A New Kind of Literary Pulse

momofgale: My husband left us, and now my 12-year-old daughter is depressed. How can I help her? Top Answer: 15 upvotes 2 downyvotes  cityyouthcounselor: Your daughter is grieving and likely ... [+]

The witch lived alone in the shadow of the forest. Her cottage, with its crooked door and moss-covered shingles, was perched at the edge of a still, green pond with an overgrown orchard beyond. Only ... [+]

The old woman opened her eyes, blinked a few times, and sat up in bed. She turned this way and that, peering at the objects in the small room: a low, narrow bed with fairytale figures carved in the ... [+]

I couldn't believe it.   "10,000 Kroners! That's outrageous!"   I was deep in the Troms region of Norway on the Nordost Road. I had been for a while. At the moment, I was trying to cross the ... [+]

A cornucopia of color. A litany of light. That's what I could count on come December. It had even spiraled into a competition amongst my neighbors, each house trying to one-up the next. But as far as ... [+]

I had to have it.   It waited for me in the night as I summoned courage.   Soon, it would be my trophy.   The scarecrow stood, a stark silhouette against the light from a rear window ... [+]

Every time I walked by the house it haunted me. The run-down brick house at the top of a hill, window frames rotting, trim crusted with flaked paint. It showed no evidence of life, no evidence of ... [+]

You stare as the fence silently pulses, ready to shock curious sheep away. The pulse gives them time to retreat, to let go. If the power was continuous, you and the sheep would be stuck, glued to the ... [+]

Me and Petey didn't mean to break the world. Honest. We were just bored and looking to have a bit of fun. And you know, high school dropouts like us don't know anything about physics. Hell, we ... [+]

I am on a roller coaster which is click clacking up a steep incline. Lily, my eight-year-old granddaughter, is sitting next to me. "This is boring," she laments, gazing languidly over the side of ... [+]

I was just a kid when Dad bought the Four Pines Motel. He called it a "diamond in the rough," but I couldn't see much promise in the shabby building with the mint green paint peeling off the siding ... [+]

My uncle Gerry Karlsson was a storyteller—a great one. My cousins and I loved his stories and even loved the fact that they changed a bit—sometimes a lot—with each retelling. We'd all listen ... [+]

My hands shake, indenting the lip of the ceramic cup I'm molding. I swivel and look at the other android artisans on the factory floor, robotic hands ablur ensuring each cup is perfect—and they ... [+]

We are nine when I discover I am the evil twin. We've just blown out the candles on our birthday cake. Our dad sets down the kitchen knife and heads around the corner to help mom grab bowls and ... [+]

Everyone loved Auntie Joe's cat T. She got him when he was just eight weeks old—a curious, friendly, fearless gray tiger. He was hilariously clumsy, too. When leaping onto a table, he'd usually ... [+]

Not long ago, I spent a week reviewing the city's finest steak-houses, one medium-rare, truffle-crusted-wagyu after another.  The week before was seafood week. More lobster bibs, crustacean claws ... [+]

Melanie waved at the reporter when he stepped into the coffee shop. Sipping her jasmine tea, she took in his lean frame. He looked so much younger, unmasked.    "Thank you again for speaking ... [+]

Hattie didn't mind the children. They were about the only people on earth she didn't mind. She heard the parents telling them to leave her alone, but her seemingly bottomless tin of cookies, which ... [+]

On his first day at the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation, twenty-five year old Masti Govind Swamy, named after the village of Masti, where his father, not he, was born, found to his ... [+]

A door slam later, Hannah stood in the rain, her back to Isabel's house.   The rain felt heavier than it was, large plump droplets bouncing off the ground. They cooled her hot cheeks and dappled ... [+]