Mind Games – A Collection of Short Fiction

[The line between fiction and non-fiction is sometimes easy to discern, sometimes not. In this case, not. Names are always changed, of course, to protect the not-so-innocent. Someone might note that I had jobs every year with the city of Chicago while attending Northwestern University thanks to Alderman Tom Rosenberg, later a judge, with whom [...]

[This is "flash fiction," a new category generated from the fact that smaller texts are more congenial to online reading at the moment.  This was published in the Potomac Review, a literary magazine from Montgomery College in Rockville MD in the Fall/Winter issue opf 2005-2006. It reminded me of that figure-and-ground plaything which looks like [...]

by Richard Thieme [This story has an interesting history. Way back, when I was still in the Episcopal ministry, I wanted to start writing again and wrote a story called "The Bridge" on which this one is based. I had no idea if it showed promise or not and on an impulse I sent it [...]

[This story was published in Down in the Dirt in August 2005, and the subject matter certainly is. The Palo Alto Review, rejecting it for publication, said, “The narrative is a convincing replication of the character’s mind, the rhythmic patterns creating tension and momentum. The story’s subject is a difficult one, carefully rendered. However, the [...]

[This is "flash fiction," a new category generated from the fact that smaller texts are more congenial to online reading at the moment. This was published in The Listening Eye in 2005. Come to think of it, this is a riff on a theme often heard in my reflections on anomalous phenomena. I probably should [...]

[This was published in the Timber Creek Review in 2005. I'm glad it was. Like "The Geometry of Near," it's a geek story, and the people on whom the character Gibby McDivitt was based comes clearly and with a chuckle to mind. The story links to "They Call Him Mister Tubby" in Imaginary Gardens (May [...]

[Incident at Wolf Cove was published in the Summer/Fall 2004 issue (xxiii,i) of The Puckerbrush Review, Gossamer Press, Old Town, Maine.Prior to her death, the editor, Constance Hunting was a wonderful editor and offered nuanced support for many writers. The old PR was a treasure. The story was also published online as "a real page-turner" [...]

It’s nobody’s fault. Honest. It’s just how it is. The future came earlier than expected. They kicked it around for years but never knew what they had. By the time they realized what it was, it was already broken. Broken open, I should say. Even then, looking at the pieces of the egg and wondering [...]

by Richard Thieme [This is a pretty straightforward story about the emergence of successively higher structures of perception and understanding by all sentient creatures throughout the known Universe ... which takes us to the edge of the Unknown Universe.  Just as genes create proteins and proteins create cells, then cells somehow organize into organisms, and [...]