Excerpt from the Short Story, “Black Crater, White Snow”

Black Crater, White Snow, illustration from The Evolution of Reptilian Handbags and Other Stories

by Melanie Lamaga from the collection The Evolution of Reptilian Handbags and Other Stories,  now available from Amazon. Jade I slide to the barn on a skin of blue ice, sky layered rose and gray. Almost dawn. The wind, a white knife, cuts through my red down coat. Pinfeathers escape—a flock of tiny geese vanishing […] Read more »

Bird House

Bird House, collage by Melanie Lamaga, The Metaphysical Circus

Fiction by Melanie Lamaga It was a typical day for Michael—to the office by 7:00 a.m., coffee-fueled meetings, lunch with Dave, writing reports, out by six. Driving home from work in his convertible with the top down, Michael began to sing a wordless tune that filled him with exaltation. He felt as if he was […] Read more »

Sojourn with the Watercolor People

The Watercolor People, a collage by Melanie Lamaga, The Metaphysical Circus

Fiction by Melanie Lamaga The Watercolor people are angry with me. You may not think that sounds ominous, but believe me, they have a list of people they’d like to kill. They’ll go through with it, too, given the chance. Even the children can be vicious. Now you’re laughing. Perhaps you, like many others, have […] Read more »

John Irving

Colorful, Complicated Characters Inhabit Worlds By Turns Domestic, Surreal, and Absurd. In other words, realism. In my opinion, often it is only through the particulars of an artist’s vision that we can begin to delve into the irrational motivations, tendencies, and quirks that many of us (and our culture) have but which (at least until […] Read more »

Medusa

image

a short story by Melanie Lamaga This story appeared previously in Zahir magazine and anthology. After you left I turned to stone: white marble woman at kitchen table.  The cup of tea I’d been drinking when you looked at me for the last time cooled and began the slow process of evaporation. This is it, I […] Read more »

“Invisible Heist”

photo collage

 fiction by Melanie Lamaga This story appeared previously in “Fiction International #38, Sacred/Shamanic.” Imagine a bank teller.  You know the type: slender, blonde, luminously clean, except that her fingers are coated with invisible money-paste made of microscopic flecks of skin, mixed with dirt and oil. Still, she seems to shimmer pink and gold in the […] Read more »