Christopher Caldwell crosses the space between the stove and kitchen sink for what could have been the fiftieth time tonight. He turns the faucet to fill the kettle he’s holding. Returning to the stove he starts to boil water for more coffee. He then hears the door open and close in the adjacent washroom. His brother Michael now enters the kitchen. It’s 11:40pm and a single light overhanging the tiny kitchen table illuminates the small room.

“You’ve been gone awhile,” Christopher says. Michael pulls a chair from the table and sits without saying a word. Reaching into his pocket he grabs a pack of cigarettes, pulls one out and places it between his lips.  Outstretching his arm, but without looking up, he offers one to his brother.  Christopher quietly accepts one and the two brothers light their cigarettes in unison, and both exhale large plumes of smoke, Michael’s slightly larger.

With photos by Atina Thorning.  Click here to read more, and here to read more by Josh Mitchell.

Read the whole issue here, or preview the issue by clicking below:

Poetry: On the Other Promontory by Davide Trame.
Short story: The Book Review by David A. Kentner.

And return tomorrow for a new short story by Josh Mitchell, illustrated with photographs by Atina Thorning.

These things always seem to take longer than anticipated. A word on the process: Our pet chimp Dimba solicits short stories, poems, and artwork from his cage at the company fortress in Montclair, California.  Accepted pieces are then shipped through a series of tubes to his brother’s underground log cabin in Montpelier, Vermont. His brother uses scotch tape and elbow grease in his spare time to assemble the various and sundry pieces into something marginally acceptable for mass digestion. Sometimes an ocean liner is hired to ship material to the chimp’s cousin, who lives in a big wooden shoe in Norway and has more and better digital skills.

The first two issues of this publication were profoundly and embarrassingly amateur hour (still, my favorite bit out of everything we’ve done is the first poem from the first issue). With Vol 1, Issue 3 we started working thematically with varying levels of success. E.g., Vol. 1 Iss. 3 featured birds and trees…um…for no particular reason. Volume 2 Issue 1 was broken up by the 4 seasons and had a cool cover. Volume 2 Issue 2 had a victorian theme, complete with fake ads that i think turned out pretty good.

Since Vol. 2 Iss. 2 took a bit of effort we tried to do something simpler with this one: i had always liked the title of the Nine Inch Nails song “The Line Begins to Blur”. what if we used kind of a Mondrian / straight lines theme that gradually became more blurred, curved, etc? It had a certain kind of symbolism and resemblance to daily experiences. Easy!

4 months later the current issue is on your screen.  I think we basically executed this concept, with Sean Wiebe’s last lines of the first half “…a new thought that has been slow in coming” leading to Jeff’s two explosive centerpieces and subsequently more abstract, natural images. This one might have been labored to death, but see what you think.

So, for next time, how about some suggestions for themes? Also- the next batch should plan on submitting their bios in 6 words or less.

Also, for best viewing: download and save, then view as “Two-up Continuous”.

The short story “The Cypher” is online at a delightful digital journal, Six Sentences.  Click here to read it!

You can also find the lengthier tale, “The Perfect Hit”, in Underground Voices Literary Review.  Check it out!

Suvi Mahonen had this to say: “As I’ve said before, it’s great that journals such as yours exists. Thank you once again for accepting our story for publication.”

We also received this comment from contributor and donor Vic Fortezza, who just received his copies of the print edition of the journal: “Beautiful. I’m proud to have been a part of the issue.”

If you would like to make a donation, simply click the button below:

And be sure to come back tomorrow, when we will be publishing the third chapter of K. C. Wilson’s novella, Doing the Dead – 1983.