Volcanoes! by Hubert Vigilla

This thing is Greg all over. He read a Greek mythology book and the assignment was to make a board game, so here’s our beat-up Fireball Island from the garage with “Olympus! The Game!” written on one side in white out. He’s hot-glued some of his action figures at the corners. Superman (minus the cape) is Zeus, I think. I can’t really figure out the rest so I ask.

     “Dad,” he says and rolls his eyes. “That’s Batman, Wolverine, and Spider-Man.”

     “But which Greek gods are they?”

     “They’re just Batman, Wolverine, and Spider-Man.”

     “That doesn’t make any sense.”

     He points at a sticky note that reads, “This is very creative, Greg!” A-minus, smiley face. Greg beams and presses his tongue through the gap where a baby tooth used to be.

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Photo © Kerry Sellers

The September 2016 edition of Long Story, Short Journal is 'Volcanoes!' by Hubert Vigilla. This story invites readers into a stay-at-home father's fantasy world, where tomorrow's lunch is left going stale on the counter while a rumbling volcano is growing in the garage. READ 'VOLCANOES!'

Housebroken by Evelyn Walsh

The night of the robbery Ruth had gone to bed early with The Housebreaker of Shady Hill. She was stunned by this coincidence; it was her opening line in class the next day. “We were robbed last night, and guess what I was reading.” The kids hooted and crowed in jolly disbelief, or rather the kids who had actually read the story fell about laughing and the others quickly caught on. Ruth laughed along with them. She supposed she should be more upset. 

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Photo © Aurélie Bellacicco. 

The August 2016 edition of Long Story, Short Journal is 'Housebroken' by Evelyn Walsh, with a photo by Aurélie Bellacicco. Evelyn Walsh, the 2015 winner of the Seán Ó Faoláin International short story competition, often scrutinises the drama of everyday life in her work. Home, neighbourhood and the workplace are observed with a literary lense, and her characters' lives are relayed with wit, compassion and an unrelenting honesty.  READ 'HOUSEBROKEN'. 

Laureate by Andrew Meehan

"This week, I have at last found some work—chauffeuring dignitaries to and from a gathering of Nobel-prize winners at the old university in Heidelberg. This particular Laureate resembles a handsome pope. He looks seventy and he looks virile, the kind of man who would attempt intercourse with a tree from a high-speed train."

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Photo © Raul Lieberwirth.

Take a hallucinatory chauffeured tour of Heidelberg to dive bars, academic luncheons, and the homes of unmentionable historical figures in Andrew Meehan's 'Laureate'. The protagonist has a voice you won't soon forget. Read the June 2016 edition of Long Story, Short Journal: Laureate. Photo by German photographer Raul Lieberwirth. 

An Optical Illusion

Photo © Alina Hartwig

He should have had the decency to die while they were still married, Anna thought. He should have widowed her. There was dignity in that.

January 2015's edition of Long Story, Short Journal is Eimear Ryan's 'Optical Illusion', a tale of woman who must carefully navigate her ex-husband's funeral--a return to a once familiar setting, now made strange. Eimear Ryan is an up-and-coming Irish writer, featured alongside the likes of Pat McCabe, Mary Costello and Colin Barrett in Faber's Town and Country anthology of new Irish writing. CLICK HERE TO READ OPTICAL ILLUSION.

Hand Me Downs

It was one of those gut-feelings, a finger that prodded Steve in the side telling him to remember the night before or face its accusing wag; as though everything that happened was solely his fault. Yet Steve wondered how much of it was, it had all started so long ago.
 

In 'Hand Me Downs' a man reconstructing what happened the night before leads him down a path extending further and further back, to meet the origin of 'where things went wrong'. Kelly Creighton's story is both gritty and emotionally apt, and continues the LSS tradition of tales of love lost--just in time for Valentine's Day. Click here to read 'Hand Me Downs'.

Axman

Photo © Mitch Weiss

“It was the guitar that made us stop for him, that and the unmistakable silhouette, in black, of Castle Bran painted on the white guitar case. The black suit and black and white striped shirt also helped. His hair was long and grey – once black? – and he was as tall and skinny as a lamppost. The only incongruous thing about him was the pair of tiny John Lennon glasses perched on his somewhat long nose.”

'Axman'​ is a wonderfully weird offering from renowned poet and writer Matthew Sweeney, co-author with John Hartley Williams of the novel 'Death Comes for the Poets'. In 'Axman', Sweeney draws on his years in both Germany and Romania to create a unique tale of a guitar-wielding hitchhiker one couple will forever regret picking up, but will also never forget. Sean O'Brien describes Sweeney's approach at the British Literature Council website: "Disliking the term 'Magic Realism', he [Sweeney] has proposed the name 'Alternative Realism'. In this realm, the mundane world lies open to the proverbial, to the peremptory logic of folktale and to the possibility of nightmare derived from what Sweeney calls 'European darkness'." The darkness, humour and lingering mystery in 'Axman' make it a story well worth reading. CLICK HERE TO READ 'AXMAN'.

Balan

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© Patrick Warner

"Gerry gripped a bath towel around his waist. The autumn chill spread goose-pimples across his naked torso. His mother pressed in behind him and when he straightened they almost knocked heads. He palmed the air with his free hand. ‘What do you expect me to see?’"​

'Balan' brings us into the mind of a young man whose confidence outweighs his skills of perception, whose understanding of his family and his place in the world is about to change drastically. This tale is in turns funny, heart-wrenching and startling: an honest examination of the first days of the recession from Hennessy Award-winning writer Valerie Sirr. CLICK HERE TO READ 'BALAN'.

Resurrection

Photo © Peter Neske

"It was the morning of the last day of February when the man at the other end of the phone told Miriam her husband was dead. 'There’s no comfortable way for me to put this or for you to hear it,' he said. 'Your husband’s body was found yesterday afternoon. No matter how I say it, it doesn’t make it any easier for you. I’m sorry to be the one.'"

'Resurrection' is a story by John MacKenna, who the Guardian has declared "a consummately skilled author". This is a wintry story examining the roles of innocence and experience when questions of faith test a family who has suddenly been subjected to a deep loss. CLICK HERE TO READ 'RESURRECTION'.