Tag Archive: fiction

FICTION: Storms

As I blogged previously, this story first appeared in Boston Literary Magazine. Now you can read it here. It’s called Storms, and like a piece I’ll be posting on Halloween called The Symphony, it’s about war. I don’t know why I have two flash fiction pieces about war, but I do. I had just got done reading Cormac McCarthy’s brilliant The Road, and wanted to see if I could steal elements of its style and make them my own, purely to challenge myself. This is the result. Enjoy. (This also appears in a previously mentioned but as yet unpublished collection of short fiction I’ve put together.) STORMS By Eric San Juan A week in a trench. Mud. Every little while a machine gun barked. Chattering…
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50-word fiction: The Machines

My Jersey journalist-in-arms John Saccenti put together a little 50-word fiction contest on Facebook. Had a few moments to spare and thought, why not? So, at exactly 50 words, here is my entry: THE MACHINES We forgot to unplug them. And so the Machines fell upon us while we slept, a storm of metal and gears filling the sky like so much angry cloud. With scraping and thunder and screaming and wheels, wheels, wheels, the Machines tore into us, and all were turned to meat. Fin

My short fiction at Boston Literary Magazine

I penned a flash fiction piece last year called “Storms,” a brief war story about a man’s experience on the front lines of World War I. The story is now available at Boston Literary Magazine. Surf over here and give it a read. It’s short. Won’t take you but a few minutes to read. My thanks to editor Robin Stratton, who forced me to take a hard look at the story and pare it back to its most essential elements.

Sometimes they say yes (aka Eric “sells” a story)

It’s funny that I just recently blogged about rejection letters, because over the weekend I got the opposite of a rejection when Boston Literary Magazine accepted a story I wrote called “Storms”. It’s a short short delving into the mind of a soldier about to fight the Battle of the Somme. I look forward to being able to link to it so you folks can read it. You’d think after my long gap from blogging I’d have more to say, but no. No, I don’t. It’s been a busy, hectic time, but none of it worth talking about. I am now trying to fix my laptop, because without it my writing grinds to a halt. So there is that. Tomorrow I will post more preview…
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My life as a railroad hobo – part 1

The first time you taste possum you begin to question if this is what you really want to be doing with your time. It’s got a gritty taste, like lamb rubbed down with sandpaper, and the scent. Well, no amount of cheap whiskey or vomit will wash that out of your mouth. So needless to say, it makes you begin to question the choices you’ve made. Thing is, when the rails catch up to you, eventually you’ll eat whatever you can find. It was somewhere in Tennessee, I think — the details are still a little foggy — but it was the first bite I’d had since leaving Kentucky and besides, if you find someone on the tracks will to share his dinner you don’t…
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