Marina wakes, drowsy and disoriented, near the ocean floor. A phantom tremor pulses beneath her skin. As she’s about to scream, a rhythmic sensation caresses her body as it expands and contracts… thru...

There’ll be a procession, the hours stretching like molasses on that most beautiful of days.

Congrats to our 2027 Best of Net nominees! Thank you everyone for your continued submissions throughout the year.

There’ll be a procession, the hours stretching like molasses on that most beautiful of days.

The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest (The Mikey) is now an annual competition celebrating and compensating the best micro fiction and nonfiction online. The grand prize winner of The Mikey is automatical...

Photography / Visual Art / Paintings *feel free to contact me on WordPress as well. adwordsart.etsy.com

It’ll get easier, Mother would say. Just keep your head down. Frances obeyed even when handed over to the first suitor who asked for her hand, barely thirteen, to a widower nearly as old as Father. Fr...

Forecasters warned that Illinois and Indiana faced the highest risk of severe storms throughout the day.

In case you missed any of the pieces we appeared during the 2026 FlashFlood, here's an index to everything.  Sadly, the 'Blog Archive' sidebar list maxes out at 100 titles per day, so use this as your guide to the complete 2026 Flood.... Happy Reading!   2026 FlashFlood   *    *   *   *   *   *   * 'Whisper' by Karen Arnold  * 'Lunch' by Madison Ellingsworth  * 'Evergreen' by Athena Law  * Debut Flash: 'Bird Tag' by Nicole Savage  * 'Soybeans' by Jeremy Nathan Marks * 'Night Swimmers' by Karen Regen Tuero * 'Philodendron' by Emily Hall  * 'Lost Connection' by Sudha Balagopal  * 'All That Was Left to Do' by Matthew Jakubowski  * 'The Roller Derby Girls Skate Circles Around My Teenage Heart' by Travis Flatt  * 'When We Traveled 1,200 Miles for Forest Bathing' by Beth Sherman  * 'Shimmy' by Abigail Myers  * Debut Flash: 'Natural' by Leigh Ann LeBoeuf  * 'Territorial' by Shana Naugle  * 'The Hard Part' by Tatum Schad  * 'The Invisible Woman' by K.C. Selby  * '1993' by M.C. Schmidt  * 'All the Ways We Died' by Sumitra Singam  * 'Coffee Talk with Mr. Ackshually' by Jim Parisi  * 'At the Drive Thru' by Chelsea Stickle  * 'What if We All Woke Up with Amnesia?' by Corrie Haldane  * 'Denial' by Christy Hartman  * Debut Flash: 'Eight scenes of cherry blossoms' by Angeline Tyler  * 'Exposure Exhibition on Monday' by Carol Ann Parchewsky  * 'Key Finding' by Lisa Ferranti  * 'Chickenshits' by Jay Parr  * 'Cutting' by Tom Weller  * 'Thereafter' by Christine H. Chen  * 'Butt Dial' by Jan English Leary  * 'When my mother was at Lourdes' by Helen Kennedy  * 'Toaster' by Timothy C Goodwin  * 'The Question Bag' by C. Oulens  * Debut Flash: 'The Shopkeeper Who Stayed' by Vikesh Mirchandani  * 'The Pain Bar' by Sharon Hoffmann  * 'A Dance Of Dark And Light' by Jaime Gill  * 'My Miracle Boy' by Sandy Krausnick  * 'My Sister’s Body' by Finnian Burnett  * 'Terms and Conditions' by Rachel M. Hollis  * 'At the Margin' by Andrea Damic  * 'The Day I Finally Learned to Let Go' by Rathin Bhattacharjee  * 'Burying The Blue Ox' by Kellan Jansen  * Debut Flash: 'Things That Sing of Death' by E. Murray  * 'Smoke, Clacking, Bitter, Spaghetti Squash' by T.L. Tomljanovic  * 'A Fly in Amber' by Sylvia Petter  * 'How many bags of crisps for your melancholic soul' by Rachel Smith  * 'Dina in the Dusk' by Kendra Cardin  * 'A Boy, A Mother, Nature' by Mandira Pattnaik  * 'the history of truthiness' by Ben Starr  * 'Standing Still' by Laila Miller  * 'The Moment You Learned There’s No Such Thing as Grownups' by D.E. Hardy  * 'Heart' by Birgit Solvsten D'Alpoim  *  Debut Flash: 'Crusader' by Marinela Davies  *  'Star Signs' by Chloe Paige  *  'Lifting the Veil' by ME Kretschmer  *  'It was a time' by Vijayalakshmi Sridhar  *  'before the first bite' by Melissa Llanes Brownlee  *  'I’m no good with names, I tell the nice cleaner' by Sarah Masters  *  'Leopard Sightings' by Arti Jain  *  'The Guest We Never Met' by David Dumouriez  *  'The House That Called Her Mother' by Anatoly Loginov  *  Debut Flash: 'Memory is all the home you get' by Romi H.  *  'The Girl Who Found Her Feet' by Mileva Anastasiadou  *  'The Hereafter' by Sarp Sozdinler  *  'Orderings' by Hugh Behm-Steinberg  *  'All Aboard That's Getting On Board...' by Pam Martin-Lawrence  *  'It’s Time and You Know It!' by Sudha Subramanian  *  'Always the same ice-cream van' by Lesley Bungay  *  'Change' by Sukhjit Singh  *  'How I Refused to Let Your Mother and Your Cancer Ruin Our Marriage' by Sharon Boyle  *  'Act of Cleansing' by Cheryl Powell  *  Debut Flash: 'Springtime Blues' by Cameron  *  'Readying' by Kleopatra Olympiou  *  'Rescue' by Michael Pettit  *  'The Trumpeter in the Rain' by Liz Milne  *  'Open Palm' by Heather Emmanuel  *  'The Pressing Question of Bees and Their Knees' by Karen Jones  *  'Hard Work at the Soft Play' by Kristina Thornton  *  'Down From the Door' by Sarah McPherson  *  'Paper Warrior' by Joel Bryant  *  'Sailing Ban' by Petros Isaakidis  *  Debut Flash: 'Ablution' by Atiqah Ghazali-alKashif  *  'Confirmation Class' by Joanna Campbell  *  'Wind-up Shoes' by Ali McGrane  *  'Crows Remember, Don’t They?' by Stuti Srivastava  *  'Premonition' by Thomas McColl  *  'Thank you for applying to be my courtly lover' by Chris Cottom  *  'Waxing' by Lucienne Cummings  *  'Her mother’s apple strudel recipe' by Liz Berg  *  'Queen Mary’s Marmalade' by Christine Collinson  *  Debut Flash: 'Blank' by Izelle Du Pisanie  *  'Nothing Left That Recognizes Us' by Kumar Sen  *  'Dear Bunny' by Kerry Byrne  *  'Someone in the playground' by Catherine O’Brien  *  'Making a Margarita After Filing for Divorce' by James Montgomery  *  'Bad Blood' by Alison Woodhouse  *  'Fifteen Ways to Grieve your Mother' by Lee Irving  *  'The Xylophonist’s Tune' by Sherry Morris  *  'One for sorrow, two for joy' by Harshita Nanda  *  'Dry Stone Walls' by Slawka G. Scarso  *  Debut Flash: 'Green' by Chris Hutchings  *  'The Moths Have Been At Our Love' by Abigail Williams  *  '6' by Nick Black  *  'Post Partum' by Damhnait Monaghan  *  'Stop Wave' by Rachael Dunlop  *  'Mary Randall’s Back' by Alison Wassell  *  'Good Dog Above' by Ian Johnson  *  'Revolutionaries' by Savera Zachariah  *  'The Five Stages of Ecological Grief' by Rosaleen Lynch  *  'Welcome' by Liam Hogan  *  Debut Flash: 'Reiki' by Anna Sweet  *  'Stolen moment' by Tim Love    *  'Anchor' by Rashmi Agrawal  *  'What Floated Back' by Meg Pokrass  *  'Telegraph' by Sharon Telfer  *  'The Texan' by Bronwen Griffiths  *  'Dinomum' by Zoë Davis  *  'Still Life' by Nora Nadjarian  *  'Mbele' by Anselm Eme  *  Debut Flash: 'The Visitor at Blackthorn Station' by Yolanda Lynn Sheppard  *  'Three Cows: Midsummer Reflections in the Up-Meadow' by S A Greene  *  'How to Prevent a Breakdown' by Katherine Garrison *  'Mr Shem' by Jude Mason  *  'A Brief History of Atomic Time' by Fiona McKay  *  'I Miss Smoking' by Cath Holland  *  'Fingernails' by Gessica Sakamoto Martini  *  'Talking About Potatoes' by Ronald J Greig  *  'Magnolia' by Emily Devane  *  Debut Flash: 'The New Vicar' by John Keogh  *  'The frequency of your life self-cleaning cycle depends on spillage and usage patterns' by Cole  Beauchamp  *  'Raka Is Fine Being A Flask' by Shrutidhora P Mohor  *  'Reduce by Half' by Michael Murphy  *  'Lipstick' by Sarah Freligh  *  'Final Whistle' by Madeleine Armstrong  *  '15 Days Till Day-Care' by Roberta Beary  *  'Sandcastles and Snowmen' by Foster Trecost  *  'Flight Tourism' by Catherine Marina  *  Debut Flash: 'Garage Sale' by Suvarup Saha  *  'Discernments' by J. Edward Kruft  *  'Are We Happy Now?' by Tom O'Brien  *  'On the Fifth Morning After the Timeline Rupture' by Erin Bondo  *  'Choosing the Right Kitchen Tool for the End of the World' by Sara B. Fraser  *  'Swimming Lesson' by Elena Zhang   *  'Last Date' by Niles Reddick  *  'The Real Sound of Music, Hillview Rest Home, August 1992' by Kate Axeford  *  'Cheesecake Factory' by Mandy Lange *  'Lifetime' by Lisa Thornton    *  Debut Flash: 'Photo Day' by Joy DeSomber  *  'We Stop For Turtles' by Mackenzie Kelley  *  'Out of Habit' by Garima Chhikara  *  'Gravity Run Amok' by Louella Lester  *  'Death Is Just A Point In Space' by David Luntz  *  'Nothing Bad Happens' by Emily Rinkema  *  'Milo’s On Her Way' by Sarah Lynn Hurd   *  'The Cat Ate the Strudel' by Zoé Mahfouz  *  'Spring Sightings' by Maggie G. Daly  *  Debut Flash: 'gnome' by Emily Garland  *  'Hothouse' by J.D. Strunk  *  'It's Time' by Cally Ann Kerr  *  'How to Deploy an Antimemetic Field Device: Restaurant Edition' by Chris Clemens  *  'They Were the Years of Fat Water' by Myna Chang  *  'Cloud 10' by Keith Woodruff  *  'The Day I Finally Finished Writing My Novel' by Greg Hill  *  'The Final Toll' by JP Relph  *  'The Cartographer' by Shashi Kadapa  *  Debut Flash: 'Cityshell Resonance' by Natalie Mather  *  'Brandi says the Tooth Fairy Loves Her Best' by Emma Phillips  *  'Cheese Louise' by Chaz Osburn  *  'A Guide to the Cretaceous Fossils of the East Norfolk Coast' by Jenny Hart  *  'The Cradle Will Rock' by Mollie McLean  *  'Pentecost' by Fiona J. Mackintosh  *  'Trollbooth' by Stephen Connolly  *  '2:19 p.m.' by Chris Scott  *  'Just Another Life Experience' by Jessica Klimesh  *  'To Scale' by Nathan Willis  *  Debut Flash: 'Under the Bark' by EB Converse  *  'To Lose a Body' by Thao Vu  *  'January Candy' by Eileen Frankel Tomarchio  *  'Midnight Market' by Tammy L. Evans  *  'The New Year' by Gary Fincke  *  'One Day the Horses Disappeared' by David Henson  *  'Meeting Up with My Used-to-Be Best Friend at the Apple Fair in Early September' by Dawn Miller  *  'Sweep It Under the Rug' by Rachel Weinhaus  *  'Found Scraps of Masculinity' by Mike Keller-Wilson *  Debut Flash: 'Tagalong' by L.V. Leonhard  *  'Rewind, Rewind' by Linda M. Bayley  *  'Chihuahua Cow' by Thad DeVassie  *  'Little Mama' by Nicole Brogdon  *  Debut Flash: 'Unwanted Pitch' by Christian Todd  *  '917363' by Dan Schiff  *  'Step' by Kathryn Kulpa  *  'Initial Reactions' by Jane Claire Jackson   *  'Schrödinger’s Marriage' by Melissa Flores Anderson  *  Debut Flash: 'Centaurus A' by Olivia Woodcox  *  'Thaw' by Tracy Royce  *  'My Neighbor is My Future' by Stephen D. Gibson  *  'Ọwu Mịni Rẹma' by Meredith Chiwenkpe Asuru  *  'Wrestling with Genetics' by Robert Vaughan  *  'Unerasable' by Tracie Adams  *  'My Sister Begs for a Canary She Won’t Even Love' by Debra A Daniel  *  'Big League Chew' by Jesse Binger  *  'What Is Remembered' by Patricia Bender  *  Debut Flash: 'Fortune Telling is a Union Job' by Gwendolyn Hanson  *  'I miss my family in late afternoon' by Sarah Barbo Nielsen *  'Sweet, Ugly' by Nan Wigington  *  'Organ Donor' by Peter Beynon  *  'Coriolis Effect' by Mikki Aronoff  *  'Nothing to speak of' by Jude Higgins  *  'Night Shift' by Michael J. Ciaraldi  *  'Freytag's Triangle' by Mary Guterson  *  'Influencer' by R.K. West  *  'Girl as a Found Shell on the Beach' by Shareen K. Murayama  *  Debut Flash: 'No One Will Know Unless It Takes' by Jenna Martin-Trinka  *  'Cassandra said you shouldn’t make the coffee run to Bozeman today, ’cuz zombies' by Tom Walsh  *  'What Is Left Behind' by Monique Cuillerier  *  'Beating Odds and Keeping Time on Magnolia Street' by Jen Wyrauch Edson  *  'My Absent Heart' by L. Michelle Nichols  *  'The Note My Uncle Left' by Heain Joung  *  'Gone, and All Forgotten' by Jon Fain  *  'The Surprise Party' by Karen Crawford  *  'Thank You for Calling the Thoughts and Prayers Hotline' by Shantell Powell  *  'Dragonbeasts' by Alexandra Otto   *  Debut Flash: 'Don't write about the ceiling fan' by Anya Rosensteel  *  'Barometric' by Renuka Raghavan  *  'Gestalt (noun): a theory that a whole is different from and more than its disparate parts' by Rachel Abbey McCafferty  *  'New Shores' by Alex Grehy       

and we are at the pub with our nonchalant and devil-may-care attitudes attention-seeking fun-filled underaged and indestructible with our sk...

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Collateral Journal - publishing literary and visual art concerned with the impact of violent conflict and military service beyond the combat zone

Each month we celebrate our current and previous workshop participants’ publications reported to us through Submittable (The SmokeLong Workshop Prize). Each of the publications below, with the excepti...

Master the art of unreliable narrators in this one-day online fiction writing workshop with Sage Tyrtle. All levels welcome. May 2026. Enroll now!

Ten stories picked by Katherine Plumhoff

Insight - The Offing Magazine

Impermanence of Flesh They stalk me, with their many eyes, glowing in the night, as if perceiving something I don’t. I ignore them, reminding Mum to get rid of them. She claims she does, yet they lin...

Grateful to be in Ghost Parachute again, this time with a micro story, 'The Status - In Flux', accompanied by Brooksie C. Fontaine's amazing art. Thank you all! And huge thanks to the SmokeLong Quarterly Fitness workshop and all the writers who helped shape this story, so grateful.

by Andrea Damic “You call us Locust. We are many. We eat the remains of what we find, scavenging trash cans, to feed our young. Some of us survive on blood, while others feast on their prey, unable ...

let’s pretend the day didn’t begin with death. let’s pretend you didn’t facetime my sister from your car crying, YOU’VE LEFT ME & I’VE FALLEN THROUGH THE EARTH, & then put a plastic bag over your head...