Poking our nascent creativity
By William Kiraly, © July 2018 Prompt: What happens when a creative person cannot or will not give life to their creations. Author’s Note: This story contains some strong language and mild sexual descriptions. Audio Version 1978 Danny stacked up his roommates’ dirty dishes onto the old wooden wire spool that served as their …
Read More The Daemon MuseBy William Cohen-Kiraly, © March 2018 Prompt: You (or your character) stand in front of a mirror engaged in the daily grooming ritual. Your reflection reveals something unexpected and snatches your attention. Today will no longer be a routine, predictable day. “You look goofy,” Aieai-eei told me. “What do you mean?” I asked. “The droopy …
Read More The Singer of Starfish
Note: this is a horror story containing graphic content that may not be suitable for everyone. Reader and listener discretion is advised. Audio version read by the author By William Cohen-Kiraly 7/16/2017 Inspired by “Bury My Lovely” Performed by October Project feat. Mary Fahl Song written by Emil Adler and Julie Flanders https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=puGEpGzk2hk A shadow …
Read More Something That Will Not Let Go
By William Cohen-Kiraly, © February 2017 Chicken Cock Whiskey It was a cold, dreary day. The sky was gray and a sharp, cold rain turned the trailer park roads to mud. It was the kind of spring day I used to suffer through as a kid in Ohio, not something you would expect down here …
Read More The Big GumshoesBy William Cohen-Kiraly, December 2016 Prompt: A writer loses the ability to distinguish reality from the fantastical worlds of his or her stories. Jeffrey Tripplethorn woke up aching. His neck hurt, his back ached, when he tried to pull his feet from under the covers, they got tangled up in the sheets. He had felt …
Read More A Day in the Life of the Great Space ExplorerThe Offering By William Kiraly, November 2016 Prompt: The tomb of Gustave Guillaumet by Louis-Ernest Barrias Paris, France — May 1887 The rain tapped insistently on the skylights of Barrias’ studio. The sky was grey and he had trouble seeing his clay as he made the final clay for his bronze sculpture. Barrias didn’t know …
Read More The OfferingAudio Version by William Kiraly October 2016-September 2019 The president chewed fiercely on her cigar. Having never been a smoker, it wasn’t lit. But it bounced up and down to her nervous internal beat. She was already in a pretty bad mood—third night in the White House and her idiot husband was already on the …
Read More Heart’s DesirePea Soup Prompt: Place: on a farm; Character: a court reporter; Object: a can of peas; Time: in the year 1991 by William C. Kiraly December 2014 I’m not a big a man, not a tough or scary guy so new roommate day was always an anxious day. My last roommie, Peter, was an annoying putz …
Read More Pea SoupCurved Space By William Kiraly December 18, 2014 Prompt: A Pizza delivery guy proposing to a spaceship captain “Earth Ship Neil Armstrong, Captain’s Log: September 9, 2437: If the chronometers can be believed, it is now 2637 Earth time, 2394 in our ship time. That means we’ve been asleep for over 120 years our time …
Read More Curved SpaceQueen of the Mallows by William Cohen-Kiraly, Oct. 25,2014 Prompt: A master of disguise roasting marshmallows over a campfire with a British queen Lady Jane Grey sat on her stool by the small campfire, watching the smoke and sparks rise lazily around the full moon into the star-studded sky above the trees. She hated hunting …
Read More Queen of the Mallows