February 14, 2023

“Kaleidoscope: Dark Tales” by Derrick R. Lafayette

“Kaleidoscope: Dark Tales” by Derrick R. Lafayette

Just Published: A Provocative Short Story Collection by Our Own Writer-in-Residence It’s Valentine’s Day and Publication Day for Kaleidoscope: Dark Tales, Derrick R. Lafayette’s newest book. AND we’re excited to anounce Kaleidoscope as our first Fictional Café Press book of 2023. Derrick is a prolific writer who was our Fiction Writer-in-Residence for 2021-2022. He’s had several works published here at the Café, which you can read here. (Several are included in his collection but others are exclusive FC publications.) As the French author Marcel Proust once remarked, the mind evokes endlessly changing thought patterns, much like a kaleidoscope. And so reading Derrick R. Lafayette’s Kaleidoscope: Dark Tales, a genuinely extraordinary collection of five short stories and a novella, is like seeing the world anew through bits of colored glass. Here’s a preview. What if . ….

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January 10, 2023

Writer-in-Residence Rachel Gonzalez

Writer-in-Residence Rachel Gonzalez

I’m thrilled and proud to be the latest Writer-in-Residence for The Fictional Café. Writing is how I process the world, it’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do. And I’ve done everything I can to make sure that my life is absolutely saturated in stories. My publications include “The Baptism of an Atheist” for The Bitchin’ Kitsch and winner of the Samuel LaRue Finley Humorous Writing contest; “Hey, You Know What We Should Do?” for The Tunnels; and “Little Black Dress” and “Collegiate Correspondents” for Fictional Café. “Collegiate Correspondents” once again won the Samuel LaRue Finley Humorous Writing contest. Today I work in a public library and am pursuing a Masters in English Lit to become a professor and engage with young adults who were just like me in college. When I’m not writing and…

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November 10, 2022

FC Sponsors IPNE Conference and Offers a Deal

FC Sponsors IPNE Conference and Offers a Deal

The Fictional Café is sponsoring the annual Independent Publishers of New England Publishers & Authors Conference. In its 11th year, the conference will boast many familiar names from the publishing industry. As a sponsor, we are exited to offer our members free access to this virtual conference (via Zoom). If you are already a member of IPNE, that’s a savings of $75 and for everyone else, a savings of $100. We hope you take advantage of this opportunity to learn from experts in the field over the course of two days, November 18th and 19th. To register, click this link. Choose the “VIP Conference Access” option and enter the code VIP2022. We just ask that you not share this code beyond FC members. Details about the conference can be found on the IPNE website, including…

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September 20, 2022

The Strong Stuff Volume 2 Coming Soon!

The Strong Stuff Volume 2 Coming Soon!

Good day café patrons! We’re hard at work putting together the second volume of The Fictional Café anthology, The Strong Stuff: The Best of The Fictional Café. The response from our first book was so positive, we had to brew another. While the first covered the first five years of our best work, this one will cover three years, from 2018-2020. Our second volume of The Strong Stuff will feature about 80 contributors of short stories, novel excerpts, poetry and art. It’s going to be a beautiful coffee table book and we hope you will check it out. Stay tuned for updates on how you can get your hands on a copy, piping hot off the presses! To check out our first volume, visit our Anthology page. — Your Baristas

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June 16, 2022

New Writing by Barista Lorraine Martindale!

New Writing by Barista Lorraine Martindale!

Lorraine Martindale, The Fictional Café’s editor-at-large, has published new work which explores ideas of how one tells stories, and how the process often leads to new discoveries. “A Magical Stumble Back in Time” muses on how collage artist Joseph Cornell’s work creates visual stories, in Raft Magazine. In Shift: A Journal of Literary Oddities, “A Lemon and Almond Tart for Manny Eggertsville” reveals how a character changed when the sister’s story became more interesting, using an old, found recipe. And in “Beverages, San Francisco” an imagined conversation plays out among a certain set in Sazeracs, Smoky Ink. *** Lorraine Martindale is our Editor-at-Large. She is a freelance writer and editor who loves to read and talk about books. She has an MFA from the New School in New York, and is at work on a…

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Welcome to the Fictional Café! Your baristas are interested in all genres of short fiction, poetry, excerpts from novels-in-progress, your photographs, art, and audio or video podcasts. We encourage you to share your work for publication in the Fictional Café. Click on the Join/Submit button above to learn more.

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