Tag Archives: 100 words

My New Stories in “Drabbles: First Contact” (2025)

promo

Promotional image for my stories in the anthology “Drabbles: First Contact.”

My first publications for 2025 are now available in the Starry Eyed Press anthology Drabbles: First Contact (Amazon US). Click the following for the global link.

For those of you who don’t know, a “drabble” is a complete story that is exactly 100 words long, no more, no less.

“First Contact” is a reference to humanity’s first encounter with an extraterrestrial species. These contacts can be friendly or terrifying or a lot of other things.

Twenty-six authors contributed a total of over thirty drabbles to this anthology. It is currently available for Kindle but will also be coming out soon in paperback.

Four of my stories made the cut:

Continue reading →

The Cure for Cancer

view from train

PHOTO PROMPT © David Stewart

I’m dying.

I’ve been riding this train to visit my children, well now, my grandchildren, for over thirty years. My dear wife Jeannie passed away six years ago, bless her. I’m the only one left of my generation and the docs say the cancer is spreading.

It’s spreading across our land as well. That old shantytown used to be a neighborhood sheltering good working men, families, children playing ball in the street.

The world’s falling apart and it doesn’t matter which party promises to bring prosperity. We are no longer represented. I pray I die before the bloodshed of revolution.

Continue reading →

Iconic

icon grill

PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz

Time traveling tourist Glinn Tanning staggered into the restaurant dressed in surplus fatigues and dragging a canvas rucksack in his right hand. It contained a couple of canisters of pepper spray and the makings of several Molotov cocktails.

“Where are the protesters?” he complained to the bored looking woman behind the counter.

“We’re closing soon,” she said. “Didn’t you see the sign?”

“Where is everyone? Isn’t this December 1st?”

“It’s the last day in January,” she said. “You’re late.”

He checked his wrist-mounted chromotron. “Damn. Eight years late. I knew I should have had this thing adjusted before I left.

Continue reading →

Eviction Day

beach junk

PHOTO PROMPT © Mr. Binks

Eliab strolled through another collection of junk. It was only a small sample of the enormous task they were facing. They had given so-called “modern humans” 200,000 years to build a civilization harmonious with themselves and their planet.

As predicted, they failed miserably. He was of the majority opinion, but “the Big Guy” kept giving them chances. Finally, the literal weight of evidence against humanity became evident even to Him.

The last of them had been evicted, resettled on thousands of primitive worlds to continue the experiment. Now Eliab’s team would have to spend millennia reclaiming Earth for productive use.

Continue reading →

Tunnel Visions

dales-tunnels

PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson

Hill always came to places like this when he couldn’t sleep. He needed the dreams but without sleep, there were only visions.

In his visions, he’s alone usually by choice. People made too much noise. When he couldn’t sleep, it was because his own brain made too much noise and because he couldn’t let go of the world’s noise.

This one was better lit than most. It was quiet, but a little cold. He heard his footsteps on crumbling concrete. It was like a science fiction dystopia.

At the end of the tunnel, could he rest in a better world?

Continue reading →

A Boy and His Racoon

tree

PHOTO PROMPT © Lisa Fox

“Oops.” Twenty-year-old Calvin Weiss wiped a clump of dark hair out of his eyes with one hand while balancing his grandfather’s mystic tome in the other. “That isn’t what I wanted.”

“I keep telling you Cal, it’s long-A on the umlaut and short-A on the tilde. Geez, will you ever get it right? The pudgy racoon reached into Cal’s backpack sitting near the discolored tree trunk and pulled out another beer. Popping the tab, he took a swallow. “That’s better.”

“Not better for me, Tubby. I was supposed to summon the wood Fae out of this tree, not dye it.”

Continue reading →

With Two Cats and a Flood

NC flood

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

“Our house, is a very, very, very fine house
With two cats and a flood…”

He stopped singing the old song and listened to the water coursing down the street.

“Sure, I’ve been stuck on the floor days, your food has run out, and no one can get here to help, but we have each other.”

Chloe and Spike had been sitting on the coffee table staring at him for hours. He’d fallen out of his wheelchair and his usual attendant couldn’t get to the house.

The cats looked hungry and as he said, the food had run out.

Continue reading →

For I Was Hungry And You Fed Me

chairs in snow

PHOTO PROMPT © Jennifer Pendergast

Bundled up, Jake sat outside and watched a thin, pink sunrise of Christmas morning.

“Another Merry Christmas to the world,” he said raising a cup of coffee to his lips. “Wonder how many more I’ll get to see?”

At seventy-eight, his bones ached more than he wished, especially after having been up all night. “Guess I’d better get ready to visit the grandkids.”

He stood and smiled at the memory. It was his eleventh year of passing out blankets, food, and coffee to the growing number of homeless in his hometown. “God be willing, I’ll do it again next year.”

Continue reading →

Make It Burn

chan

PHOTO PROMPT ©Sandra Crook

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

“See? What did I tell you.” Brad waved his arm dramatically in the direction of the chandelier.

“You’re right.” Katie’s mouth hung open aghast. “It must rate a nine-point-five on the Richter scale of bad taste. And whoever thought that god-awful purple light added anything to the room?”

“Yeah,” added Brad. “That lampshade is strictly 1970s puke terrible.”

“You’re sure they’re not coming back tonight.” She looked at him, suddenly serious.

“Off on a Bahama cruise for the next week. No pets. No house sitters.”

Katie opened her gas can and started splashing the contents around. “Let’s torch this place.”

Continue reading →

Not Just Another Job

dale bench bike

PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Elizabeth left the dorm room letting her eyes adjust to the daylight past the bicycle and gate. At thirty, it was a stretch for her to play the role of a co-ed at the university, but that’s what it took this time.

She’d been a professional for ten years. This was the first job where she felt anxious. She took a few steps forward and forced down her emotions. She had to treat it like any other contract.

Except it wasn’t just another hit. Somewhere on campus was the man who had killed her sister. She would make him pay.

Continue reading →