If you like flash fiction, you will love this new anthology. The stories are all 500 words or less. I contributed five tales to the mix, as did a host of other great storytellers, including Karry E.B. Black, Rie Sheridan Rose, David M. Hoenig, James Pratt, E.S. Wynn, Dorothy Davies and many others.

The Blue Gonk Café decided to hold a storytelling day… some of the best writers from Thirteen Press went to the sessions… the result being an anthology of almost 170 pieces of flash fiction, ranging from SF through gentle humor to outright horror. Pick up and put down or start at the beginning and read through all the storytelling sessions, either way the collection is a delight for the senses, far ranging stories covering all aspects of Life. Come on in and be part of the storytelling sessions. You won’t regret it!

More Tales from the Blue Gonk Café is from Thirteen O’Clock Press, edited by Dorothy Davies, and available in print at Amazon, Lulu and Horrified Press.

My stories in the anthology are:

There is Always Hope. Some shoes are hard to fill. There is Always Hope is the tale of a demon spawn, trying to live up to the reputation of his tremendously evil parents. Presently partially in first-person point of view, the young demon must dig deep into the past to make new use of an old virtue.

Hunt and Gather. From an anthropological perspective, what is the origin of humanity’s idealized view of the paradise from which it was cast? Is it a species recollection of an earlier era of foraging, or hunting and gathering? Hunt and Gather posits an alien interference in the recent evolutionary past in which the advanced aliens realize the error of having pushed Earth’s humans toward civilization. They return to set things straight; a noble aim that might not hit its mark.

Market Plan. Professor Drake has discovered a vast network of instantaneous intergalactic communications. With Earth’s culture in a decline of vapid consumerism, he argues humanity should reach out and seek rescue from the advanced civilizations of the universe. Not everyone agrees.

Necessity. Company loyalty is a virtue and a burden. But there are more important things—like life itself, not to mention continuation of the species. Necessity is about a bright and advanced not-to-distant future, in which humanity is mastering the solar system, and its power requirements are readily managed. But something most people don’t know has gone wrong. Horribly wrong.

By the Glow of Inner Light. Philosophical zombies are hypothetical creatures used in thought experiments exploring the bounds of physicalism. Or are they? Ernest is a metaphysical scientist that has invented a way to distinguish truly conscious humans from philosophical zombies. Whether the invention is a success is a question for you to decide. But be warned, how you decide might depend on whether you are a philosophical zombie.

So enjoy a day at the Blue Gonk Café.