Category: Dating + Relationships

Flies’ Goodbyes

Neesa Suncheuri

We met, we bartered, we pricked at a dead fly with needles. The papery light above us, a hangout for living cousins. Or perhaps he looks down on us now again, already reincarnated. All with gnashed teeth, insane smiles, buzzing … Damn them. Small hairs on my husband’s head, balding, Read more

Neesa Suncheuri

Neesa Suncheuri works as a mental health peer specialist at a housing agency in Queens, New York. She is the founder of a Facebook discussion group for peer specialists and other recovery enthusiasts, entitled “What is Wellness? A Mental Health Discussion Group.” She also maintains a blog called Unlearning Schizophrenia, and is a regular contributor of poetry and fiction at Organic Coffee, Haphazardly. She is also a singer/songwriter, and an enthusiast of the German language and culture.

Sometimes You Just Know

Jodie Beckstine Killian

We were friends for 87 days before we started dating. Despite being told you should date someone taller, prettier, smarter, more religious, you asked me out. When asked why, you said YOU KNEW. We dated for 438 days before we were married. Despite being told we were too young, to Read more

Jodie Beckstine Killian

Jodie Beckstine Killian has always been a little different. Growing up in a small Wisconsin town she stood out from the rest as a person born with Hypochondroplasia. As a budding entertainer, this wasn’t a disability but a “super” ability that allowed her to get noticed, but not always in the way she hoped. Stares, discrimination and cruel comments are something she deals with daily and writes about often. She currently lives in Florida. (She doesn’t miss Wisconsin winters). She works in marketing, social media and is currently writing her first novel.

A Blurry Image of Love, Lust and the Teenage Mind

Dave Pasquel

Love, lust and the teenage mind. Yep, I was a hot mess back in high school. I remember it vividly. Although I considered myself a goober, I sort of fit into almost every social group – including the “sportos, motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, and dickheads.” For some reason, Read more

How I Found My Way Back to Myself

Jessica Abrams

I tried to re-assemble my life but nothing seemed to fit. The Fendi bag that Giovanni’s mother had given me stood out like a sore thumb among my dancer friends’ canvas totes. I felt like this new man and new life required me to look the part, and looking the Read more

Jessica Abrams

Like her character Louise Bice in KNOCKING ON DOORS (www.knocking-on-doors.com) Jessica Abrams is a writer-slash-actress-slash-dog-walker-slash-contributor-to-an-obscure-dance-blog (although truth be told, ExploreDance.com is neither obscure nor a blog). Also like Louise, she had a stint working for the government as a field interviewer, an experience that proved to be creatively fruitful, inspiring IN TRAINING, the stories published here, and KNOCKING ON DOORS, the web series she wrote, directed and stars in. Her plays have had productions and readings in various Los Angeles venues, with “The Laughing Cow” receiving Pick of The Week by LA Weekly. She is thrilled to be a part of this amazing network of talented women.

Every Other Thursday

Elizabeth Kirkpatrick Vrenios

I we meet, and I dash across the room at his knock to open and feel the heat of his body engulf me like a blaze in my own galaxy. He runs his rough tongue over my salty skin all of its parts, sunburnt and scarred, and I crackle and Read more

Elizabeth Kirkpatrick Vrenios

Elizabeth Kirkpatrick Vrenios’ poetry has appeared in Clementine, Silver Birch Press, Kentucky Review, Bethlehem Writers Roundtable and Silkworm, in forthcoming issues of Edison Literary Review, Crack the Spine, Poeming Pidgeon and Unsplendid. She co-wrote the book Party Line under the name Elizabeth Kirkpatrick. She has studied with Judith Harris, Gloria Boyer, Hailey Leithauser, Sue Ellen Thompson and Alexandra Van de Kamp. Elizabeth is a professor emerita from American University in Washington DC, having chaired the vocal and music departments. Vrenios’ solo recitals throughout the United States, South America, Scandinavia, Japan and Europe have been acclaimed, and as the artistic director of the Redwoods Opera Workshop in Mendocino, California, and the Crittenden Opera Workshop in Washington D.C. and Boston, she has influenced and trained students across the country. She is a member of the international Who’s Who of Musicians, and is the past National President of the National Opera Association.

Living the Lie of Domestic Tranquility

Jessica Abrams

In retrospect I realize that my not having a boyfriend for all those years had given me a deep sense of failure. Not just failure, but a feeling of being flawed in some basic human way. I knew I was attractive, but nonetheless felt un-womanly, like I was lacking a Read more

Jessica Abrams

Like her character Louise Bice in KNOCKING ON DOORS (www.knocking-on-doors.com) Jessica Abrams is a writer-slash-actress-slash-dog-walker-slash-contributor-to-an-obscure-dance-blog (although truth be told, ExploreDance.com is neither obscure nor a blog). Also like Louise, she had a stint working for the government as a field interviewer, an experience that proved to be creatively fruitful, inspiring IN TRAINING, the stories published here, and KNOCKING ON DOORS, the web series she wrote, directed and stars in. Her plays have had productions and readings in various Los Angeles venues, with “The Laughing Cow” receiving Pick of The Week by LA Weekly. She is thrilled to be a part of this amazing network of talented women.

My Escape from Genoa, the City of Sin

Jessica Abrams

I filed the train statement away and after the show that night—at four-thirty in the morning—loaded my suitcases into the van with everyone else’s and then nodded off as we sped toward this alleged city of sin. We arrived just as the sun was coming up over the hills; and Read more

Jessica Abrams

Like her character Louise Bice in KNOCKING ON DOORS (www.knocking-on-doors.com) Jessica Abrams is a writer-slash-actress-slash-dog-walker-slash-contributor-to-an-obscure-dance-blog (although truth be told, ExploreDance.com is neither obscure nor a blog). Also like Louise, she had a stint working for the government as a field interviewer, an experience that proved to be creatively fruitful, inspiring IN TRAINING, the stories published here, and KNOCKING ON DOORS, the web series she wrote, directed and stars in. Her plays have had productions and readings in various Los Angeles venues, with “The Laughing Cow” receiving Pick of The Week by LA Weekly. She is thrilled to be a part of this amazing network of talented women.

Young Lovers

Anders Svenning

He first saw her during coffee hour, in the Catholic church on Second and Thirteenth. She was filled with spirit, mass having been just finished. She wore her golden cross outside of her beige vest. She approached him and walked passed him, saying nothing. This was the moment he saw Read more

Anders Svenning

Anders M. Svenning lives in south Florida. His work has appeared in Forge Journal, Grey Sparrow Journal, and many more. His work is forthcoming in an anthology by Horrified Press and in Conceit Magazine. His motto: What seems evident rarely is the case.