Home Help

As soon as Carol stepped into Mary’s flat, the heat enveloped her like an over-enthusiastic relative. She should be used to it by now. She’d learnt early on not to open a window to feel the light breeze cooling her scarlet cheeks; Mary had let it be known.

     ‘Only me,’ she called out.

November 2014's edition of Long Story, Short Journal is James Wall's beautiful tale 'Home Help', with a photo by Dino Jasarevic. 'Home Help' places readers in the hands of Carol, the caretaker of an elderly woman living in residential facility. Readers are asked to consider what constitutes family, who is responsible for the lonely, and to what extent we are existing 'alone together'. CLICK HERE TO READ 'HOME HELP'.

The Monk of Zege

View fullsize

Photo © Tommy Pedersen

As he was waiting to hear the knock again, it daunted him, a thought he explored timidly so many times before, but was not quite courageous enough to say it out loud, to himself or the other monks in the peninsula. What if it was his Lord, finally coming to see him?

October 2014's edition of Long Story, Short Journal is 'The Monk of Zege' by Mahtem Shifferaw, a writer and cultural activist who grew up in Eritrea and Ethiopia. In her tale, we are invited into the life of a hermit monk who dwells both within crisis and extraordinary beauty. Zege's landscape is teeming with wildlife which encroaches upon the monk's solitude--particularly his wounded companion, a vervet monkey. Photo by Tommy Pedersen. READ 'THE MONK OF ZEGE'.

Woman Driving, Man Sleeping by Alan McMonagle

View fullsize

Photo © Jason Cameron

Cathy has an amazing scream and when she sticks her head out of the driver window and issues her command, the way ahead parts like a miracle sea. 'That's my girl,' Dominic mutters, leaning his head against the passenger window and closing his eyes.       

The September 2014 offering of Long Story, Short Journal is new work by Alan McMonagle, author of 'Psychotic Episodes' (Arlen House). 'Woman Driving, Man Sleeping' puts readers behind the driver's seat on a couple's driving holiday in Africa, moving at a clip where it becomes clear we cannot know what is coming around the corner. CLICK HERE TO READ 'WOMAN DRIVING, MAN SLEEPING'.

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'.

Lake House

View fullsize

Photo © Kristen Johansen

Smoke inhalation, electrocution by live lines, roof collapse. Burning. Any of those deaths might have seemed more normal, or at least appropriately courageous. If he’d rushed straight into hell with a pike pole and a booster line, no one would have batted an eye. But Gus died in bed. And that didn’t sit well with some people.

American writer Jason Kapcala is the author of the July edition of Long Story, Short Journal. 'Lake House' explores the question of how a person constructs their own legacy. Readers are immersed in the crucible of risk and relationships, questioning exactly how much 'fire' one can cope with while maintaining human connections. Photo provided by Kristen Johansen. READ 'LAKE HOUSE'.

The Cowboy

View fullsize

Photo © Gareth Wray

It was rumoured that the farmer who lived in the house with the twelve chimneys, had a set of medieval stocks in one of his rundown sheds, and that trespassers caught on his land doing anything at all, including just breathing, were bundled into his tractor and taken to be put in those stocks and dear knows what else. Boon often sat in the pub listening to such tales and watching them pass from one cigarette curl to another, as faces leaned in around tables then burst into glorious arrays of white teeth and laughter. 

The June edition of Long Story, Short Journal brings us to the crossroads of short stories and the Irish storytelling tradition. 'The Cowboy'  by Northern Irish author Jamie Guiney is a humorous piece following the exploits of a man whose reputation for pilfering the local farmer's fields may be catching up with him. Photo by Gareth Wray. CLICK HERE TO READ 'THE COWBOY'.

Blame it on the Rain

View fullsize

Photo © Pierre Melloul

It is always raining when I do these things. Any port in a storm, gimme shelter from the storm, stormy weather, raindrops keep falling on my head. My eyes will be turning red soon. Oh. Pathetic fallacy...

'Blame it on the Rain' is a psychologically complex portrait of a woman whose mind is swinging between grasping need and gravid interiority. Michelle Auerbach, author of The Third Kind of Horse, brings us the stylistically unique May 2014 edition of Long Story, Short Journal. Photo by Pierre Melloul. CLICK HERE TO READ 'BLAME IT ON THE RAIN'.

School of Life

View fullsize

Photo © Jorinde Reijnierse

It sounded like a reply to a lonely hearts ad. And wasn’t he making his belated approach way too personal (as well as way too late)? Christ, she was only some movie industry woman he had talked to at a party, admittedly the first soirée in years he had felt mentally able to attend. Did he, in fact, come across as the type of dangerous individual whose innocuous email begins a decade of stalking?

'School of Life' is a portrait of a writer fueled by a sense of entitlement who becomes obsessed with the object of his rejection, a darker ancestor of Gogol's 'Overcoat'. London-based Jude Cook is the author of the novel 'Byron Easy'. Dutch photographer Jorinde Reijnierse provides the image for the April 2014 edition. CLICK HERE TO READ 'SCHOOL OF LIFE'.

Pussy Bratchford is on the Verge of Becoming a Good Christian

View fullsize

Photo © Elias Vella

Pussy Bratchford is on the verge of becoming a good Christian. Now that he has given up sex and ketamine, he gets his kicks bidding at auctions and leaving without paying. He makes plenty money on the drag circuit, where he calls his audience gee-bags, muff divers and swords swallowers. One time, when he hosted bingo, he asked the crowd had anyone got a line when he spotted an RTE children’s presenter in the audience and told her ‘not the kind of line you’re thinking of’. The one from the telly broke her hole laughing.

"Pussy Bratchford is on the Verge of Becoming a Good Christian" is an irreverent and tender portrait of a drag queen in Dublin. With the love and support of his grandmother, the young man is transported from a small rural town and mild life to an existence he makes entirely his own. We meet him just as he has the chance to return her support. At once cheeky and vulnerable, the March edition of Long Story, Short Journal is dedicated to drag queen and activist Panti Bliss. Story by Irish writer Jamie O'Connell; photo by Elias Vella. CLICK HERE TO READ "PUSSY BRATCHFORD IS ON THE VERGE OF BECOMING A GOOD CHRISTIAN."

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'.

Nutella

 Laura woke with two languages on her tongue. She gave herself a moment to remember where she was, then she eased back the sheets and pulled herself out of bed. Crossing the bedroom, she pulled the window wide. When she leant out, she could see over the garden to the Château at Valençay. In the light of the early morning, it looked more imposing than ever. Laura let her gaze drop back into the garden. The sun had already started to heat up and patterns of shade were appearing on the lawn. She felt a flash of contentment that was quickly followed by disappointment: already she knew this would be the best part of her day.

Set on Bastille Day in the French countryside, Nutella is a classic 'lonely voice' story which follows the life of an au pair who has left her home country with a secret she hopes to protect. Katie M. Anderson's portrait of youth on the cusp of responsibility makes for an engaging read. CLICK HERE TO READ 'NUTELLA'.

Forests of Antarctica

“That's it. Three weeks worth of stuff packed in twenty minutes. It might be a personal best,” Sam said, hovering in the doorway. It was after midnight when Sam walked into the kitchen of their cottage, where Diana liked to do her work at the massive butcher block table, and he looked tired but there was a warm glow in his cheeks. Diana stared at the screen, typing things that she would have to erase later and making notes that meant nothing.

'The Forests of Antarctica' by Courtney Watson takes place in Ushuaia, Argentina--the last stop before Antarctica--where the motto is the end of the world, the beginning of everything. Here we find a couple coping with the strain of distance as the husband ventures off on long-term scientific expeditions, leaving his wife to welcome a visitor from his past. Watson's work is understated and moving, accompanied by a photo by Russian photographer Dimitrii Smirnov. CLICK HERE TO READ FORESTS OF ANTARCTICA.