20 Minute Fiction
Short writing (and some longer things too)
A Half Full Moon
The boys stood in the clearing behind the house before the first trees of the forest, a darkening sky above. Wow, that moon is exactly half a sphere! Half a circle. What? It’s a circle. What you can see is a circle, and only half of it. A sphere is an orb, like a ball.…
Read More
Billy and Jim and You and Me
I’ve been asked on occasion who Billy and Jim are. It’s clear to most that there are elements of myself in both characters, but in my own mind, I am Billy. I’ve always been Billy. Who Jim is remains a mystery to me. I’ve written for years about the both of them, using their beings…
Read More
The Winds Whispering Among the Trees
“Fucking winter.” Billy spat. “Fuck you.” With every footfall his boots slipped in the snow. He was walking up the hill behind the house with the snow falling even now in the late days of February. “Fuck you.” Billy said to himself. “I hate you,” he said to himself. He stopped to catch his breath.…
Read More
Three Days Past Full
The moon was three days past full, and Billy used its light in the darkness of the night to navigate to the wood pile in the snow. The snow was fresh but wet, and under the great pine trees it had frozen a thin crust which Billy broke through with his boots, down the hill…
Read More
Against the Dimly Lit Sky
In the night Billy laid on the couch in front of the big bay windows looking out over the valley. A layer of cloud hemmed in the world, cutting off the tops of the mountains and muting the moon that was a few nights past being full. But the moon still lit the earth, it…
Read More
A Thing on the Dirt
When Billy came upon William he was just a thing on the dirt. He laid there in a ball with his knees drawn to his chest and his left arm around his shins and then his right arm under his head, a very soft cradle. He could have been many things lying there; a rock,…
Read More
Autumn, deep into it
Autumn, and deep into it. Glowing leaves in an absence of light, yellows to envy and a green so lime and bright, so tucked in, a little bit of sheen against the dark richness of the surrounding pines. Deep into autumn, long past the careening energy of summer, the hustle and bustle, the dragging of…
Read More
An Almost Full Moon
Although almost full, the moon was only a muffled speck of light behind the clawing late season clouds, and although barely a spreading reflection above the mountains, a reflection still. It had been raining on and off throughout the day and the ground was wet, and the brush Billy was burning was wet too but…
Read More