“Mister Domenikos’ Wheel.” Flash Fiction Draw Challenge Story For October 2025, from Mike Mayak (October 11, 2025)

Posted on October 11, 2025 by jeffbaker307
Photo by SpaceX on Pexels.com

Mister Domenikos’ Wheel

by Mike Mayak

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The draws for the October 2025 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge were: A Comedy, involving a Spare Tire, set at a Space Station. Here’s what I came up with. —mike

Dante Granello was ten. What his parents jokingly called “a dangerous age.”

Dante’s Dad taught at the University down on Jovanni III, the planet the Jovanni Space Station orbited. They actually lived on the Station because Dante’s Mom was the Station’s Gravitic Engineer. His parents were usually busy when he got out of class so Dante hung out in Mr. Domenikos’ workroom on the lower level of the station. He knew the whole crew of the station would look after him but he liked being with Mr. Domenikos, even though rambling around the big occupied wheels that made up the levels of the Station was fun too.

Mr. Domenikos was the station’s main Engineer and de facto handyman. He was old, almost fifty, and he was regaling Dante with stories about the old stuff (“Don’t call it junk”) he had laying around the workroom.

“Like that tire you’re sitting on,” Mr. Domenikos said. “Dates back almost two-hundred years to the late 20th Century. Perfectly preserved, too.”

Dante leaned over and examined the tire he was sitting on. All he knew was it was rubbery and comfortable.

“Ever have to use it?” Dante asked. Mr. Domenikos had been explaining what a spare tire was earlier.

“Not without an Auto-Car,” he said.

“Got an Auto-Car up here?” Dante asked.

“Naaaaah!” Mr. Domenikos said. “None of them down on the planet either. Just those modern hover thingies.”

“Well, maybe we could take this for a ride anyway.” Dante said hopefully, as he patted the tire.

“A ride?” Mr. Domenikos asked. Then they both started to grin.

It started out okay. Dante and Mr. Domenikos bounced the tire around the workroom and then Mr. Domenikos started making engine noises and the two of them rolled the wheel out into the corridor and started rolling it along the slight curve of the wall. The wheel was half as tall as Dante and he started making it bounce as it rolled along, seeing if he could make it bounce as high as his head. That was when the wheel made it up to nearer the ceiling and Dante remembered something he’d heard about the gravity being less up there.

He was remembering the corridors were about four meters high as Mr. Domenikos let out a yell and the tire bounced up and rolled on the ceiling for a moment before angling down and rolling down the wall, across the floor and up to the ceiling again.

When it rolled back down, Dante made a lunge for it and instead he and the tire bounced off each other and the tire bounced on down the curve of the corridor out of sight.

“At least it’s on the floor again,” Mr. Domenikos said as Dante jumped up and started chasing the tire around the bend.

There was a crash.

Dante and Mister Domenikos collided with a technician wheeling a cart full of platters down the hall. They managed to extricate themselves from the jumble of platters, cart and technician even as he was jabbering about barely being missed by “some old bouncing wheel thingie…”

They chased after it again as the tire barely missed going up the stairway but instead shot right into the gravity chute.

“Out into space,” Dante said.

“Nope,” Mr. Domenikos said. “That chute goes up to the top level. Elevator. C’mon!”

A few moments and one high-powered ride later Dante and Mister Domenikos exited the elevator just in time to see the tire bounce through the open door of the gym. They ran after it, almost colliding with one of the station crew who had jumped out of the tires way.

The crew members were scrimmaging on the basketball court when the tire rolled and bounced into the middle of them. One of the players gave it a kick and the tire bounced off the wall, rocketed over the players, bounced off the empty bleachers and headed to the domed ceiling.

Mr. Domenikos shrugged.

“I was experimenting with a new air pressure formula with the atmosphere of Jovanni III’s Moon and some other stuff. Used it on the tire.”

“You can work on it.” Dante said.

The two of them looked up at the tire as it seemingly lay there on the ceiling, like they were looking at it upside-down.

And for years a framed printout of the picture Dante took of the tire there above the gym would hang in Mr. Domenikos’ office.

—end—

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

Spend “All Hollowed Eve” At the Food Garden Court. Rainbow Snippets From Jeff Baker. (October 11, 2025)

Posted on October 11, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Photo by Kenny Blasco.

Every Week at Rainbow Snippets https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974 participants post six lines of a work of theirs, a work-in-progress or a work by someone else that has LGBT characters.

It’s been a while since I’ve written about Skid and T’amec, the two twenty-something boyfriends who work in a magical mall in a magical world. In “All Hollowed Eve” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2023/10/26/halloween-at-the-food-garden-court-all-hollowed-eve-friday-flash-fics-from-jeff-baker-october-26th-2023/ they are dealing with “Octobrus.” The only two weeks of the year when ghosts can appear.

Skid glanced up as he wiped down a counter top there in the Food Garden Court. Ghosts were more active right now, some of them in small groups flying around the upper floor and the skylights. He glanced at the wall clock. He didn’t know why the Mall insisted on being open until Midnight on the last of Octobrus. Probably good for business. Not so good on the nerves.

Okay, here’s another snippet…

A pair of ghosts dive bombed Skid and he ducked. He could imagine them laughing.

“Maybe next year we’ll have the sense to be closed.” Skid said.

“Yeah, or I’ll be home hiding under my bed,” T’amec said. “Or under your bed,” he said with a grin.

See you next time ——jeff

Posted in Food Garden Court, Rainbow Snippets | 1 Comment

Wheeeeeeee!!! Friday Flash Fics and “A Shining City On A Hill,” From Jeff Baker. Friday, (October 10, 2025)

Posted on October 10, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Shining City On A Hill

by Jeff Baker

Doug was pushing his motor scooter upwards when he heard the voice calling from the top of the hill.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Doug looked up at Tait and grinned.

“Roaring down the hill” Doug said, patting the scooter.

“At a time like this?” Tait said, spreading his arms. “Violence? Troops in the streets? Near Civil War?”

“It’s kinda like the early part of a Doctor Who episode, isn’t it?” Doug said breathing hard as he and the scooter he was pushing reached the top of the small hill. “Makes me give that blue port-a-potty down there a second glance.”

“Yeah, but we’re not ten years old riding our bikes down this hill anymore,” Tait said.

“I know, I know,” Doug said. “That’s been, what? Thirty years ago?”

“So, what are you doing wasting your time with this now?” Tait said, sounding exasperated with his old friend. “I mean, this is no time to be doing this.”

“This is exactly the time to be doing something like this,” Doug said. “For both of us.”

“Both of us?” Tait said.

“Yeah. We’ve been writing, posting, protesting…” Doug grunted as he turned the scooter around. “We’re fighting for ordinary things, like this, right?”

“Well, yeah,” Tait said. “But…”

“But nothing.” Doug said, patting the back seat of the scooter. “Hop on. We only live once.”

The hill wasn’t very steep and in another minute the two men rode down, hollering like they were ten years old again.

And it seemed in that moment that the world waited for them.

—end—

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

A Spare Tire and A Space Station. Yes, You Can Laugh. Flash Fiction Draw Challenge Draws For October 2025, From Mike Mayak (October 6th, 2025)

Posted on October 6, 2025 by jeffbaker307

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

A Comedy

Involving A Spare Tire

Set at A Space Station

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 Seven of Hearts (a Comedy), the Three of Diamonds (a Space Station) and the Three of Clubs (a Spare Tire.)

So we will write a Comedy involving a Spare Tire set on a Space Station.

We’ll have the results here in this same space around Monday October 6th, 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

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 Monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge | 1 Comment

Rainbow Snippets Takes A Walk Down the Street. “The French Table” by Jeff Baker. (October 3rd, 2025)

Posted on October 3, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Every Week at Rainbow Snippets https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974 participants post six lines of a work of theirs, a work-in-progress or a work by someone else that has LGBT characters. This week, I’m posting the set-up to my story “The French Table” which you can read here https://authorjeffbaker.com/2025/10/02/see-the-french-table-for-friday-flash-fics-from-jeff-baker-october-3rd-2025/

Nice normal stuff, right? Trust me, this is appropriate for Halloween…

Oscar and Elliot had been driving home from Denver to Kansas City when they stopped in D’Artagnan, Kansas. Not much there. Houses. Businesses along the highway and along the main drag through town.

“Main drag!” Elliot laughed to his husband.

They were driving down the main street to grab lunch. The Mexican restaurant was surprisingly good (“Every serape is a pride flag in disguise!” Oscar whispered as they had sat down in their booth.)

Here’s a little more:

As it was mid-afternoon when they finished they decided to work off their lunch with a stroll down the street and they found the antique store in the shadow of the old-fashioned marquee above the movie theater, next to a Bridal Shoppe.

“Turtle Antiques,” Oscar read aloud from the green sign hand-painted on the front window with, yes, a little turtle at the base.

“Town’s looking like a Gay Mecca,” Elliot whispered as they walked in the door. Nonetheless, they were both glad they were forty-somethings dressed in jeans and nondescript sweatshirts.

See you later with more snippets. Until then, be good to yourself and each other. —jeff

Posted in D'artagnan, Kansas, LGBT, Rainbow Snippets | 2 Comments

See “The French Table” for Friday Flash Fics from Jeff Baker (October 3rd, 2025)

Posted on October 2, 2025 by jeffbaker307

The French Table

by Jeff Baker

Oscar and Elliot had been driving home from Denver to Kansas City when they stopped in D’Artagnan, Kansas. Not much there. Houses. Businesses along the highway and along the main drag through town.

“Main drag!” Elliot laughed to his husband.

They were driving down the main street to grab lunch. The Mexican restaurant was surprisingly good (“Every serape is a pride flag in disguise!” Oscar whispered as they had sat down in their booth.)

As it was mid-afternoon when they finished they decided to work off their lunch with a stroll down the street and they found the antique store in the shadow of the old-fashioned marquee above the movie theater, next to a Bridal Shoppe.

“Turtle Antiques,” Oscar read aloud from the green sign hand-painted on the front window with, yes, a little turtle at the base.

“Town’s looking like a Gay Mecca,” Elliot whispered as they walked in the door. Nonetheless, they were both glad they were forty-somethings dressed in jeans and nondescript sweatshirts.

The shop was brightly lit and pleasant with antique furniture placed in spots between cases displaying old clothes, posters and books. There was a long glass case lining one wall filled with pieces of decorative glassware. To one side of the case was a small, ornately-carved wooden table. It looked very much like someone had draped a blown, lace cloth over the top letting it hang to the sides but it was all carved wood.

“Oh wow!” Elliot said. “This would go so well in our living room.”

“We have a red vinyl couch and a Snoopy lamp in our living room.” Oscar said. “Still…”

“What’s it say on the card?” Elliot asked.

Oscar picked the card off the table and read: “Brought from France in the mid-1800s. Dates back to the late 1780s…”

“Curious piece,” the voice behind them said. The speaker was short, plump, grey-haired and wore a faded plastic name tag. “The owner was going to donate it to the museum but she wanted the money more.”

Oscar leaned over the table, resting his hands on either side like he was going to pick it up and the room suddenly changed and swung around. It was like he was upside down and alone in the long room still holding on to the table he was standing beside. The carpet both were standing on had become translucent and Oscar could see Elliot and the plump man standing immobile. It was like looking through a mirror made of tinted glass. There was no image of Oscar at the right-side-up table.

Oscar glanced at the upside-down version of the antique store; the dusky light reminding him of a partial solar eclipse he had seen. The glassware in the dimly-lit display case now had unearthly angles and seemed malevolent somehow. The room stretched down into darkness.

Oscar gasped and let go of the table, certain he would fall headfirst into the dark ceiling of the dim room. Instead, he was back in the ordinary shop with Elliot. Neither he nor the plump man had noticed anything unusual.

The plump man was still talking, seemingly uninterrupted from the pause when Oscar had grabbed the table.

“…the owner was an interesting woman, but if I may say so, rather strange and she…”

Oscar didn’t wait to hear the rest. He grabbed Elliot by the arm and pulled him out of the shop, insisting over his protestations that they had to leave.

The plump man shook his head.

“We lose more customers that way,” he said to nobody in particular.

Still it was better than the young delivery man who had brought the table into the store and had vanished without a trace.

He started his nervous habit of drumming his fingers on the table, then thought against it and quickly pulled his hand away.

—end—

Posted in D'artagnan, Kansas, Fantasy, Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, Horror, LGBT, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

Rainbow Snippets “Incoming” by Jeff Baker (September 29th, 2025)

Posted on September 29, 2025 by jeffbaker307
Photo by Frans van Heerden on Pexels.com

Every week we post six lines from a work of ours, a work in progress or someone else’s work we recommend that has LGBT characters at Rainbow Snippets. https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets I’m running late too, but I’m posting this anyway; from a story redolent of Fall with a father and very young son raking leaves and married Grandfathers just offstage. These snippets are from my story “Incoming,” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2025/09/26/incoming-for-friday-flash-fics-from-jeff-baker-september-26th-2025/ which includes a reference to the TV show “MASH.”

“Yeah.” Andrew said. “I came along later. Right before we…lost your Grandma and before Grandpa met your Grandpa Bill and decided he wanted to marry him.”

Andrew looked up at the sky again. When was the good time to tell a kid about the LGBT spectrum and how difficult it had been at first for the two men. And how gradually they had gained the acceptance of the whole family.

Here’s a little more

“Well, we will see Grandpa Bill and Grandpa Mark tomorrow for dinner,” Andrew said. “That’s why your Mom and I want the yard all nice and pretty.” He looked at the yard and the leaf pile and grinned, tossing the rake aside.

“But for now…BUNGEEE!” Andrew yelled and with a bounding leap flopped on the big pile of golden and brown leaves. Skyler happily jumped in with him and for a few moments, father and son were happily rolling in the leaves together and laughing.

Awwwwwwww. I got a little mushy and nostalgic with this one.

Goodnight folks, I’ll be seeing you soon. ——jeff

Posted in Fiction, LGBT, Rainbow Snippets | 2 Comments

“Incoming” For Friday Flash Fics From Jeff Baker (September 26th, 2025)

Posted on September 26, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Incoming

by Jeff Baker

“Look! Up there!”

The little boy in the sweater pointed up at the green helicopter soaring across the sky. His father leaned against the rake and shielded his eyes from the sun looking upward.

“Yeah, I see it,” Andrew said. “A military helicopter, heading to the air base I bet.”

“Incoming!” the little boy said, waving his arms like helicopter blades.

“Skyler, where’d you hear that?” Andrew asked.

“TV show you watch,” Skyler said, for a moment not looking like he was three. “The one with the tents and the green clothes.”

“Oh yeah,” Andrew said. “MASH.”

Andrew resumed raking as his son ran over with more leaves for the pile.

“You know, your Grandpa Mark worked in a hospital like that, way before I was born.” Andrew said.

“Really?” Skyler said.

“Yeah.” Andrew said. “Over in a place called Vietnam. He’s got some pictures. Of course then he came back here and he and Mom had your two aunts and then me.”

“Really?”Skyler said.

“Yeah.” Andrew said. “I came along later. Right before we…lost your Grandma and before Grandpa met your Grandpa Bill and decided he wanted to marry him.”

Andrew looked up at the sky again. When was the good time to tell a kid about the LGBT spectrum and how difficult it had been at first for the two men. And how gradually they had gained the acceptance of the whole family. Let alone about a fifty-years gone war.

“Well, we will see Grandpa Bill and Grandpa Mark tomorrow for dinner,” Andrew said. “That’s why your Mom and I want the yard all nice and pretty.” He looked at the yard and the leaf pile and grinned, tossing the rake aside.

“But for now…BUNGEEE!” Andrew yelled and with a bounding leap flopped on the big pile of golden and brown leaves. Skyler happily jumped in with him and for a few moments, father and son were happily rolling in the leaves together and laughing.

When they got up and started brushing the leaves off each other Andrew laughed again.

“Let’s get this pile raked back and put in a bag and go inside for some tomato soup,” Andrew said.

“Yaaaaay” Skyler said.

For an instant, Andrew was three years old, with the promise of soup and visits from grandparents.

—end—

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

Reading Report, August/September 2025 from Jeff Baker

Posted on September 21, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Image courtesy of J. Scott Coatsworth

Read Joe R. Lansdale’s “The Shadows In the Rock,” in the anthology “Scaring and Daring.” A fine homage to Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn. The dialogue is perfect. (“You listen right smart, that river will tell you things, and it’s a good idea to pay attention. That ole river don’t warn you twice.”) A sci-fi/horror story with tinges of Lovecraftian “otherness,” as well as some Twain-style humor.

Finished “Dogs Don’t Break Hearts” by ‘Nathan Burgoine. (See my Goodreads/Amazon review for details!)

Started reading L. Frank Baum’s “Sky Island.” A fine fantasy adventure.

Also started Dickens’ “A Tale Of Two Cities.” Which starts off in Seventeen Seventy-Five… Been reading through it in the Signet Classics edition which tells you where the chapters of the original serialization ended. It comes off like a breezy read, setting things up for drama and adventure.

And I’ve set myself the task of reading all Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore’s novels/novelettes that originally appeared in “Startling Stories” Magazine in the 1940s and ‘50s. The impetus was my copy of “The Startling Worlds of Henry Kuttner,” which came out about 1987 and which I picked up used maybe five years later. (Yes, I have the reader’s bad habit of buying books and not getting around to reading them.) So I’ve started in on “The Portal In the Picture,” which is a lot of fun so far. I have several paperback copies of the Kuttner novels that were published originally in “Startling,” and at least a few of the novelettes are in collections I have on my shelves. I just ordered a re-issue of “Lands Of the Earthquake,” another Kuttner story from Startling that has been recently released as a trade paperback.

“Startling Worlds of Henry Kuttner” also has the stories “Valley Of the Flame” and the one writers like Roger Zelazny cited as an influence: “The Dark World.” Most likely written mostly by Moore I am really looking forward to getting to that one!

NOTE: I finished “Portal In the Picture.” I posted a Writing Report Addenda on this blog the other day covering it. Also a Goodreads review.

Read the regular online offerings by E. H. Timms and Kaje Harper, as well as J. Scott Coatsworth’s weekly serial “Down The River” the latter of which has wrapped up with an epilogue! A fine send-off for characters we have come to love and which Scott handles masterfully.

I’m not the only one hoping there will be more.

Still reading the late John Maddox Roberts’ “Temple Of the Muses.” I have a big TBR pile!!

Posted in 'Nathan Burgoine, Books, C. L. Moore, Charles Dickens, E. H. Timms, Henry Kuttner, J. Scott Coatsworth, Kaje Harper, L. Frank Baum, Reading Report | Leave a comment

Progress Report August/September 2025 from Jeff Baker

Posted on September 21, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Photo: “Facing The Blank Page” by Amy Tharp. With apologies to Norman Rockwell.

Not too much real progress other than the usual flash fictions. Which got a little unusual as I did a four-part superhero serial over the course of four weeks. Kind of flipping the “base it on the picture” idea but it was a blast.

Wrote up a column for Queer Sci-Fi. As we are hitting the Halloween season the next column should be easy. Or, getting the idea for it should be.

I sent off a couple of stories, including one I hadn’t thought of in years and had to trim.

I made notes for some longer stories and plans to finish and send off at least one of them by the end of the year.

That’s about it for now.

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