Stories Short and Strange
17 short stories for general audiences ranging from the unusual to the unbelievable to the just plain strange.
How To Be Interviewed
Have you every heard the saying “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door”? If not, good, because it isn’t true at all. Not only do you need a promising idea, but you need a way (preferably multiple ways) to tell the world about it. No one is going
Original Poem — On Importance
Here is an original poem from my book Some Poems About Life, available on this website. On Importance I saw an old friend yesterday. A high school classmate. We had a lot to catch up on. He’s doing very well, he says. He has a very responsible position. He makes major decisions all the time.
Do You Like Apples?
Here is an original poem for Fall, inspired by my neighbor’s love of apples — APPLES Do you like apples? Johnny Appleseed came to me in a dream and told me to plant apple trees. (Not really, but it makes more sense this way.) So I planted three apple trees in my yard. Now they
Secrets, Adventures, Fear, & Love: Book 4
Solstice Publishing has recently released Book 4 in the Secrets, Adventures, Fear, & Love series of short-story collections in both paperback and Kindle editions. I was fortunate enough to have my Christmas story, “Thanks, Santa,” included. “Thanks, Santa” was based on a true story as told to me by a friend who works seasonally as
The Joy in Forgotten Objects
Today I am reposting one of my favorite short stories. It was originally published at BewilderingStories.com in Issue 612, and was an Editors’ Choice in the 2015 First Quarterly Review. It’s also included in my book Stories Short and Strange, available on this website and Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle versions (https://www.amazon.com/s?k=%22stories+short+and+strange%22&i=stripbooks&crid=3NM0S4R47KU87&sprefix=stories+short+and+strange+%2Cstripbooks%2C145&ref=nb_sb_noss). By the way, one of these
How Smart is Your Dog?
Most people consider their pets to be members of their family. This is especially true for dogs. What’s more, many owners feel they know what their dogs are thinking and can communicate with them on a basic level. That’s why I was intrigued by the article “Top 10 Smartest Dogs: Find Out if Your Pup
When to Listen to the Animals
How many times have you read an account of a natural disaster and thought, “I wish we had better warning systems”? Our weather and monitoring instruments, sophisticated as they are, still have serious limitations. We can’t predict earthquakes, for example. And yet much better warning systems do exist. It appears animals’ senses are finely tuned
An Alternative to the Household Battery?
How many times a year do you change a battery somewhere in your home? From smoke detectors to remotes, there are enough electrical devices in our lives that keeping a supply of several different types is virtually a necessity. And then there is the disposal problem… That’s why news of a study published on April 30
Could You Report an Earthquake?
News flash — If you have an Android phone, you can actually detect earthquakes. Google has created an Android Earthquake Alerts system by using smartphone accelerometers. Between 2021 and 2024, the system has detected over 11,000 earthquakes and issued more than 1200 alerts in 98 countries. The results have been as effective as seismometers and,
A Pun So Bad It’s Good
Why is a koala bear a marsupial and not a bear? Because it doesn’t have the right koala-fications. Since this subject has come up, here are some facts about koalas. According to the San Diego Zoo, koalas are mammals, and they do resemble teddy bears with their round, fuzzy ears. But they are definitely marsupials,