“Wardrobe Crisis” (A Halloween Microfiction)

It snowed in much of New England last night and we’re expecting more over the weekend. Despite that, Halloween is still on Monday. In celebration of the weekend, here’s a tiny Halloween tale. Wardrobe Crisis by Craig D.B. Patton “Where’s my best tux?” the vampire hissed.  “What have you done with my Halloween dress?” the [...]

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Tough Spring – First Flash

( I know.  It’s not the first.  Better late than never.  This is the “Pretend Story” I told my sons last night before bed. ) In the ground, the flowers waited.  They had been waiting for months, all through the decay of Autumn and the long freeze of Winter.  But they knew that Spring was [...]

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Turkey Tales

I haven’t posted a First Flash in months.  So, in partial compensation, I offer these Thanksgiving tales.  The first is something I tossed up on Facebook earlier today.  The second is a story I told my sons a couple of nights ago before bed.  I hope you enjoy them.  And, for those of you who celebrate [...]

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An Oddity on Writing

Lost in the wreckage of this blog’s plummet to earth after a pretty consistent first six months were the First Flash entries for July and August.  In partial compensation, and because my time continues to be quite limited of late, I offer the below.  I wrote this while part of a writers group in Chicago.  [...]

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“Aftershocks” – First Flash

Normally, I post an original flash story of some stripe on this blog on the first of every month.  As it happens, Wily Writers published my flash story, “Aftershocks,” yesterday.  Since I did not manage to post yesterday, I hereby dub “Aftershocks” the First Flash entry for June.  (Nice thing about a blog.  You can [...]

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One Small Lie – First Flash

One small lie. That was all it took. A campaign staffer awoke late one October night in Ohio.  She had an idea.  Something to capture the next news cycle.  Maybe more.  Hope warmed her.  Her candidate was losing.  And they could not lose.  Too much was at stake.  The regional director had implored them to [...]

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Twilight of an Era – First Flash

It was just after six on a Thursday evening.  I was in my office, working on some papers.  The funnies, mostly.  The papers the police wanted me to fill out could wait.  Being a Thursday night, I knew that every self respecting person in the building was out at their local watering hole with friends.  [...]

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Mary – a First Flash

Alan decided his nose hurt the most but it was a dead heat.  His right eye was swelling.  His left cheekbone was white-hot.  His stomach felt like it had been relocated to the middle of his chest.  Karl and his gang had beat the hell out of him, then left him on the floor of [...]

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Things in the Attic – a First Flash

There is stuff in the attic.  So much stuff.  Like the late, great George Carlin said, “A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it.”  The first layer under the cover is the stuff in the attic.  But most people don’t know what is in there.  Not really. There are boxes [...]

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