The Love Rat & Other Short Stories
from My Bloody Valentine: a PUNK NOIR Magazine series
Day Ten in the Punk Noir house.
Three awesomely artistic authors offer up their 100 word stories as sacrifice to the literary gods (and to the readers of the small press). The three stories reap large kudos and applause. Talent. So much damn talent on show this month. Have a wee look would you…
Enjoy. Like. Share.
Cheers always,
– Stephen J. Golds, editor-in-chief
You Always Said You Hated Roses by Emma Phillips
You told me flowers were cliché; I could get your attention with a heart.
You were done with cards, you said, they left a hole in the environment and words come cheap. You wanted action, not Hallmark. I would’ve gone large, harpooned a whale and gifted you 400 pounds of mammal organ; turns out that was complicated. An octopus has two to spare but those things are slimy as hell. I needed something more compact; a bunny bleeds out beautifully. My guy at Pets at Home did the honours. Be mine, I scrawled on the box, It’s just the start.
Bio
Emma Phillips lives by the M5 in Devon, which sometimes lures her away in search of adventure. Her words have been placed by the Bath Flash Award and Best Micro fiction 2022, appearing in print and online in various places. She is addicted to crisps.
The Love Rat by Frank Sonderborg
Schwimmer was in there.
He’d been boning my Baby while I was in the pen. She said he loved her. Guy wouldn’t know love if it came on a candy stick. He was a wannabe gangster. Hung around Moran’s crew. Loved the excitement. I convinced Freddie G; Moran would be there. I knew he wouldn’t.
Weinshank was there. He looked like Moran. My get outta jail card.
They went in dressed as cops lined the suckers up against the wall. And bing bada boom. Schwimmer was gone.
That’s how I spent my Bloody Valentine in Chicago 1929. How about you?
Bio
Frank Sonderborg was born in Dublin, Ireland, Shares his time between the UK and Spain. And does his best to write interesting stories. His stories have appeared in: Action: Pulse Pounding Tales 2: Noir Nation 3: Noir Nation 5: Pulp Modern JFK Issue #6, Pulp Alternative, Shadows and Light: Thrills, Kills ‘n’ Chaos: ShotgunHoney, Talkingsoup, Twist and Twain. The Yard Crime Blog and Punk Noir Magazine.
As Long As I Have Eyes by Steven Sheil
When Jenn had asked him if he’d ever look at another woman, he’d replied ‘Not as long as I have eyes’, which was just like him.
Any other bloke would just say no, but he always had to make some big declaration. All it did was make her distrust him. (She was right to.)
When Adam woke up the next morning, Jenn had already left. He was smiling, thinking about Louisa as he put in his contacts. It would not occur to him that the solution might have been switched for toilet water until much, much later, at the hospital…
Bio
Steven Sheil is a writer and filmmaker from Nottingham, UK. His work has previously been published in Alfred Hitchcok’s Mystery Magazine, Black Static and The Ghastling, online at Fudoki, Horla, Horrified and Pyre, and as part of the Black Library anthologies Invocations, The Harrowed Paths and The Accursed. He is also the writer and director of the feature film Mum & Dad (2008), the co-director of Mayhem Film Festival, and an enthusiastic collector and reader of vintage crime fiction.
These stories appear as part of My Bloody Valentine, a PUNK NOIR Magazine series.
PUNK NOIR, the online literary and arts magazine that looks at the world at its most askew, casting a bloodshot eye over the written word, film, music, television and more.
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We are really getting bloody on this one... Ouch, Emma!