The days are hot and languid and I find myself reluctant to go out past 11:00 a.m. I get up around 8:00 and do my outdoor chores: feed the cats, water the plants, do a few snips and sweep in the garden. I walk the dog around 9:30 through the silence of a neighborhood where most people have gone to work except for retirees and the occasional stay-at-home parent. Even the kids out of school for the summer are either still in bed or sent off to some camp or other by their frazzled parents. It’s a 20 minute walk that I look forward to each day. A time to think, to observe, to absorb the little treasures like the pink rose blooming in one yard, the little black dog who greets us with a bark through the fence, the Vietnamese lady pruning her hydrangea. Little moments that make up a life that so many never even see or think about but are like food and water to me.

From eleven-ish to five-ish is my  time for running errands or doing housework with little breaks for reading, surfing the net, and sometimes watching a movie or series on Netflix. Below is a list of awesomeness I’ve read online lately I want to share but first I want to mention two online journals that have published my work recently. I’m very happy to have poetry in Mad Swirl and, more recently, in the latest issue of Olentangy Review. Big thanks to the editors of these two fine publications which have published my work in the past, as well. I will also have poetry in an upcoming issue of The Miscreant and will post a link when that happens. Thanks to Amanda Harris, the publisher, for accepting my work. I recommend all of these journals for the fine writing they offer and I’m happy to be a part of them all. Also I was recently a guest columnist for Editor’s Eye on the Fictionaut website where I chose six stories or poems by the Fictionaut writing community for special mention. I hope you’ll read it.

Now for my picks of some other fine writing. I hope you all will follow the links when you’re ready for some good reads.

Wigleaf released its annual 15 Top 50 in Flash Fiction earlier this month along with its Long List which included Susan Tepper’s “Dear Petrov” in Literary Orphans.   I mentioned this piece in another post and I’m so happy it made the Long List. Susan also has five other Dear Petro “ flashes in the Summer edition of Changes Seven Magazine and they are mesmerizing. Don’t miss them!

Also in this issue is a creative non-fiction piece, “We Learned to Pronounce Prokofiev”, by Kathy Fish. It’s such a sweet story and, as I said in comments, it makes us realize how lucky we are to have people in our lives like the teacher she talks about in the  piece and writers like Kathy to remind us of them. There’s really good writing in this issue.

Another Flash Fiction piece that I really liked is “Doctor” by Gary Moshimer on Fictionaut.   This piece is so skillfully written I felt like I was watching it instead of reading it. I’ve become quite a fan of Mr. Moshimer’s writing since I found him and mentioned his piece, “The Heart”, in my Editor’s Eye column.

Sally Houtman, a New Zealand writer I’ve gotten to know via our exchanged emails, is a very talented flash fiction writer. She was recently interviewed by Radio New Zealand, in conjunction with NZ’s National Flash Fiction Day, where her exceptional piece, “At Barrett Reef”, was read. Click here to listen to the podcast. You’ll love it. Congrats, Sally!

And then there’s poetry. I highly recommend reading:

“Our Neruda” by Mike Bove in Rattle

“Bluetooth Headset” and “Magic Cell Phone” by Aaron Samuels in Amethyst Arsenic

“Hunger Family” by Laura Kaminski in Luna Luna Magazine

“Jealousy” by Mona Dash in The Lake  (scroll down)

“Jollity” by Gary Glauber in Burningword Literary Journal

And, finally, for a good laugh go read “I Have Been Sitting on Manspreaders for the Past Month and I Have Never Felt More Free: by Cassie J. in XO Jane. It’s a riot and I say good for you, Cassie!

That’s it for now, readers and writers. Have a great reading week!