"…his stories are always sharp and compact and interesting." ——Angel Martinez "(One of) the hottest authors in the independent horror scene…" —-Hellbound Books
Here’s the draws for the September 2025 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge. Followed by my usual long-winded explanation:
A Mystery
Involving A Crystal Ball
Set at An Olympic Stadium
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 Ace of Hearts (a Mystery), the Four of Diamonds (an Olympic Stadium) and the Twelve of Clubs (a Crystal Ball.)
So we will write a mystery involving a crystal ball set at an Olympic Stadium.
We’ll have the results here in this same space around Monday September 15th, 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!
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Continuing the superhero serial from last week.—-jeff
“Over there” Bryan said, taking to the sky with Arn bounding after him.
As Lifewave and Grasshopper they cleared the trees at the edge of the park and quickly saw the river that cut through it.
“There” Grasshopper said pointing.
“Yeah, I see it” Lifewave shouted from above.
Just past the bridge the rowing team was on a practice run. But now the coxswain was shouting directions at the team, the women rowing frantically, a coach in a nearby motorboat shouting through a megaphone “Don’t worry! I don’t think it’s real!” and a metallic-green sea serpent following their boat. Long neck, humps sticking out of the water, glass eyes glistening in the sunlight, mouth wide open, rivets showing all over what ever part of it was above water.
“Holy, uh…maybe Holy Loch Ness, I guess” Grasshopper said from the riverbank.
“Let’s stop that thing and handle your Burt Ward infatuation later,” Lifewave said hovering over him. He streaked toward the sea serpent letting out a burst of light directly at the mechanical monster’s glass eyes. The monster didn’t even flinch.
“Thought that would be how Phobos and Mechanical Man were guiding their scare-serpent,” Lifewave said. “But I guess those eyes are just for show.”
“Gimmie a minute,” Grasshopper said. He bounded across the river, bounced off the bridge and landed on the serpent between two of its humps.
“Wanna eat something Metal-Face? Try a grasshopper!” The monster didn’t react to Grasshopper’s taunts or to his pounding the serpent’s back with his powerful legs.
“And let’s try this!” Lifewave said, zipping in front of the sea serpent and throwing a blast of light and heat straight into the serpent’s open mouth.
The sea serpent started to slow down and wobble off-course, heading to the riverbank on one side as Grasshopper delivered several kicks to the monster’s head. In another moment, the metal beast was on the edge of the bank looking more like an out-of-commission amusement park ride.
Lifewave landed on the bank and cautiously stuck his hand down the monster’s throat.
“Let’s see if I’m right about…aha!”
“What is it?” Grasshopper asked.
“I’m guessing this thing feeds on fear, like from the rowers and transmits the energy back to Phobos,” he said. “I read an article about possible two-way encephalic transmission outside the brain through artificial means.”
Grasshopper stared at him.
“Electronics major,” Lifewave said with a shrug.
“That one probably doesn’t have much range, meaning that our bad boys aren’t too far from here.” He shrugged. “Science major.”
“Get this going and we could probably track the signal to its source, namely Phobos and Mechanical Man. I’ll just power it up.” Lifewave said. He glared at the device in his hand and there was a crackle of electromagnetic energy. Grasshopper felt the hair on his arms stand up.
The device began to peep.
“All right, let’s track this signal to its source,” Lifewave said.
“After you,” said Grasshopper.
They took to the air, bounding and flying. After a few moments, Lifewave pointed.
“Down there! The old Kurtzberg Pavilion at the center of the park!”
(The thrill-packed conclusion comes your way next week, true believers! Same Grasshopper-Time, same Grasshopper-Channel! Watch this space!)
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Continuing the superhero story from last week.—-jeff
Arn and Bryan’s off-campus apartment wasn’t much; a few hundred square feet on the fifth floor of an old building just off campus, but it had been refurbished as apartments and they had their own bathroom as well as a kitchenette and a working ‘fridge. “All the comforts of home,” Bryan had said. The two bedrooms were cramped but since they decided to just use the one bed the other was relegated to the computer room, including some gadgets Arn had rigged up.
But the living room couch was probably what got the most use. Part bed, part dining room, part study area. Bryan had quipped that “this is the only area we ever need to vacuum.”
It was early Saturday afternoon and Arn was sprawled over one end of the couch, his Trigonometry book in his lap, a bowl of chips balanced on his stomach.
The TV was playing a few feet away and Bryan was playing a video game at the other end of the couch, his right leg draped over Arn’s left leg.
“Hey, Arn! Give the books a rest! You’ve been at this since you got up this morning.” Bryan said.
“Gimmie a bit,” Arn said. “I’ll be no good in class if I don’t finish this last chapter.”
“C’mon,” Bryan said. “Take advantage of this lazy afternoon!”
“I am!” Arn laughed, pointing at the book.
“Your idea of lazy would make Stephen Hawking blush,” Bryan said. “Hey! Look! There’s the varsity team!”
He grabbed the remote and turned up the volume on the TV. On the screen, several young men wearing shorts with the University logo were jogging an a path through some trees as the announcer was babbling about the weather.
“And it’s a beautiful day here in the metro. Clear skies, 73 degrees. Looks like these guys have the right idea. Checking the forecast…”
“Yeah, and check out the guys!” Bryan said. “Cute!”
Arn looked up. “Not as cute as you!”
Arn and Bryan had met their Freshman year. They’d started dating by the end of the term and had discovered each other’s secret identities that summer. They had moved out of the dorm into this apartment the next summer. They joked to themselves that the apartment only had one closet and they weren’t in it.
Bryan blushed and was about to say something mushy when the TV announcer’s voice changed.
“Wait up folks…there’s something…Oh my God! There’s a huge bug-thing crawling out of the woods and, and it’s following the runners!”
“Wha?” Arn said, sitting up and nearly spilling his chips.
“I think we know where Phobos and Mechanical Man are striking next, after a couple of nights ago.” Bryan said.
“Yeah.” Arn said pointing at the TV. “Where’s that coming from?”
“Ditko Park, it looks like.” Bryan said.
“Action time…” Arn breathed.
In moments, he bounded out the door and up the back stairs to the roof to change into his costume. In another instant, the green-clad Grasshopper bounded out of the concealment of the bushes over the rooftops. In the Apartment, Bryan blazed with light, becoming the yellow-clad Lifewave who soared out an open window with blinding speed heading for the park.
Meanwhile, the half-dozen college runners were being pursued by the mechanical bug the size of a bus. The driver of the van with the TV cameraman gunned the engine and followed beside them, but not for a picture.
“Slow down!” the cameraman yelled. When the van was alongside the bug the cameraman leaned out the window and threw a box of discs at the bug, hitting it with a metallic CLUNK! But the bug didn’t even slow down.
“Pick on somebody your own size!” the cameraman yelled. This time he pitched the bag with what was left of his breakfast at the thine. It hit between the glassy eyes, covering them with butter, syrup and what was left of an egg bagel. The bug slowed down, unable to see where it was going. The driver of the van cheered. The runners kept running.
Approaching the park in the air, Lifewave suddenly began to glow brighter and rise higher into the air.
“I’ve absorbed too much sunlight!” Lifewave yelled down at Grasshopper who was bounding from rooftop to rooftop. “I gotta release this power! I can’t control where I’m going!”
Grasshopper remembered that Lifewave generally would try to use some of his powers at the apartment to bring down his energy level because sunlight charged him up fast. And he hadn’t been doing that today. Grasshopper could see the doodlebug a ways ahead of him. He glanced up at Lifewave and grimly aimed for the roof of a convenience store by the park, hoping his calculations were right.
As Lifewave rose upward, he saw a green streak zip past him and Grasshopper yelling “Get ready to blast that thing!” In another moment, Grasshopper fell onto Lifewave and immediately propelled himself upward, pushing Lifewave downward towards the runners and the doodlebug. Reacting instantly, Lifewave hit the bug-thing with every bit of light-energy he had. There was a crackle and the doodlebug collapsed on its side, it’s legs flailing, smoke pouring out of a fresh crack in its head.
Lifewave landed sprawled out on the grass. Bruised but not injured. The runners kept on running.
Grasshopper landed nearby and rushed over to Lifewave.
“You okay, buddy?” he asked.
Lifewave nodded, panting and out of breath. “I was just able to slow down enough. Rough landing but I’m all right. “
“Yeah,” Grasshopper said. “Let’s look at that thing and make sure it’s, uh, dead or deactivated.”
The two of them ambled over to the bug.
“Hang on,” Lifewave said reaching in and pulling out a few wires. “That ought to make sure that…”
There was a loud scream and even more commotion from a short distance away.
“Dogs Don’t Break Hearts” is ‘Nathan Burgoine’s second YA book under Lorimer’s “Real Love” imprint since his fun “Stuck With You” two years ago.
Like the earlier book, it is a “Hi/Lo,” a “high interest, low reading complexity book” meant for young readers who do not have a high reading level for one reason or another. And like the earlier book, none of it comes off as talking down to any reader.
Timothy Beck (“Beck” to his friends, all six of them) is an out, Gay High School kid in Ottawa, Canada who is in need of volunteer hours. Beck has broken up with Mason, a fellow member of the school’s GSA group who didn’t even acknowledge they were boyfriends. Not wanting to be around his ex, Beck grabs a note from the volunteer board about “Rescues In Motion,” a local dog rescue organization. Everything is going fine until Beck runs into Oliver who is dating Mason and is also volunteering at Rescues In Motion.
Sparks do not immediately fly as the two of them make the best of having to be together. As this is a romance book, part of the fun is seeing how the two of them eventually get together. And if that seems a bit contrived, Beck and Oliver’s actions come off as very humanly real.
As well as Burgoine handles the human characters it is in the depiction of the dogs where Burgoine’s skill really shines through. From pretty little Cinnamon, to sad-faced Sampson a Black Lab with a rough past to Coffee the adorable brown husky who plays an instrumental role in Beck and Oliver’s story. Every bark, every tail-wag, every heartrending canine glance is played with flawless precision. There is never a moment when the dogs do not seem anything but real, breathing, living beings.
And again, Burgoine handles the bits about some of the dog’s difficult earlier lives perfectly, without detail and it works. Readers feel sympathy and compassion for them as does Beck.
Adding to the fun are Burgoine’s chapter titles, cast as a series of picture posts Beck has been doing online. (“Today’s Gay Agenda: Volunteer.” “Today’s Gay Agenda: Walk Through A Door.” “Today’s Gay Agenda: Don’t Get Parasites.”)
Making the human characters more real is Beck’s acknowledgment that he shares blame for cutting off with his small friend group at school because of Mason. And the last few chapters where Oliver and Beck finally officially do get together are heart-tugging.
And while a reader should not judge a book by its cover, this delightful cover by Tyler Cleroux totally conveys the happiness of both Beck and Coffee.
“Dogs Don’t Break Hearts” is a fun, breezy charming read well-recommended for anybody. Especially dog lovers.
SPOILER ALERT: All the dogs survive through the end of the book.
Two weeks into my last year of high school, and I’m staring at the yellow door decorated with all the rainbow flags like it’s grade nine and I’ve never been there before.
Back then, it took me days to work up the courage.
Okay, fine. Weeks. I figured I’d throw up when I went in.
I didn’t. Throw up, I mean. I did go through the door. Didn’t throw up. Instead, I met a bunch of people who really got me. The people behind the door turned grade nine into one of the best years of my life.
The book is wonderful! Yes, Beck runs into a guy and yes there are some sweet dogs involved. I highly recommend this book and anything else Burgoine writes.
Besides the regular flash fictions and plotting out a few things (including a poem!) my main progress this period has been in sending off just-written and existing stories to various markets. I’ve been following Ray Bradbury’s dictum about sending stories off to the least likely market. I’ve done that a couple of times firing off six in one evening a while back (with no luck!) and I just fired off four stories. That after looking for a market for a mystery story I had sent to an online magazine that went belly-up. Fired off two more and got a rejection for one of those stories. That’s progress too.
Did a little planning for a Christmassy thing that may be done in a year or so.
The big news on the progress front is my (as Mike Mayak) story “Incorporation Of Danny Zero” was finally published in LiveRealPress’ anthology “Five Seconds Of Power.” (Publication counts!)
Speaking of rejections, I found that one of the longer stories I sent to an anthology a year or so ago didn’t get in. The book was published in June without my story (Called “Wayfaring Stranger”), so I sent that story off. That’s the way it goes. But when I drive past the small Western Kansas towns on Highway 54 that inspired locations in the story sometimes I think about it and I smile. Especially since it’s back on the market!
Of course I read the monthly offerings by E. H. Timms and J. Scott Coatsworth, as well as the weekly stories Kaje Harper posts. She has wrapped up a serial which I wrote about in an earlier post.
Finished John Maddox Roberts’ Ancient Roman mystery novel “Saturnalia.” Great fun! Re-started his novel “The Temple Of the Muses,” which I started reading about twenty years ago. Started it again.
Read “The House Party At Smoky Island,” by L. M. Montgomery. A short story from the author of “Annie Of Green Gables.” Set in the Canadian islands she knew so well, this one first appeared in Weird Tales magazine, and it’s about a gathering you might want to skip…
Beta read a fine short-story by a friend of mine which I will not say any more about until it’s published.
Finally got my copy of ‘Nathan Burgoine’s fine collection “Upon the Midnight Queer,” which I’d read online and bummed through some of the stories. Hadn’t thought that when I’d ordered it months ago, I ordered it for my Kindle which I still haven’t fixed!
Got another of Burgoine’s books, his latest YA “HiLo,” called “Dogs Don’t Break Hearts.” Started in reading it. Marvelous as always!
Read Ramsey Campbell’s short story “Someone to Blame.” It’s inspired by M.R. James’ “Count Magnus” and is a fun, spooky read with the hallmarks of both authors. In the anthology “Classic Monsters Unleashed,” full of tales based on classic horrors.
Started reading “Mars The Avenger,” an Ancient Roman mystery by Alan Scribner. A Judge is called to investigate a disappearance in Rome in 158 A.D.
Got a big book of Manga (not MAGA) comic stories about Urusei Yatsura written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. The series was a smash hit in Japan and the book is very funny. All about a luckless schmuck who accidentally proposes to a space princess. Takahashi said she was influenced by American TV shows like “Bewitched” and “I Dream Of Jeannie.”
And I ordered an anthology (“Scaring and Daring,”) for another story and found “The Boy Of LaMancha Rides A Glass Horse,” by Carlos Hernandez. I first heard of the story when the author read from it at the 2023 World Fantasy Convention in Kansas City. Don’t remember clearly, but it may be intended to be the start of a series. If so, it will be a fun read!
Next month, I will probably report on reading the story I bought the book for in the first place.
“Shh!” Arn said, grinning and pointing at the screen.
The Old University Theater was showing “Bridge Across the Rhine,” a WWII movie from sixty years earlier. One of the movies they showed since the University had built the new theater, mainly for plays and live shows.
Arn’s Great Uncle had been a movie stuntman and was all over this movie in the action scenes although Arn and Bryan had only picked him out once, being blown out from behind a bunch of sandbags in a blast of movie pyrotechnics. But the scene they had come to was special: Arn’s Uncle was actually onscreen standing in a uniform behind a general who was outlining plans on a map spread on a table.
“There he is!” Arn said, squeezing Bryan’s arm. “This is so cool!”
They had seen the movie on DVD a dozen times in their little off-campus apartment but seeing it in a theater was special.
Impulsively Arn kissed Bryan and Bryan kissed him back and laughed, pointing at the screen.
“You wanna watch or neck?” Bryan asked.
There was a vibration from Bryan’s pocket. He sighed. He had it set especially for emergency bulletins on a Police App. He pulled it out and stared at the screen.
“Crap.” Bryan breathed and showed the screen to Arn.
On the screen a giant spider was climbing on the side of one of the buildings in Old Town.
“Oh well, at least we got a student discount on the tickets.” Arn said.
“And we know who won the war.” Bryan said.
Arn glanced around. There was nobody else in the theater in the middle of the week and he knew the kid who ran the old projector was probably taking a nap. He ducked into the shadows between the seats and pulled off his hoodie and sweatpants revealing a garish green costume and a masked hood he quickly pulled over his head.
Bryan ducked down and quickly began to shimmer and glow, his clothes melting into a full-body yellow outfit with a matching yellow mask.
He doused the glow and the two of them ducked out the side exit.
The Old University Theater was on the Western edge of the sprawling campus which was just a fifteen minute drive from the Old Town area (with traffic) in the center of the city. But Arn Agrai and Bryan Barusa were not using the highway. As Grasshopper, Arn leaped from the top of one building to another, briefly startling a young couple making out in a rooftop garden. As Lifewave, Bryan glided over the city, his glowing aura joining with the lights from the street in the early evening. He wasn’t as powerful as he was in the daylight but on the other hand, in direct sunlight his powers became harder to control.
“Look down there!” Grasshopper yelled as they approached the old brick warehouses that had become fashionable shops and bars with expensive parking.
“Yeah, I see it!” Lifewave said. On the side of a five story building, a shadowy figure was crawling up the side of the red bricks. A figure with a thin body close to the building on long spindly legs. Lifewave fired a beam of light revealing two large spiders crawling up the building.
“Spiders and a Grasshopper,” Grasshopper said. “Here goes nothing.”
Grasshopper aimed the trajectory of his next jump so he would slam his feet onto one of the spiders. There was a metallic “CLUNK” as one of the spiders fell off the wall slamming into the other one and dropping to the ground.
“Bulls-eye!” Grasshopper said. “Score one for the campus pool champ!”
“In your dreams,” Lifewave said, landing a yard in front of the spiders which were wriggling their legs on their backs on the ground. “Robots, definitely. Let’s see what this does.”
As Grasshopper kept an eye out for other spiders, Lifewave raised his arms and the yellowish glow around him expanded and there was a crackling of electricity from the spiders as blue sparks of power flew from the metal arachnids and joined the glow around Lifewave. In a few moments, the spiders weren’t moving anymore.
“Gimmie a minute,” Lifewave said. “I gotta spend some of this excess energy, and check for other spiders or the culprit who brought them here.
Lifewave was a blur as he zipped around the buildings casting a glow around the area. Meanwhile, Grasshopper gave the neutralized spiders a careful going over, ready to jump away at the slightest sign of movement.
“Nothing.” Lifewave said landing a few feet away. “And I sense no more power in those things.”
“And according to my grasshopper senses, there’s no poison or anything on these things,” Grasshopper said. “Just oil.”
“No news people around,” Lifewave said. “I’m wondering where that bulletin came from?”
As if in answer, their cellphones pinged. Pulling them out of their costumes, they checked the display. There was a picture of the spiders and a message:
HOW MANY OF YOU ARE AFRAID OF SPIDERS?
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING OF A REIGN OF TERROR UNLESS OUR DEMANDS ARE MET.
The message was unsigned.
“Terror,” Grasshopper said. “Sounds like Phobos at work.”
“Yeah, and Mechanical Man.” Lifewave said. “Working together.”
“But we’ll be ready.” Grasshopper said.
“Yeah.” Lifewave said.
The two of them jumped back into the dark sky, heading home to await the next move.
Willie was helping load the bags from the feed store onto the back of his uncle’s pickup and sweating in the July heat when Joey ran up, out-of-breath.
“Willie! It’s here! It’s here! My God, it’s here! Oh, excuse me, Mr. Seargent!”
Willie’s Uncle had glared at him. John Seargent regarded any use of the Lord’s name outside of church or prayer as profane.
“What’s here?” Willie asked, looking sweaty, exhausted and annoyed. He was seventeen now, they both were, and he was wanting to be called “Will” now.
Joey held up a magazine with an illustration of a creepy green monster menacing a girl on the cover. Gruesome Stories, October Nineteen-Forty-Seven.
“My story! They printed my story!” Joey was almost yelling, waving the magazine in Willie’s face.
Willie managed to grab the magazine and scanned the table of contents.
“Yup. It’s in here all right.” Willie said. “’The Thing From the Cistern’ by Joseph Van Horn.”
“Look what they say! Look what they say!” Joey said pointing excitedly at the lines below the title.
“It had waited in the dark for eons,” Willie read. “Now it hungered for grain and…” Willie looked up with a grin. “…and more substantive fare!” He realized his uncle was reading over his shoulder.
“This really is something, Joey.” Uncle John said. “Bet you’re really glad you’ve been paying attention in English class!”
“And how!” Willie said.
“Yeah,” Joey said with a laugh. “I mean, I knew they were going to mail me a copy but I saw these on sale at Gruber’s Grocery and I almost fell over!”
Willie clapped him on the back. “Let’s celebrate! I’ll buy you a soda.”
“Yeah, thanks Willie…uh, Will.”
“Or you can buy it. You’re the one making money!”
The two of them laughed.
“Hey, how about I get some help loading up this grain I bought?” Uncle John said. “You too Mr. Famous Author.”
“Oh, sure! Right!” the boys said. They were talking and laughing as they loaded the rest of the bags.
Uncle John smiled to himself. He knew that Mr. Gruber had started carrying Gruesome Stories Magazine at the store when he’d heard about Joey’s story.
authorjeffbaker 