end—

Posted in Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, Science Fiction, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

“I Shall Try To Keep It All the Year.” Friday Flash Fics from Jeff Baker. (April 25, 2026)

Posted on April 25, 2026 by jeffbaker307

I Shall Try To Keep It All The Year

by Jeff Baker

“I can’t believe this,” Marty Roths said. “I’ve been working for the city for almost twenty-five years and we’ve never forgotten to do this.”

“Hey, it was the Holiday Season and we got busy,” Zander Black said as he steered the pickup truck with “City Of Dartagnan” emblazoned on the side inside an outline of the State of Kansas.

“It’s not like nobody ever goes down this street,” Marty said. “Hell, I used to live right near here.”

“Remember how small Dartagnan is?” Zander said. “Every street is right near here.”

The truck turned at the edge of downtown where there were several empty warehouses and the flower shop and the street sign: Elbridge Gerry Street.

“Elbridge Gerry,” Marty said. “When I was real little I wondered why there was no bridge on Elbridge Gerry Street.”

“I wondered why someone would name their kid that,” Zander said. “Hey, there it is.”

Pressed up against a small building that had been a liquor store and was now a bakery was a light pole. Attached to the metal pole on top that extended the light over the street was an outline of two striped candy canes with a Christmas bow wrapped around them. Metal lines and Christmas Tree bulbs. When it was turned on, the decoration was all festive bright reds and greens. Now it was a dark silhouette against the blue April sky.

“Yup.” Marty said. “We left this one up. For four months.”

“Too bad the lights weren’t turned on after dark anymore. Would have looked really pretty for Springtime.” Zander said.

“The colors would have gone well with the flowers in the yards.” Marty said. “You got the ladder?”

“I hope.” Zander said, opening the truck door and climbing out.

“Maybe some good came out of this,” Marty said. “Maybe people saw this and it reminded them. Why we celebrate Christmas.”

“Yeah,” Zander said, looking for the ladder in the back of the truck.

“Remember the line from near the end of ‘A Christmas Carol?’” Marty said. “Scrooge says something like: ‘I shall honor Christmas in my heart, I shall try to keep it all the year.’ Maybe this decoration did something like that for somebody.”

Zander walked the ladder over to the pole. “There’s a line in there about Tiny Tim hoping people who saw him would be reminded of the man who made lame men walk and blind men see.”

Marty stopped and stared. “I didn’t know you read that book. I didn’t know you even read anything.”

“I’m multi-faceted,” Zander said. “Comes from growing up in a town with a literary name.”

They leaned the ladder against the building right next to the light pole and steadied it.

“Did we really forget to take this one down?” Zander asked with a smile.

Marty just smiled and said nothing.

–end–

AUTHOR’S NOTE: We met Zander and Marty in my Christmas story “Zander And Marty’s Advent Calendar” a couple of years ago. https://authorjeffbaker.com/2024/12/05/zander-marty-and-advent-friday-flash-fics-by-jeff-baker-december-6th-2024/ This is sort of an April Christmas story. Oh, and Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is one of my favorite books. If you haven’t read it, you should!

—-jeff

Posted in Charles Dickens, Christmas, D'artagnan, Kansas, Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, Short-Stories, Zander and Marty | Leave a comment

Reading Report For March/April 2026 from Jeff Baker

Posted on April 20, 2026 by jeffbaker307

Reading Report March/April 2026

Read Rudyard Kipling’s “A Matter Of Fact.” Gripping, with the power to scare the bejabbers out of a reader with its descriptions. But it really isn’t about horror. From “Kipling’s Science Fiction,” edited by John Brunner.

Also read Kipling’s story “Wireless,” in the Brunner edited book. More fantasy than sci-fi but the glimpses of early wireless telegraphy and a nineteenth-century British Chemist’s shop were interesting.

Started reading “The Flying Stingaree” by John Blaine. A YA mystery novel about Rick Brandt from around the time of the Ken Holt mystery series. I got this one because Holt supposedly gets a cameo. Read the first three chapters; lots of fun. Lots of detail about boating, crabbing and stingarees aka stingrays. Oh, yeah; and a man may have been kidnapped by a flying saucer…

Read “The Good Neighbors,” by Edgar Pangborn. First Pangborn I’d ever read. Satirical and sad at the same time.

Started reading “The Riddle Of the Stone Elephant,” the second YA mystery novel about Ken Holt by Bruce Campbell. I THINK I know what’s gong on; sort of an impossible crime thingie and the clues are there and I spotted them.

For Henry Kuttner’s April 7th birthday I finally started reading “The Dark World,” the novella that was influential on among others Roger Zelazny. Also started reading Kuttner’s “The Land Of the Earthquake.” Both of them were Novellas/Novels originally published in “Startling Stories” magazine. I have a bunch of Kuttner’s “Startling” stuff and am planning to read all of them that I can. Kuttner is just that good.

Read Lord Dunsany’s “Why The Milkman Shudders When He Perceives The Dawn,” which he apparently wrote to spoof his own style. That’s according to a charming account of a public reading by Dunsany by H.P. Lovecraft who was there.

Listened to two other Dunsanay stories on audio:”The Sword Of Welleran,” an influential sword-and-sorcery story I’m surprised I hadn’t read before. The elegant prose almost overshadowed the story. And listened to Dunsany’s “Miss Cubbidge And the Dragon Of Romance.” The ending was probably funnier than back when the story was written.

Started reading from Lawrence Watt-Evans’ new collection “Remembrance Of Things To Come.”

Read “Paul Is Dead.” Fun, and I didn’t see the ending coming.

Read “To See The New Jerusalem .”

Read his poem “When I See Rigel’s Light Sleeting Through The Side Of Heinlein Station.”

Yes, I read the fine weekly offerings by Kaje Harper and the monthly story by E.H. Timms.

I stumbled across one of those “Gothic Fiction” collections this one of time travel stories which has F. Anstey’s “Tourmalin’s Time Cheques.” Sort of a daft “Love Boat” story with time travel. I started in on it and will finish it in time for next month’s report.

I started bumming through a horror/fantasy anthology I’m reading to review for my Queer Sci-Fi column. On that, more later.

And my Grandniece was reading the Dr. Seuss book “Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?” So I read it too! I’d never read it before. A fun book teaching kids about sounds. Moo!

—-jeff baker, april 20, 2026

Posted in C. L. Moore, Henry Slesar, Lord Dunsany | Leave a comment

Here’s my April 2026 Progress Report. —-Jeff Baker

Posted on April 20, 2026 by jeffbaker307

Progress Report March/April 2026

Sloughed-off a little on the four-pages-a-day-thing but I did keep up the writing. Wrote/finished about six short-stories. Mostly the weekly/monthly flash fiction stories.

Wrote a Petrarchan Sonnet as an homage to the Turkey at Central and Greenwich in Wichita, who has apparently died. Was just going to do a poem, but the sonnet idea hit me. Doesn’t rhyme but what the hey. (Yes, this was a real bird who made the intersection and the shops around it his own!)

Got a Queer Sci-Fi Column about done and started another one. I like having several month’s worth of columns already written and I’m behind on that.

Sent off at least one story to a market and I got at least one other story rejected. As I have said before, that’s all progress too.

The big news is that I am simultaneously working on two novelette/novella length stories. The YA sci-fi story (Which could become a short novel!) which has it’s origins in an idea from forty years ago that I talked about in last period’s report, and a (Definitely not YA!) semi-erotic romance whose idea just banged into my head a few weeks ago. Making progress on both of them, at the same time! (Something I didn’t used to do!)

And the YA Sci-Fi story is approaching being finished. I just have to pull some sections together and write more on the middle and I’ll have a first draft! That one is definitely Novella length.

Again, whew! And that’s about it for now! ——-jeff baker April 20, 2026

Posted in Progress Reports, Writing | Leave a comment

“On Vacation” With Rainbow Snippets from Jeff Baker. (April 18, 2026)

Posted on April 18, 2026 by jeffbaker307
Photo by Igor Passchier on Pexels.com

Every Week at Rainbow Snippets https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets participants post six lines of a work of theirs, a work-in-progress or a work by someone else that has LGBT characters, like in my recent flash fiction story “On Vacation.” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2026/04/17/go-on-vacation-with-friday-flash-fics-from-jeff-baker-april-17-2026/

Here we meet happily married Dave and Liam driving on a Canadian highway with their kids Shane and Jax in the back seat…

“Hey, Dad,” Jax said from the back seat. “How long ‘till we get there?”

“Not as long as it was last time you asked,” Dave said from behind the wheel. “It’s worth it. I think you’ll like Montreal.”

Sitting beside him, his Husband Liam grinned and patted Dave’s leg. This was something he always looked forward to; family vacations.

“And anyway, you realize you’re quoting a cartoon I saw in a magazine once, don’t you?” Dave said with a grin.

A line or two over but here’s more after Shane and Jax’s Dads mention Pop Liam having been to the Grand Canyon…

“Grand Canyon?” Shane said, slightly awed.

“Yeah,” Dave said. “Your Pop still has pictures of that trip back home.”

“I wanna go!” Jax blurted out.

“Yeah!” Shane said.

“You know, I’ve never seen the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone,” Dave said, eyeing Liam. “But maybe in a few years, okay?”

“Maybe in a couple of years.” Liam said.

We’ll leave this family looking forward to their vacation adventures in Montreal. And I’ll mention that fifty-some years ago my family and I went to Yellowstone AND the Grand Canyon.

Someday, I’ll get to see Canada.

See you with more snippets soon. —-jeff

Posted in LGBT, Rainbow Snippets | Leave a comment

Go “On Vacation, With Friday Flash Fics From Jeff Baker. (April 17, 2026)

Posted on April 17, 2026 by jeffbaker307

On Vacation

by Jeff Baker

The SUV sped down the highway at a reasonable speed, past farms and wind turbines.

“Hey, Dad,” Jax said from the back seat. “How long ‘till we get there?”

“Not as long as it was last time you asked,” Dave said from behind the wheel. “It’s worth it. I think you’ll like Montreal.”

Sitting beside him, his Husband Liam grinned and patted Dave’s leg. This was something he always looked forward to; family vacations.

“And anyway, you realize you’re quoting a cartoon I saw in a magazine once, don’t you?” Dave said with a grin.

Jax’s older brother Shane laughed from the back seat as Jax sat next to him saying “Huh?”

“I think I remember that cartoon,” Liam said. “And I remember car trips like this,” Liam said looking at the boys in the back seat. “Back when I was about your age.”

The adults smiled. Being ten and twelve felt so far away in their early forties.

“Where did you guys go?” Shane asked.

“Wow.” Liam said, his mind racing back. “All over. One year we even went down to the States to see Yellowstone Park and even the Grand Canyon.” He was smiling at the memory and his voice got really soft. “A whole month, and it was worth every minute.”

“Grand Canyon?” Shane said, slightly awed.

“Yeah,” Dave said. “Your Pop still has pictures of that trip back home.”

“I wanna go!” Jax blurted out.

“Yeah!” Shane said.

“You know, I’ve never seen the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone,” Dave said, eyeing Liam. “But maybe in a few years, okay?”

“Maybe in a couple of years.” Liam said.

“Awwwwww.” Jax said.

“Hey, who’s up for Poutine?” Dave asked.

“Yaaay!” the kids chorused.

Liam patted Dave’s leg again and mouthed an “I Love You” as the car sped on.

—end—

Posted in Canada, Family, Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, LGBT, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

Something In the Marshes. Results For the April 2026 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge

Posted on April 14, 2026 by jeffbaker307
Photo by Abdulmomen Bsruki on Pexels.com

Hi! I’m Mike, A.K.A. Jeff Baker.

The draws for the April 2026 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge were:

An Ancient History Story

Set in an Abandoned Prison

Involving a Bag Of Ping-Pong Balls

E. H. Timms wrote: “Beneath the Marshes.” https://thinkingthinking123.blogspot.com/2026/04/flash-fic-challenge-beneath-marshes.html

And I wrote: “A Great Hole In Rome” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2026/04/06/a-great-hole-in-rome-flash-fiction-draw-challenge-story-for-april-2026-from-jeff-baker-april-6-2026/

Thanks for participating, and for reading and remember it’s never too late to write your own story, post it in the comments and I’ll link it here.

We’ll be back with another draw on May 4th, 2026!

Thanks again!

—–mike

Posted in E. H. Timms, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, prison, Short-Stories | Leave a comment