A Paranormal Story In Stereo! (And then we can go to Outback!) Flash Fiction Draw Challenge Draws For March, 2025. (Mike Mayak, March 3, 2025)

Posted on March 3, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Photo By Amy Tharp

Here’s the draws for the March 2025 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge. Followed by my usual long-winded explanation:

A Paranormal Story

Involving A Set Of Stereo Speakers

Set in The Australian Outback

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!) on the blog.

As I’m no good making videos I did the drawing offstage. So, the results were the Eight of Hearts (a Paranormal Story), the King of Diamonds (The Australian Outback) and the Jack of Clubs (A Set Of Stereo Speakers.)

So we will write Paranormal fiction, set in the Australian Outback involving a Set of Stereo Speakers.

We’ll have the results here in this same space around Monday March 10th, 2025.

So, get to writing and I’ll post the results next week! And I’m putting the 2025 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

Here’s the list:

Flash Draw Sheet for 2025 (“*” indicates prompt has been used.)

Clubs

A A Rusted Knife

*2 A Set of Stereo Speakers

3 A Spare Tire

4 A Moldy Wig

5 A Clown Costume

6 A Bowl Full Of Jelly

7. A Circus Poster

*8 A Bottle Of Poison

9 A Director’s Chair

10 A Bicycle

*J A Hair Sofa

Q A Crystal Ball

K A Set of Leg Irons

Hearts

A A Mystery

2 A Fairy Tale

3 A Caper Story

4 A Horror Story

5 A Fantasy

6 Science Fiction

7. A Comedy

*8 A Paranormal Story

*9 A Shaggy Dog Story

10 A Western

J A Romance

Q A Cyberpunk Story

*K Historical Fiction

Diamonds

A A Swimming Pool

2 A Pool Hall

3 A Space Station

4 An Olympic Stadium

5 A Palace

6 A Trolley

*7 A Synagogue

8 A Library

9 A Race Track

* 10 A Line Outside a Theater

J The Empire State Building

Q A Convenience Store

*K The Australian Outback.

Posted in 'Nathan Burgoine, Cait Gordon, Jeffrey Ricker, Monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge | 2 Comments

The Great Auk Squawks! Friday Flash Fics With Captain Ecology And Compost Boy, from Jeff Baker. February 28th, 2025.

Posted on February 28, 2025 by jeffbaker307

The Great Auk Squawks/Rock Chalk Great Auk

by Jeff Baker

Afternoon in Goat’s Town and those dauntless costumed crusaders against crime Captain Ecology and Compost Boy are cruising the snowy streets in the Ecolo-Car.

(Not that kind of cruising.)

What makes this Wintry scene unusual is that it’s the middle of July!

“Icy streets in mid-July,” Compost Boy said over-enthusiastically. “Golly, Captain Ecology, this is way off-base.”

“Not in the Antipodean countries where they get Winter while we’re having summer but you’re right. This is unusual.” Captain Ecology said.

“It must be some dastardly super-villain responsible for this, maybe Doctor Icicle!” Compost Boy said.

“You could be right,” Captain Ecology said. “But I’m not sure that…”

His comment was interrupted by a beeping from the dashboard.

“I got it,” Compost Boy said as he flipped the switch. A familiar evil laugh filled the car.

“Auk! Auk! Auk! Attention, you ecologically sound do-gooders! I’m messing with your precious environment!”

“The Great Auk!” Captain Ecology said, his eyes narrowing.

“Yes,” the voice from the speaker sneered. “And I’m using my electro-environment destabilizer to change the climate! Auk! Auk! Auk! Goat’s Town will be a solid block of ice unless the city pays me One-Milli…I mean, an unspecified sum!”

“You fiend!” Captain Ecology said gripping the steering wheel.

“And if you try to stop me, you’ll become environmentally friendly popsicles! Auk! Auk! Auk!”

There was a beep as the Great Auk hung up.

“Golly, Captain Ecology, how are we going to stop him?” Compost Boy said. “And why did I ever pick a costume where I’m in short pants all the time?”

“I’m sure President Carter would be fine with you turning up the heat in the Ecolo-Car this one time,” Captain Ecology said. “And while you’re at it, turn on the Ecco-Excess-Energy Tracker.”

“Which he installed instead of a tape deck,” Compost Boy muttered to himself. “Oh well, at least I get girls and guys checking me out in these shorts.”

(Okay, maybe one of them is cruising.)

About fifteen minutes later the Ecolo-Car pulled into the parking lot of a gas station with signs advertising snacks and cold drinks and small round tables covered with metal beach umbrellas outside. The umbrellas were covered with snow.

“Those metal umbrellas are clearly the Great Auk’s disguised transmitters,” Captain Ecology sad.

“Once we put him out of commission we can put these out of commission!” Compost Boy said, punching his fist into his other hand.

“Or just make Auk show us the off switch,” Captain Ecology said.

Captain Ecology and Compost Boy walked into the snack area filled with shelves of chips and candy. They spotted a bearded figure in a company uniform behind a checkout counter.

“Hold it right there, Great Auk!” Captain Ecology shouted. “We see right through your disguise!”

“We’re gonna make you extinct!” Compost Boy yelled triumphantly.

“Nevermind,” the Great Auk said pulling off the fake nose and beard. “We’re all in trouble now. I was just handed these.”

The Great Auk tossed them pieces of paper. Captain Ecology quickly read through it.

“A copyright notice,” he sighed.

“I bet it was that prefacing everything with Ecolo that did it,” Compost Boy said.

“Auk! Auk! Auk!” The Great Auk squawked.

—end—

Posted in Captain Ecology and Compost Boy, crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, LGBT, Science Fiction, Short-Stories, snow | Leave a comment

Mr. Fix, the River Styx and Friday Flash Fics. By Jeff Baker, February 21, 2025

Posted on February 21, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Mister Fix And the River Styx

by Jeff Baker

“Two-Hundred pounds!” the Bank Manager said to Detective Fix. “We will be ruined.”

“Two-Hundred pounds is not much in the grand scheme of things,” Inspector Fix said.

“You don’t understand,” the manager said. “Our reputation is one for security and safety. If word of this gets out…”

“I understand,” Fix said, concealing that he was losing some of his patience. “Tell me again what happened.”

“There is nothing to tell,” the manager said. “It was the end of the day. We were counting the money. We keep a very careful accounting of every shilling. But to-night we were short. By two-hundred pounds! Oh, Lord! What am I going to do?”

Fix was about to say something when an officer burst into the room.

“We caught him,” he said breathless. “He ran and we shot him. You’d better come quickly.”

As the three of them rushed outside from the bank offices the officer told his story.

“Me and Ruddy were doing our patrol, right? And we seen this shifty-looking character drop out of a tree down the way, holding a bag. It’s dark enough he didn’t think anybody would notice. But we noticed. We gave chase. And that’s when he fired.”

“Fired?” Fix asked. “Armed?”

“Criminals usually are,” the officer said. “But he stumbled and fell and the gun went off again. Into him. Here we are, Sir.” They could hear the bank manager panting behind them.

A younger officer was kneeling beside a prone figure in dark clothing lying in the street. Fix quickly noticed a gun and a cloth bag, smaller than a carpet bag which the officer had set behind himself.

“What’s the situation?” Fix asked.

“Better ask yourself, Sir,” Ruddy, the young officer said. “He doesn’t have much time, I’ll wager.”

Fix bent down to see the man who was breathing hard and bleeding profusely. “Fetch a doctor,” he said. The officer who had fetched them ran off towards Baker Street.

Always aware of his surroundings, Fix noticed the bank manager standing there, staring at the man.

“It’s Alfred…Sleazy Alfred they call him.”

“Yes,” Fix said. He knew him by reputation.

The bank manager rummaged through the bag. “This isn’t even half of the money,” he said.

Fix glared at Sleazy Alfred. “Where’s the rest of it?”

Alfred coughed and managed to say. “He has it…handed it to me out the window. I climb trees like a monkey I do. Hopped from one to the other and hid.”

Fix glanced around. The area was planted with trees like an urban forest.

“We split the money…” Alfred continued.

“He took the lion’s share,” Fix said.

“We did it quick after they left the bank…I hid again, he kept his bag under his coat.”

“I searched the three employees, Scott, Wilson and Dougal. Found nothing,” the bank manager said. “And we looked all over the bank. Nothing.”

“Of course,” Fix said. “He slipped it to a confederate outside. Alfred. Now, who is he?”

Alfred coughed. “I don’t know the name,” he said. “Said it was better that way…an’ he said he’d be across the river Styx before they found out…”

Fix glared down at Alfred. “What did he mean by that?”

Alfred gave a gurgle and Fix realized he wouldn’t be giving him any answers.

Fix stood up. The bank manager looked like he was going to faint.

“I’ve never seen…never seen anybody…I mean after being shot…” the manager said.

“Yes,” Fix said. “When the doctor arrives let me back in your office. I want to check the files on the three employees who were there.”

In the office, the lamplight flickering on the wall calendar with the date 1873 as Fix looked over the personnel records and the bank manager rambled on.

“They’ve been with the bank for years…” he said, and for the seemingly hundredth time he listed the suspect employees. “Wilson Dougal, we call him Willie. Steadfast Daniel Miller, we call him that because, well everybody does. And James Scott…I can’t believe that any of them would…”

“I can,” Fix said looking up from the papers. “I’m sending some officers over to arrest our man.”

Back at police headquarters Fix was enjoying a smoke with some of the officers.

“But Inspector,” one of them said. “How could you be certain…”

Fix smiled. “I wasn’t totally certain, but I had a hunch. The culprit had referred to the River Styx. And that tied in my memory with something I’d heard once; Durante or Dante is a word meaning steadfast. And Daniel is a nickname for Durante. He has an obsession with the classics. His personnel file lists him as living in a house called The Elysian Fields.” Fix took a long puff of his pipe. “Just over the River Styx.”

—end—

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Yes, this is the detective from Jules Verne’s “Around the World In Eighty Days.” I’d wanted to do a story about him and the prompt picture provided the impetus and the title. Although the story doesn’t have a lot to do with a river! ——-jsb 2/21/25

Posted in crime, Detective Fix, Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, Mystery, Short-Stories | 2 Comments

Reading Report. January/February 2025 From Jeff Baker (February 20, 2025)

Posted on February 20, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Reading Report; January/February 2025

I’m reading Stephen King’s first Dark Tower novel; “The Gunslinger.” Told myself I’d do it if I got snowed-in, and I’m not going anywhere in the 1” of snow we had! The book is comprised of five novellas that originally appeared in MFSF and King revised the book slightly for a 2003 edition; removing inconsistencies with the later novels in the series. In the intro, King says his idea was to tell “a tale of wonder,” and he does. It’s a page-turner.

That’s a novel, and unless otherwise mentioned I’m reading short-stories here.

Read some of “Mama’s Bank Account” by Kathryn Forbes. I’d read some of the stories before, years ago. It still holds up!

Read several stories in “100 Wild Little Weird Tales,” one of the “100…” anthologies Barnes and Noble put out many years ago, edited by Greenberg, Dziemianowicz and Weinberg. Collecting lots of the short-short stories (and reprints!) that appeared in the Unique Magazine. “One Chance” by Ethel Helene Coen, “The Other Santa Claus” by Thorp McClusky,” “The High Places” by Frances Garfield (a spooky story set on a plane trip to Wichita!) and “The Hidden Talent Of Artist Bates,” by Snowden T. Hewick that was very reminiscent of Rbt. Arthur’s “Obstinate Uncle Otis.”

I finished reading Andre Norton’s story “Three-Inch Trouble” in the anthology “A Constellation Of Cats.” Perfect last line!

I went on to read Norton’s story “Noble Warrior,” in the first of the “Catfantastic” anthologies she co-edited. It’s the first of a series of stories about the valiant Siamese that appeared in all five “Catfantastic” anthologies. In her last decades, Norton contributed to several theme anthologies, and these stories are fun!

Read the second of Norton’s Noble Warrior stories: “Hob’s Pot,” in “Catfantastic II,” where the feline may accidentally have released supernatural evil in the home he has sworn to protect.

Read the remaining three Noble Warrior stories by Andre Norton in Catfantastic III, IV and V. They play out like a serial novel and I wish all her cat stories would be collected in a book. Noble Warrior considers himself the defender of a Princess and has an affinity for the supernatural and encounters ghosts, wizards and even a hobgoblin. Some are friends, some are foes.

For the record, the remaining stories are: “Noble Warrior Meets With A Ghost,” ‘Noble Warrior, Teller Of Fortunes,” and “Noble Warrior and the “Gentleman.”” The last one reminding me a bit of the last part of Wilde’s “The Canterville Ghost.”

Got a book called “Mark Twain On Writing And Publishing” and have been bumming through it. Great fun, and actually informative!

Read John Floyd’s latest Woman’s World mystery “Shure As Shootin’”

Read E. H. Timms’ monthly story (written for the Flash Fiction Draw Challenge.)

Been reading the weekly installments of J. Scott Coatsworth’s “Down The River.”

And of course, read Kaje Harper’s online stories.

Finally got around to reading Henry Kuttner’s Sword-And-Sorcery stories; read “Cursed Be the City,” the first of two stories he wrote about Prince Raynor (named long before Prince Rainier entered the world’s consciousness!) The story is great fun and the prince has a Black partner who is not played for comic relief, something almost unheard of in 1939. Full of wonderful lines like “…and under all, a dim, powerful motif beat a wordless shrilling, a faint piping that set the Prince’s skin to crawling as he heard it.” I have the stories in several anthologies and collections but was reading it from the Planet Stories publication “Elak Of Atlantis” which collects the stories Kuttner wrote to fill the void in Weird Tales after Robert E. Howard died. The 2007 reprint of the 1985 edition includes an introduction Joe R. Lansdale.

Read several stories from the 1965 paperback “13 French Science-Fiction Stories,” edited by Damon Knight.

“Juliette” by Claude Cheinisse, “Olivia” by Henry Damonti and “The Devil’s Goddaughter” by Suzanne Malaval. That last one like a folktale but with a nasty ending.

I had never read any of Robert Bloch’s pun-laden stories about Lefty Feep. A Runyonesque character who gets involved in the weird. Okay, actually his friends do! Read two of them. “The Weird Doom Of Floyd Scrilch,” with a lot of WWII-era topical references (including an anti-Japaneese racial slur) and a character named “Vincent Van Gouge.” Actually LOL funny in places, and with a spooky last line. It IS a Robert Bloch story after all! The other Feep story I read “The Little Man Who Wasn’t All There” was a disappointment. A so-so comedy about invisibility marred by more ethnic slurs and stereotypes of the WWII era.

Read “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” Famous children’s book I got for my niece for birthday/Christmas. I didn’t know that the author Bill Martin, Jr. had grown up in Hiawatha, Kansas!

Read “Two Bedrooms, One Bath And A Ghost” by Richard May in the Bay Area Queer Writer’s Association anthology “Together,” which I got in Sacramento.

Read “The Haunted Grange Of Goresthorpe” by Arthur Conan Doyle in the anthology “Ghosts From the Library.” A story that hadn’t been published until the year 2000!

Read the first three chapters of an excellent story (novel/novella?) a friend of mine sent me. Advance word; get it! It’s a page-turner! I will keep you folks posted!

And I FINALLY got around to reading C. L. Moore’s excellent story “No Woman Born,” one of the great science-fiction stories ever!

And I started reading Moore/Kuttner’s story “We Kill People.” Writer Keith West who blogs at “Adventures Fantastic” https://adventuresfantastic.com/ and recommended it as one of their best.

On both these stories, more later!

Happy Reading, folks!

Posted in Anthologies, Arthur Conan Doyle, Books, C. L. Moore, Collection, E. H. Timms, Henry Kuttner, Invisibility, J. Scott Coatsworth, Kaje Harper, Mark Twain, Reading, Reading Report, River City Chronicles, Robert Arthur, Robert Bloch, Robert E. Howard, Short-Stories, Stephen King | Leave a comment

Progress Report for January/February 2025, from Jeff Baker.

Posted on February 20, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Progress Report January/February 2025

My big achievement over the past month is that I wrote (or started) several columns for Queer Sci-fi. I really like having a backlog of those columns so I don’t have to scramble at the last minute around the 13th of every month.

I worked (a little, maybe not enough!) on a couple of the longer stories. I also diddled around on a few new ideas. I’m trying not to kick myself for not doing as much on the longer fiction. I probably do pretty well, but I’m not getting any younger.

I sat down and started a separate notebook for lists of the stuff I need to finish and am keeping it with me when I go for one of my writing jags at the library. (Yes, I also write at home!)

I wrote the weekly flash fiction stories, as well as the one monthly one. I’ve gotten lazy and procrastinated on writing a couple of them (including the one that’s due tomorrow!) Yes, I wasted a lot of time online, which is the advantage of doing this at the Public Library; I’m not online!

I need to kick my work habits back up.

That’s about it for now.

——–jeff baker, February 20th, 2025

Posted in Progress Reports, Writing | Leave a comment

Meet The Noble One. Friday Flash Fics From Mike Mayak, (February 14, 2025)

Posted on February 14, 2025 by jeffbaker307

The Noble One

by Mike Mayak

Princess Talis smiled as she looked around Paolo’s Bar and Grill. Not the place one would expect to find a princess but at least the food was worthy of someone of royal lineage, if in taste if not in reputation. She sighed. This was a strange country, America. She glanced at the small shelf behind the bar. Just room for a bottle, a little figurine, a helmet from that strange game they called “football” (not the football she knew!) and the small painting of the Moon setting over the ocean with a deep purple sky.

She smiled again. She had done that and gifted that to the bar with thanks for the time they had fed her when she had been thrown out of her apartment. No way to treat a Princess, even an exiled one. That had been three years ago.

It was afternoon and there were few people in the bar. A grey haired man sitting at the bar, wearing a ballcap and a sweater and a burly, younger man becoming frustrated with the pinball machine in the corner. With an angry snarl he slapped at the machine and strode to the bar.

“I want a beer,” he snarled.

The bartender who looked barely old enough to drink himself, said “I think you’ve had enough.”

“I want my damn beer,” he snarled again.

The bartender cleared his throat and politely said “Andy, no more for you. Okay?”

The man was going to say something else when he glanced in the mirror behind the bar and saw the Princess. He turned around and smiled.

“Well, whaddoo we have here?” the man said. “A real pretty little thing too.”

The Princess might have momentarily been flattered. But she had seen his kind before.

“I am…Talis,” she said.

“Cute little furriner,” Andy said with a smirk. “Your kind is costin’ us jobs and causin’ all kinda trouble here. You need to go back where you came from.”

“Where I came from no longer exists,” Talis said thinking of her Father and their vanished island principality. “I wish I could say the same for you.”

Andy’s eyes flashed with anger and for a moment Talis saw a flicker of dark purple in the eyes but then another voice cut in.

“I think you’re bothering her,” said a male voice. The grey-haired man from the bar was standing behind them. He was broad shouldered with a determined look on his weather beaten face. “I think you ought to leave. Or at least leave her alone.

Andy clenched a fist and swung at the man, who ducked and grabbed his shoulders and slammed him against the wall.

“I said LEAVE!” the grey-haired man yelled in Andy’s face.

Andy pulled free, glared at the Princess and then the grey-haired man then stalked out the front door. After a moment, they heard a motorcycle engine revving and leaving the parking lot.

The Princess stood up. She was almost imposing and elegant in her flowing robe of dark blue, matching the painting, with flowers printed like a well-planned garden. She wore what looked like a turban covered in spangles like jewels. The fabric was a light tan that matched her skin.

“I am the Princess Talis of Talar,” she said. “Now living in America. I am in your debt.”

The grey-haired man inclined his head slightly. “That won’t be necessary,” he said. “I’m Alonzo Norton. A fortuneteller told me a long time ago I was the reincarnation of a Knight so I shouldn’t be surprised to meet a Princess at Paolo’s.”

Talis smiled. “You are The Noble One,” she said. “And I see in your eyes the flash of green, the banner of ones destined to battle Angra Mainyu. For it was he who controlled the man you defended me against.

“Angra Who?” Alonzo asked.

“The, what you might call demon who overran my Father’s kingdom and made me flee. I fear this will not be his last attack. And now you have angered him so he may come for you too.”

“Well, I was in the Gulf so It won’t be my first battle,” Alonzo said. “If I was a Knight once it must be my destiny.”

“To defend against evil, Noble One.” Talis said.

“No greater honor,” Alonzo said, inclining his head again. “No greater honor.”

—end—

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

Sleator And Selden Revisited For Our Times. By Jeff Baker, February 13, 2025.

Posted on February 13, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Author’s Note: This installment of my “Boogieman In Lavender” column was first posted on April 13, 2017 on Queer Sci Fi. It says some things about writers that fit our uncertain times today, so I’m re-posting it here. —jeff baker, February 13, 2025.

Two Authors Worth Mentioning

By Jeff Baker

We are out there. We are not always obvious. In the days before the 21st Century’s sometimes grudging acceptance of LGBT YA authors, such authors labored largely in the closet, their works publicly known while their orientation was not. Two authors whose works have recently crossed my desk again are William Sleator and George Selden.

Both names are probably jogging a bygone memory or two. Both had at least one familiar hit; Sleator with “Interstellar Pig,” and Selden with “The Cricket in Times Square.” And both men had definite LGBT connections.

I’ll start with Sleator (pronounced “Slater.”) I first encountered his work in one of those book order catalogs they used to have in schools. (Do they still have them?) The cover of Sleator’s book “House of Stairs” caught my eye; a group of teenagers dancing and jumping on a staircase which hung in a void. Yes, I ordered the book and still have it.

“House of Stairs” sets up Sleator’s themes; young adults caught up in strange events with dark, dystopian implications, with a genuine dystopia just offstage. “Interstellar Pig” features a teen who plays the title game with his mysterious new neighbors and discovers they and the game are not of this world. Comparisons to “The Twilight Zone” have become cliché but for Sleator’s work, they fit.

To me, Sleator’s masterpiece is “Singularity.” Twin brothers Harry and Barry, who don’t get along, discover a mysterious building where time passes differently. In what I consider one of the finest scenes I have read in science fiction, Harry decides to use the building to become older than his dominating brother. In describing the carefully-planned regimen Harry uses to time himself and pass the time with reading, self-education and rationing his food supply as only a few minutes pass in the outside world, Sleator shows Harry maturing in ways far beyond the physical acceleration of his aging.

Sleator’s YA story “In The Tunnels” appears in the LGBT YA anthology “Am I Blue?”

William Sleator did not publicly identify as gay or bi but he was partnered with two different men during his lifetime. He outlived each, and died in 2011.

Much of George Selden’s output is aimed at much younger readers, especially the series that begins with “The Cricket in Times Square.” The book which made the biggest impact on me was 1973’s “The Genie of Sutton Place.” A still very-readable book, it actually started out as a teleplay co-written with Kenneth Heuer some two decades earlier with none other than William Marshall (“Blackula”) playing the genie.

In the book, orphaned young Tim Farr is sent to live with his rich Aunt Lucy and finds a magic spell (in the Necronomicon!!) that summons the title genie from an ancient carpet in the museum. What follows is a fun and at times very sweet read through a “wondrous summer of parakeets and dogs and men,” with Abdullah the Genie disguised as Dooley the chauffer. The real magic is in Selden’s storytelling and words, such as Dooley’s flair for language (“Peace mortal! And dream of thy delight!”) And Dooley’s first time driving a car, magically turning all the lights on Second Avenue green, is a riot!

George Selden’s sexual orientation has been a source of speculation. He never married, and was, under the name “Terry Andrews,” the author of “The Story of Harold,” about a bisexual children’s author which was not a YA novel. For years, Selden was not publicly known as the author of “Harold.” No one has ever confirmed Selden’s own orientation or whether he ever found a partner. Selden died in 1989.

Identity and orientation did not change the fact that these two men wrote good stories which still have the power to entertain and compel, far beyond their intended audience. Good stories have a definite magic.

Best to let young Tim, from “The Genie of Sutton Place,” have the last word:

“That must be the magic. It makes everything feel unreal.”

—end—

Posted in Boogieman In Lavender, LGBT, Politics, Queer Sci Fi, Reading, Writing | Leave a comment

A Year With Three Kitties, by Jeff Baker. February 12, 2025.

Posted on February 12, 2025 by jeffbaker307

A Year With Three Kitties

by Jeff Baker

February 12, 2025

Exactly one year ago, February 12, 2024 I drove the 240 mile, four-and-a-half-hour trip from my Brother’s family’s house to my house in Wichita with something very special; I had adopted three kittens from the litters of two strays they had adopted after they wandered into their lives.

Kittens, maybe but they were ten months old and growing. I met them in June of the previous year, fell in love and decided I wanted them, as the house had gotten too quiet after Darryl died. I made sure they had all their shots and the like and made plans to take them with me in February.

They knew me already from my trips up there and we got along wonderfully. I named then Camden and Ebbet (baseball names honoring Darryl’s love of baseball) and Amy named the third kitty “Miss Meow-Meow,” and never was a cat more appropriately named!

We arrived in Wichita in the afternoon and the kitties quickly settled in to exploring and climbing. There was no real period of adjustment; it’s like they have always been here. They run and play and are indoor cats here in town, outdoor cats when the four of us visit my Brother’s house with its big backyard and tall fence.

The kitties are still growing (to my amazement) and they are loving and a big pain in the butt sometimes!

They have made this house a home again just by being in it. They eat, they snooze, they demand attention. When I was sick over the holidays in December (we all got colds) they slept with me as I crashed out over a couple of days.

They are the Sweet Kitties as I call them. Give them a fallen tissue and they live up to their other nickname: “The Kitties Without Pity.” The house is warm and happy with them here.

So, thank you, Kitties. It’s been a fun year and I can tell by your purrs you feel that way too!

—–jeff baker, February 12, 2025

Posted in Cats, Essay, Family | 2 Comments

“Still Here,” and More For the February 2025 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge. (Mike Mayak, February 9th, 2025)

Posted on February 9, 2025 by jeffbaker307
Photo by Nikko Tan on Pexels.com

Hi! I’m Mike, A.K.A. Jeff Baker.

The draws for the February 2025 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge were:

A Historical Fiction

Set in a Synagogue

Involving a Hair Sofa

E. H. Timms wrote: “Still Here” https://thinkingthinking123.blogspot.com/2025/02/flash-fic-challenge-still-here.html

And I wrote: “Night On Heckel Street” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2025/02/08/night-on-heckel-street-by-mike-mayak-flash-fiction-draw-challenge-story-for-february-2025/

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 March 3rd, 2025.

Thanks again!

—–mike

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

Night On Heckel Street by Mike Mayak. Flash Fiction Draw Challenge Story for February 2025.

Posted on February 8, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Night On Heckel Street

by Mike Mayak

The hair sofa crinkled as Lev shifted his position.

“How long have we been sitting here?” Lev asked.

“Since Midnight, Walter said. “Just about three hours.”

The two men glanced around the darkened Heckel Street Synagogue. Familiar but dark and quiet except for the occasional sound of a car from outside.

“Rabbi Klein must’ve been pretty worried or he wouldn’t have us standing guard in the place at night.” Lev said.

“Glad we don’t have to stand!” Walter chuckled. “Rabbi has a right to be worried, considering how things are in this country right now.”

“Protests, threats of violence,” Lev sighed. “Who would have thought things could change like this after just one election?”

“My Grandmother used to say that “In the darkness, the stars are still there if we look.” Walter said.

“Still, if there’s trouble I brought this,” Walter said pulling the object out from under the sofa.

“My nephew’s baseball bat.”

“I’ve seen those!” Lev said. “Did he get that when he visited America?”

“Yes,” Walter said, smacking the bat in his palm. “He said if things get bad I could use it on Hitler.”

—end—

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The Draws for the February 2025 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge were Historical Fiction, set in a Synagogue involving a Hair Sofa. A pretty obvious story but one I felt I ought to write. —–mike

Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction, Monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, Short-Stories | Leave a comment