This is the February, 2007, newsletter from Short Stories at Bella Online.
Here are a couple recent articles featured at Short Stories:
A tale by Virginia Woolf. A Haunted House
A Mark Twain classic. The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
Here are two short stories featured at Barcelona Review:
GRAHAM LOVED THE WAY HIS WIFE MOVED. While out walking he used to fall a half-step behind, just to watch. Her hips—but more than that. Legs, arms, the faint bob of her head. The way it all came together, the way it meshed. She loved to dance with her long black hair tied up on top of her head. She wore a moonstone on a leather thong that glimmered in the soft swell of her throat when the light from a mirror ball caught it. Seeing her like that, a snatch of song always came to him: My girl don’t just walk, she unfurls. The photos Graham kept in his dresser gave a sense—weightless, beyond gravity—but didn’t do justice to the way she once moved. Read On Sleepless Roads by Craig Davidson.
See the way that lassie behind the bar is watchin me? You’d think she’d have somethin better to do. She’s got some preconceived idea in her heid because I’ve been here aw afternoon. I mean, put a man alone in a cafe and it’s crystal clear he’s wantin solitude. Put im in a pub and it’s because he’s alcoholic and hasnae a human being to call a friend. Preconceptions. I tell you. Read The Curse by Mark Gallacher.
Featured at Moondance.org:
I came to in a field beside my house crawling in the wet grass. There were a dozen or so other people crawling in the grass and it dawned on me that we were looking for something. I kept crawling feeling my way through the wet grass stealing glances at my fellow crawlers. I didn't know any of them. The committee in my head called itself to order and began to analyze these facts. Since it didn't have any better idea of what was going on than I did I adjourned them. Looking around I picked out a man who looked sane and crawled over beside him. I sat back on my heels and nodded to this stranger. He didn't nod back.
Read Only Wounded by Joyce Wakefield.
Featured at Short Stories at East of the Web:
Before we met, you showed me your diary. I must confess that I am still confused by this sequence of events, as, I imagine, you must be confused by my decision to leave your life so suddenly. I've gone over everything in my head time and time again and I can't shake the feeling that, somehow, everything got mixed up. Though this may seem a flimsy reason to you, it is reason enough for me. I don't understand, so I'm going to leave. Read Time, Again by Tim Maly.
I love it when my friends introduce me to new people, although I never let on. I love the proud and honorable expression they wear when they say "This is Sandy - she's deaf", as if I were evidence of their benevolence. I also love the split-second shocked expression on the new people, the hasty smiles and their best imitations of what they think of as their "normal faces". If they do the ritual well enough I turn my head ever so slightly and tuck my hair behind one of my ears, whichever one's closer to them. They never fail to say something nice about my pink hearing aids, while my regular friends beam on. Read Tone by YZ Chin.
If you have any comments or questions, email me at shortstories@bellaonline.com. Also feel free to drop by the Short Stories Forum to drop a message or post some fiction. With your help, I am sure Short Stories will be a very successful section of BellaOnline.
Sharon Cullars
