Author: barista

  • December Stories at the Confabulator Cafe

    Hello, readers. I hope you all didn’t mind our quick catnap at the Cafe last month. With NaNoWriMo in full swing, our staff was a bit overworked and needed the time off.

    But we’re back and ready to regale you with new stories this month.

    For December, we like to do what we call “freestyle month.” That means anything goes. Stories can be short or long. They can use a prompt from previous months, or they can be completely original. They can be about Christmas, but they certainly don’t have to be.

    We hope you’ll peek in from time to time this month and read what the Confabulators have found to share with you. Here is the December schedule.

    Saturday, December 2: “The Woman who Slipped Below” by Emily Mosher
    Saturday, December 9: “Princess Sparklemittens” by Eliza Jaquays
    Saturday, December 23: “To Catch the Christmas Spirit” by Sara Lundberg
    Saturday, December 30: “Prison of the Mind” by Dianne Williams

    Hope your holidays are safe and happy, and we’ll see you next year!

  • October Stories at the Confabulator Cafe

    Hello, reader. Welcome back to another month of free fiction here at the Confabulator Cafe.

    Our prompt for October is: “one day you notice there’s a new key on your key chain.”

    Here’s the October schedule:

    Friday, October 6: “Hope Chest” by Emily Mosher
    Friday, October 13: “Lunar Trials” by Sara Lundberg
    Friday, October 20: “The Night Chats” by Dianne Williams

  • September Stories at the Confabulator Cafe

    We hope you enjoyed last month’s stories. We were lucky enough to have a brand new guest author submit last time, so if you haven’t had a chance, go back and read the story “Nephilim” by the talented James Young.

    This month, we wrote to the prompt: “the mirror’s surface remained devoid of any human reflection.” We hope you’ll delight in the different directions the Confabulators took that prompt this month.

    We’re still on Wednesdays this next month. Here is the September schedule:

    Wednesday, September 6: “The Humanity Mirror” by Sara Lundberg
    Wednesday, September 13: “One Good Deed” by Kita Haliwell
    Wednesday, September 20: “Girl in a Mirror” by Rob Conway
    Wednesday, September 27: “Last Rites” by Neil Siemers

  • Nephilim

    “You boys lost?”

    The man’s voice, with its slight Southwestern twang, came from behind me to my left.  As Pedro, my Patron, was sitting on that side, I ignored it.  To be honest, it was hard to focus on it in the busy, bustling diner as it was.  Pedro had told me the place’s name, saying that it had the best salsa burger in the entire country. I gotta admit, that’s not exactly what I imagined a vampire who’d been around for half a millenia would remember, but whatever.  I’ll admit the tomatoes, peppers, and Kobe beef were like someone painted a sunset on my palate, but that’s what happens when all your senses increase by a few orders of magnitude.

    Place has a bit of a fly problem, I thought angrily, as it suddenly seemed like a horde of the buggers had taken up residence just outside of my arm’s reach.

    “Hey, shit for brains–talking to you too,” the man continued from right behind me.  I nearly whirled around whipped out his throat just for the hell of it, but caught myself.

    Don’t want to announce to a room full of gazelles that a lion walks amongst them, I thought.  Although this asshole is definitely moving his way to the ‘slowest gazelle on the veldt’-territory I glanced over at Pedro just as the diner’s cook slammed his hand down on the bell in the order’s window.

    The look on Pedro’s face that was my first warning. The Old Ones tend not to show fear.  I think part of it is showmanship, but most of it is because after walking the earth for centuries there’s not a whole lot you haven’t seen.  So understand, when an Old One has a face like a seal who has just seen an orca hop out the water and start walking up the beach towards him, that’s a bad sign.

    My second warning?  Well that was the fact the sound of that bell just kept ringing…ringing…ringing like the sound had been suspended in mid-air.  My master, before turning me over to receive my training as a young vampire, had told me sound or light seeming to be off was a sign of magic.  What particular brand of magic was not important, as generally magic is a big neon sign saying “GTFO” in 100-point, bright neon green font. (more…)

  • August Stories at the Confabulator Cafe

    Welcome back to the Cafe. We have another month full of fresh, new, free fiction for your enjoyment. This month’s prompt: the worst person to come through someone’s door.

    Please join us every Wednesday this month for a new story. Here’s the August lineup:

    Wednesday, August 2: “Me, Myself, & I” by August Baker
    Wednesday, August 9: “Bubblegum and Mud” by Eliza Jaquays
    Wednesday, August 23: “The Next Step” by Jack Campbell, Jr.
    Wednesday, August 30: “Nephilim” by James Young

  • July Stories at the Confabulator Cafe

    Ok, readers, I’m going to be honest. This month’s prompt is a little weird.

    We used a random prompt generator from the Seventh Sanctum website. They have some of the strangest, most interesting prompts we’ve ever come across. And we decided to give the Confabulators free rein this month.

    So, they could refresh the page however many times they wanted until they found a prompt that inspired a story.

    We asked that they use the prompt either as a first line or an intro line to their story, so you can see what they were working with.

    Feel free to peruse the site yourself, if you feel so inclined: Seventh Sanctum Writing Prompt Generator.

    Here’s the schedule for July. Join us every Friday for free fiction:

    Friday, July 7: “Wednesday’s Child” by Eliza Jaquays
    Friday, July 14: “Nicholas Does Science” by Anita C. Young
    Friday, July 21: “Wayward Witch” by Kita Haliwell
    Friday, July 28: “The Tower Princess” by Dianne Williams

  • June Stories at the Confabulator Cafe

    Don’t you love a song that tells a good story?

    So do we.

    This month, the Confabulators were challenged to write a story based on song lyrics. Let’s see if you can recognize the songs each story is based on!

    Here’s the June lineup:

    Thursday, June 8: “Mansion” by Anita C. Young
    Thursday, June 15: “Maxwell Edison, Werewolf Hunter” by Sara Lundberg
    Thursday, June 22: “The Sands of Time” by Neil Siemers
    Thursday, June 29: “Black Magic” by Dianne Williams

  • May Stories at the Confabulator Cafe

    April showers bring May flowers, right? Well, what if May also brought terror? I know, I know, usually October is the month for fright. But what if it was something completely not terrifying that was terrorizing a town?

    The Confabulators explored that idea for this month’s prompt. Just when you thought you were safe…

    We also have three returning Cafe contributors this month! We’re very excited to have them back.

    Here’s the May lineup. Please visit us every Monday this month for new stories:

    Monday, May 8: “Fear, Rejection and Spring” by Rob Conway
    Monday, May 15: “Bunnies” by Anita C. Young
    Monday, May 22: “The Election” by Sarah Bredeman
    Monday, May 29: “Arbor Day” by Jack Campbell, Jr.

  • April Stories at the Confabulator Cafe

    As a cruel April Fool’s joke, I was going to tell you that we had no stories for April.

    That’s untrue. We do have stories! Several of them! Please visit us every Friday in April for brand new fiction. Our prompt this month was: a friend has a curse placed on them; what is the curse, and does the protagonist help?

    We hope you enjoy these tales as well as the impending spring weather.

    No fooling.

    Here’s the schedule.

    Friday, April 7: “Only You” by Anita C. Young
    Friday, April 14: “The Touch of Her Hand” by Eliza Jaquays
    Friday, April 21: “The Cursed Word” by Dianne Williams

  • March Stories at the Confabulator Cafe

    Spring tentatively dipped its toe into the water, then did a cannonball into the deep end. But after that, it quickly fled again. We have no idea what season it is here in the Midwest.

    Thankfully, as writers, it can be whatever season we want in our stories.

    This month, the Confabulators wrote about an undeserved accolade someone was desperately trying to get rid of. We hope you’ll take some time to read our stories each week

    Here’s the March lineup (no, that was not a March Madness reference–we don’t know much about sportsball here):

    Wednesday, March 8: “The Wrong John Dunham” by Sara Lundberg
    Wednesday, March 15: “The Brewmaster’s Armor” by Ashley M. Hill
    Wednesday, March 22: “Wrong Place, Wrong Time” by Aspen Junge