A New Kind of Literary Pulse

A warm breeze blew past the two women sitting at the metal table, and Alice tilted her head back, closing her eyes against the sun and smiling. “Have you been here before?” she asked Emma, raising ... [+]

The reporter knew the first rule of journalism: never let go of the mic. He learned the sacred rule while watching a peer concede her interview to a drunkard with a good grip. Still, he threw over the ... [+]

Julia walked into The Paper Hound Bookshop. Julia loved books and every Saturday would spend the day discovering a new bookstore. She instantly fell in love with the store, she admired the floor to ... [+]

The look in the mother’s eyes turned from desperation to gratitude as I leaned over the back of my pew, offering to take the eighteen-month-old. He almost leapt to me, ready to get away from the ... [+]

“It has been three days since the search began, and we have yet to find the girl who is going to collapse the sky upon our heads. The president has refused to make any statement. I suppose all I ... [+]

Nina sat all dressed up, in clumsy makeup and low cut silver shiny blouse, on a bright magenta saree, her bright red lipstick, staining her teeth and bleeding on the corner of her mouth. Every ... [+]

Javier: “Francisco.”
Francisco: “yes, Javi?”
Javier: “Can we take a break? My feet are sore.”
Francisco: “No, just a little farther we are almost there.”
Javier: “You ... [+]

“Be mine”, crunch. “XOXO”, crunch. “Say Yes”, crunch. I alternate sips from the glass of Merlot sitting in my left hand with the candy hearts I’m gorging with my right. Looking at the ... [+]

Memory is a tricky thing. It could be altered too easily, Arthur thought. But maybe that was just because he was particularly good at tripping people up, getting them to confuse real events with ones ... [+]

So heavy...feeling sick...my tummy hurts...
I slowly open my eyes, only to see myself lying on an unknown beach. The sand stings my body—still better than lying on rough pointy stones, I ... [+]

They come out of the oven shapeless and slightly burnt. She pokes at one, eyebrows knitting together when the hard dough-shell stays unyielding. Well, this wasn’t supposed to happen. Mooncakes are ... [+]

I met you on a tired Parisian morning, half-asleep as I stumbled off a plane into an oversized airport and nearly fell to the ground because I couldn’t believe I was actually in Paris. My parents ... [+]

Well, since you ask me for a tale of the doomy and macabre, I think I may have something which will tickle that spooky bone of yours. Which is to say, any of them. Ugh.
It was on a midsumme ... [+]

Her son, she often boasted, was serving as a fighter pilot for the military—and from the look of things she believed it herself. Mrs. Gallows seemed quite proud of her little soldier. Although he ... [+]

Justin looked up at the tired faces sitting opposite him in the waiting lounge. Most looked travel-weary, and all of them were asleep. Except him. He was still awake at 1am in the morning, waiting fo ... [+]

Drip, drip, drip.
"ARTHUR! I thought you promised to fix that leak days ago. We have a foot of snow on the roof, what do you think you're doing? Blazes, it's Christmas tomorrow!"
Arthu ... [+]

Suddenly, everything became blurry and dark. When he awoke, the Raven, having left its perch above the bust of Pallas, had settled on his chest.
“This is a curious place to take a nap,” the ... [+]

The morning rain was loud, and it took away the light. As much as I wanted to head out, I couldn’t. But the weather wasn’t the only thing keeping me inside. Our world was under attack by a virus ... [+]