A.R. Bender

a silhouette of a person riding a horse holding a pumpkin Alt: black and white image of the headless horseman riding a black horse

You all voted for spooky vibes this month, and we heard you loud and clear! 🎃🌒

Gather round the campfire, because October's flash fiction theme is FOLKLORE! You have until October 31st to submit!

www.patreon.com/posts/octobe...

Tuxie resting in her familiar pose

Webster
searching for
a cute spinner

stunning pic!

secondhand genie lamps sale:
seldom rubbed

Less than 2 weeks left until our #FlashMonster soft deadline. Get that monstrous #flashfiction turned in by October 15th. Top 10 published on Halloween. #writingcontest

themolotovcocktail.com/flash-monste...

The Baskervilles,
on the road again

Gertie
ISO
her crocs

Cuddles,
suffering from a catnip hangover

Lit mags for micro fiction (<500 words) • Whale Road Review #Micro essays that don't demand too much time up front, but somehow leave readers changed • Citron Review #Literary venue that celebrates short literature • 101 Words #Comprehensive ecosystem and community • 50-Word Stories #Built around twists or climactic moments • 50 Give or Take #Literary initiative by Vine Leaves Press • Switch #An act of adopting one way of life in place of another • dadakuku #Unconventional and avant-garde forms of expression • Thread #Experiment in micro-publishing • Camp Hiawatha #We want your tents, hammocks, & gravel roads in written form • scaffold #Weird / absurd / minimal / sad / grotestqueries with bold imagery • 100-Foot Crow #Exclusively focused on speculative drabbles • infiniteVscroll #Seeks to explore the essence of language • Micromance #Only lit mag dedicated to flash romance

Micro fiction is having a moment…maybe because we’re all losing our collective attention spans BUT in the hopes of spreading some positivity, here are some places that want your super-short-but-ultra-awesome writing ⬇️

Submit here: www.chillsubs.com/lists/micro-...

#writingcommunity

moving to greener pastures
or bust

Eggatha asks, "who ya gonna call?"

Our submissions deadline is Friday, 26th September! The deadline for submitting short stories to our summer call is the 26th of September.

Just a few days left!

YouTube video by Rock Pop Tunes It's A Beautiful Day White Bird

White Bird: the first track from the album
#MusicSky #ItsABeautifulDay #WhiteBird
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvWr...

now re-listening to: an album that captured the late 60s San Francisco psychedelic folk rock scene so well.
#MusicSky #ItsABeautifulDay

This reminds me of a quote about the rich I recently read William Gibson's Count Zero: "...And, for an instant, she stared into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human."

Phil announces more bad weather news

yeah, i remember him. always a very genuine presence

a primo BR movie

Want to submit to the Driftwood Annual Anthology? Use the link in our bio to submit your best short story or poem for a chance to be published and get paid! #callforsubmissions

Get your #horror short screenplays ready screenwriters! We're coming up on the Regular Deadline on Oct. 3rd! 👀📝

If you need another reason to submit, we're excited to welcome back horror legend, actress/producer,
@barbaracrampton.bsky.social to the Season 7 jury!

killershorts.com/submit

YouTube video by Herbie Hancock - Topic Cantaloupe Island (Remastered 1999/Rudy Van Gelder Edition)

#MusicChallenge #MotherNatureSong #MusicSky

youtu.be/otFVFLtRF_s?...
Herbie Hancock - Cantaloupe Island

Green in black (Casino Royale)

Rusty endures the agony of defeat

For sale
extremely rare
Puckerd sedan

a bunch of lit candles are on a table Alt: A ton of flickering candles sitting in melted wax on the ground

Hey, who turned out the lights?? 🕯️🕯️🕯️

The theme for September's flash fiction contest is CANDLELIGHT! You have until the end of this month to submit. Full submission details linked below ⬇️

www.patreon.com/posts/septem...

“Flora – Fauna – Fungi” An ECO24 Microfiction Contest Write a short piece of speculative ecofiction (up to 300 words) inspired by one of three photo prompts, and e-mail the piece to darian@apexbookcompany.com. The submission period for this contest will run from September 5th-25th, 2025. The top three stories overall will be voted on among Apex and Violet Lichen staff, and the winners will be published on the Apex blog, as well as sent a bookmark and a copy of ECO24: THE YEAR’S BEST SPECULATIVE ECOFICTION upon release day!

fig. 1 - flora Ghost Orchid A mossy tree in a dark swamp covered in ghost orchids. The bright white blossoms, shaped like a human leaping, have stems so thin, they look as though they're floating in midair.

fig. 2 - fauna Saddleback Caterpillar A saddleback caterpillar, a thumbnail-sized spiky brown caterpillar with a flat, neon green back patch shaped like a horse saddle, sits on a single autumn leaf, drinking from a pool of water.

fig. 3 - fungi Mushroom Spore Prints A collection of powdery white mushroom spores against a black background. The lines of the mushroom gills and the black center spot from the mushroom's stem are left behind, making the prints look like a human eye's iris.

OUR MICROFICTION CONTEST IS BACK!! ✍️🌺🐛🍄

We had such a great turnout for our first contest that we're back for a second round to celebrate ECO24! Check the pictures/alt text below for full details. The deadline to email your submission to darian@apexbookcompany.com is SEPTEMBER 25TH @ midnight!

RIP. I recently re-watched him in Thunderheart, with Val Kilmer. Dir by Michael Apted

getting best seats for Packers game

Reaper about to be hanging ten