dennis scharnberg

ring of truth

“The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award,” said Gerald.  “I want it.”

Stephanie Biggers, Cat Farming in Nigeria.

hide and wait

“How many stories exist?” wondered Yorick.

“Seven,” said Terence.  “There are seven stories.  A slender case can be made for eight.”

Chadwick Graves, Behaving Like a Beast.

wasting gray matter

statutory  rope

Andrew Tertullian, Pandora’s Ponderous Puns.

butchers versus vegans

Mr. Cowling’s policy was to avoid explanation.  At all cost.

Jeremy Malking, The Anechoic Chamber: Stories.

flapping wizard sleeves

Perhaps the abhorrence of bloodshed is a prejudice.

Tate LaBianca, Four and Twenty Blackbirds.

pearls and jade

Ideas are forced.  They are artificialities.  They are often ridiculous.  At a certain level, we hate our ideas.

Hill Boothby, The Dazzling Realm of Almost.

sewing the fields

Kellen believed that he could attain the admiration that he so desperately coveted—and attain it more quickly—if he were to write short stories rather than novels.

Charles Jeffrey Yett,  Writing in Miniature—Vol. Three.

saying is believing

Virtue is concerned with what one does when nobody is watching.  The rest is nothing but theater.

Tyrone Sommer, Circling the Drain.

riddled with asterisks

The newsletter from the art museum—in so few sentences—managed to invoke every major stupid idea of our day.  It was, Simon thought, quite spectacular actually.

Anselm Bligh, A Collection of Miniatures.

metal more attractive

The Latin inflection “ia” came showering down in inexplicable glory….

Algernon Webb, A Speculative Autobiography.