Tag Archive: short stories

New post-apocalyptic fiction by yours truly at 365 Tomorrows. Check it out

Post-apocalyptic flash fiction by me. Here’s a tease: By the time the sandstorm passed, the sun had fallen and the orange skies had faded to a bruised brown and purple. The towers still seemed unreachable, perched on a dream horizon. Faint whispers of yesterday clutching at sky that no longer wanted it. Read the rest here at 365 Tomorrows. It will only take you a minute or so and it will make your day the greatest day you’ve ever had, ever, because that’s what demon-infested cities will do.

For 2016, a new short story every month

I’m blessed that writing (sort of)(barely) pays the bills. But one result of taking something you love and turning it into work is that it becomes an obligation rather than an escape. You HAVE to do that if you want to make a living from it, of course — I would have faltered years ago if I didn’t decide that I had to prioritize writing in the same way you do any other job — but you lose a little of what drew you to it in the first place. For me, it was the joy of playing with words; of creating people and situations out of whole cloth; and of looking at a page and saying, “Holy shit, I made that!” These days, I…
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FICTION: Blessed Life part 1 – Ambulance is Young

This story first appeared in The Berkeley Times and The Jackson Times as a 12-part serial way back in 2000-2001 — so yes, the writing here is pretty old. When I read it, I see tremendous room for improvement. It is older than I would normally show people largely because I’ve improved by leaps and bounds since writing this, but the full story (of which this is only the first part) has a special place in my heart. The story may be collected in a future collection of my fiction — I’m considering self-publishing a short story collection — but for now enjoy this glimpse into the story of two retired people coping with loss. BLESSED LIFE Part 1, Ambulance is Young   The ambulance…
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FICTION: The Girl and the Gold Watch

This short piece sprang from a title an online acquaintance threw at me, one I thought he had made up. The title was so evocative, I immediately got a vision in my head of a little girl and … well, you can read it below. The problem? He hadn’t made it up. That was a poor assumption on my part. The title was The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything, and it belongs to a book I did not know existed. Regardless, it inspired this short piece of fiction that will maybe one day turn into a full-blown book. With a new title, of course… The Girl and the Gold Watch By Eric San Juan “You know I haven’t the money for that, Sissy. Put…
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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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