Category: Short Stories

I’ve produced the third in a series of Rambo vignettes entitled, “The Hunt” and am shopping it around. The 1,360-word fictional piece is set in a dystopian near-future in which regional wars fought by both human and alien mercenaries abound.

… the Rambos are the meanest, orneriest, most despicable form of life in the galaxy. They fight for Black Scorpion, Limited. Unlike the human mercenaries they fight alongside with, the Rambos fight for one reason and one reason only—for blood sport. Money don’t mean shit to them.”

“Do they speak any human languages?” a soldier asked.

“They speak better English than you, Janson.”

A few chuckled.

“Most of them are multilingual. I met one that spoke sixteen different Earth languages. They’re smart mothers. They’re big. And they’re afraid of nothing. If they kill you, they’ll take your scalps or your thumbs for souvenirs. The good news is, they bleed and die just like us. So, make sure they die first.”

After a moment, someone said, “If you call that yellow puke they have in ’em blood…”

Behold, proud spider /

Web in our condo window /

You’re gonna starve in here!

 

–Phil Temples

I’m shopping around a 100-word micro named “Whirlwind” about two boys who encounter a dust devil in a Kansas cornfield.

My satirical piece “Fake News” was accepted for publication by the online ‘zine Children, Churches and Daddies, Volume 287 which will debut in November, 2018. 

Dime Show Review accepted one of my (very) short pieces entitled “Stop Me” for publication soon.

My 590-word flash horror story, “The White Nothing” was just accepted for publication by “Darkness Within” e-zine. Yay.

“The FictionPool” has accepted my short experimental poem Friday Night for publication sometime in December, 2016.

For your reading amusement–this humorous little tale entitled “The Blessed Virgin” I wrote that appeared today on Fiction On The Web.

 

Today marks my 1000th Duotrope story entry. I logged my first transaction on Dec. 11, 2011. Over the past five years, I’ve logged submissions to 367 different markets. Thus far I have had 127 out of a total of 141 accepted for publication–both in print and online. Two submissions were full-length novels, one was a novella, and another was a story anthology; the remainder were short stories and flash fiction. As a writer, I’ve found Duotrope to be an invaluable resource.