The Vanishing Act by Connla Stokes →

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Photo by Mark Madeo

“This Biblical weather had set the stage perfectly for his overnight disappearance, which once reported, would seem like a no-brainer. Just picture: two or three days after a hurricane rips the arse off Dublin, the Gardaí find a missing person’s crappy car at the end of a pier with a bunch of discarded clothes on the back seat. If that didn’t scream out, “Goodbye cruel world!” in neon lights, Ciaran figured nothing would. ”

The Vanishing Act by Irish writer Connla Stokes is the August 2015 edition of Long Story, Short Journal. In this tale, the 'lonely voice' in short stories turns humorous, when the hero decides to fling himself head-first into isolation, in a bid to reconnect with his loved ones. The satirical portrait of a writer in a severe stage of avoidance will be familiar to many who long for both escape, and creative notoriety. Read The Vanishing Act.

Fliers

 She wakes up the way she always does, quickly and slowly. Her pulse, quick quick slow, quick quick slow. Quick, the adrenalin that flashes in her and it feels like she’s ready to run, to fly, the fooled, frail, exhausted body. Slow, being the fog. The numb-skulling pea-souper that doesn’t lift till two in the afternoon. All because of the goddamn pills; the pills she took first for performance anxiety, then when Frank died, and now she is enslaved to their little white wiles.

The August 2014 edition of Long Story, Short Journal is 'Fliers' by UK writer Nichola Bendall, with artwork by Zoë J. Murdoch. The story brings us intertwining narratives of three individuals struggling against lives of confinement, when flight is what they desire. Against the backdrop of political elections, 'Fliers' employs a subtle use of satire, encouraging readers to consider the consequences of both action and inaction. CLICK HERE TO READ 'FLIERS'.

The Boat

Water, water, everywhere, but not inside me; my organs, these vitals, they rattle like dusty pebbles. I understand those tubercular poets of the 19th century. In a slow decline, you reach for the pen...

'The Boat' by Hugh Fulham-McQuillan is a humorous story set against the backdrop of the post-Celtic Tiger recession, with its hero and his companions attempting to take a relaxing sun holiday at a seaside resort of repossessed properties and abandoned boats. With a single copy of Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim to entertain them, the companions strike out on a seafaring excursion that will test their survival skills and their friendships. CLICK HERE TO READ 'THE BOAT'.

Ezekiel Rising

When Jessie and Little Owen Stucker passed him by Orville Qualls was out in the yard playing in the snow like a kid. Little Owen reminded himself to call Bobby Willis as soon as he got home, but otherwise they thought nothing of it. It was Orville's way. A little touched they said but forgivable as he was old and had never been known to harm a soul and half the population of West Sisters, Indiana had work by his hand on their walls or if they felt themselves of a more sophisticated nature, packed away in a basement, garage or attic—or maybe offered up as gift to one of the local collectors of Orville Qualls of which there were more than you might imagine, especially since that article in the Indianapolis Star calling him a genuine folk artist and a primitive genius on the order of Grandma Moses and Elias Hicks.

'Ezekiel Rising' is the portrait of an artist whose spiritual practice is not only his creativity, but also the sacrifice of giving his work away. This tale uniquely pairs a requiem for a beloved animal and a sharp satire of the art world. As the character Orville Qualls weathers winter, loss, and lazy consumption by arts audiences, the reader warms to him and the astonishing beauty he creates from pain. Author Jacob Russell is not only a writer, but an artist as well.  CLICK HERE TO READ 'EZEKIEL RISING'.