Description: Flash-fiction written for 2016 Holidailies: A young woman and her grandmother add Holiday Magic to some seasonal plants. Excerpt: The inside of the greenhouse is a technological marvel, with heat lamps and misters and every kind of measuri...

Description: Flash-fiction: an aunt and niece discuss the holidays and Eartha Kitt. Excerpt: The older woman’s dithering lit a fire in her niece. “Aunt Lena you have been playing hermit at Christmas since I was sixteen years old. I’m twenty-six now,

Description: Sunday Brunch essay from Modern Creative Life. Excerpt: Rather, I’m a backyard bird-watcher. I enjoy following the antics of the bully Blue Jay who drives the starlings and finches out of the trees, only for them to settle right back in.

Description: Three pieces of spooky short fiction, read by the Bathtub Mermaid and Friends. Excerpt: I, on the other hand, died in the prettiest way possible. No, not alcohol. Not pills either. Consumption. Oh, you call it tuberculosis these days,

Description: Three pieces of spooky short fiction, read by the Bathtub Mermaid and Friends. Excerpt: I plunge backwards into the water. They always push you overboard in the split second when you forget to anticipate the shove.

Description: Flash prompt. Days after the fact. Kind of grim. Excerpt: It wasn’t usual anymore, the burying of bodies, but I had insisted. “I want to bring him home. I want to bury him next to his grandfather.” And so,

Description: Mel Babble. Raw, unedited chatter. Probably you should just skip it. Excerpt: Vegetables can be cute. My house makes me sad. Links & References: The Dog Days of Podcasting homepage Learn more about me at MissMeliss.

Description: Several months ago, I was reminded that K’Ehleyr from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Marshall’s mom on How I Met Your Mother were both played by Suzi Plakson. Fanfiction happened. Nuchtchas was kind enough to read it for me.

Description: Flash-fiction. Ravens and Crows aren’t quite the same bird. Excerpt: “I’ve grounded and centered and counted to ten – to fifty, even. I’ve done the incantation. I’ve drunk the calming tea, and no matter what I do,

Description: This week’s Sunday Brunch column – thoughts on Community. Excerpt: As is the nature of living organisms, Communities ebb and flow. Sometimes you’ll have intense relationships with only a few members of a community and more casual ones with...