“The Park Bench” Fiction by Curtis Bass
“I think I’ll wear my blue polo shirt today,” muttered the elderly gentleman. He was going on his several times weekly walk to the park. Ellie might be there.
“I think I’ll wear my blue polo shirt today,” muttered the elderly gentleman. He was going on his several times weekly walk to the park. Ellie might be there.
Authors and poets appearing include Curtis Bass, Titus Green, Thomas White, Julian Grant, Brendan Burton, and Mark Mellon.
Authors and poets appearing include Curtis Bass, Titus Green, Thomas White, Julian Grant, Brendan Burton, and Mark Mellon.
A retired teacher, Vern Fein has published over one hundred fifty poems and short pieces on over seventy sites. He has non-fiction pieces in Quail Bell, The Write Place at the Write Time, and Adelaide, plus a short story in the the online magazine Duende from Goddard College
KA Burks lives in Reno, Nevada. Her love of writing goes all the way back to childhood when she used to make her own picture books. After retiring from a career in education, she decided to take up writing full time.
Tre Luna has had horror, poetry, and non-fiction pieces accepted by Dark Horses Magazine, Idle Ink, the non-profit NeuroClastic, and the Sci-Fi & Fantasy Writers Guild in partnership with Cloaked Press. His blog can be found at https://panfae.medium.com, and his Twitter handle is @TreLuna5
Mitchell Waldman’s fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous publications, including Alien Buddha Press, The MacGuffin, Fictive Dream, The Waterhouse Review, Crack the Spine, The Houston Literary Review, The Faircloth Review, Epiphany, Wilderness House Literary Magazine, The Battered Suitcase, and many other magazines and anthologies.
Philip Laverty is currently working on new horror fiction while editing various other pieces and trying to place them with publishers and agents. He lives in Scotland and have two daughters. His main horror influences are M.R. James, Sheridan Le Fanu, William Peter Blatty and David Lynch.”
Hayden Sidun is a high school student whose short fiction has appeared in The Dillydoun Review, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Literary Yard, Button Eye Review, The Chamber Magazine, and Potato Soup Journal…
James Hanna is a retired probation officer and a former fiction editor. Due to his background, the criminal element figures strongly in much of his writing. James’ stories have appeared in over thirty journals, including Sixfold, Crack the Spine, and The Literary Review.
The sky was whited out that morning, like a great ashen blanket thrown out over to the horizon. You couldn’t make out one cloud from the next. The day was pale, and a thin vaporous mist had settled over the wet grass. The trees and bushes were soaked through with rain from the night before, […]
Mr. Ryland states about himself: “I have published work in Eldritch Journal, Otherwise Engaged, The Writer’s Magazine, Birmingham Arts Journal, Subterranean Blue, and others. My collection Southern Gothic and novel Souls Harbor are currently available on all major markets. My upcoming novel The Man with No Eyes, will be published by Moonshine Cove Press in March 2022.”
Glenn Dungan is currently based in Brooklyn, NYC. He exists within a Venn-diagram of urban design, sociology, and good stories. When not obsessing about one of those three, he can be found at a park drinking black coffee and listening to podcasts about murder.
Douglas Ford’s fiction has appeared in Dark Moon Digest, Diabolical Plots, Tales to Terrify, along with several other small press publications. Recent work has appeared in The Best Hardcore Horror, Volumes Three and Four, and a novella, The Reattachment, appeared in 2019 courtesy of Madness Heart Press. Other recent publications include a collection of short fiction from Madness Heart Press and a novel set to appear from D and T Publishing.
Note: This story does contain a scene and language suitable for a mature audience.
If Kafka, Phillip K Dick, Edgar Allen Poe, or Harlan Ellison were alive they would have enough inspiration from the shenanigans of artificial non-intelligence to write ten thousand more novels each.