Hallo! – By Ste McCabe

GAY FLASH FICTION

(c) 2016, Ste McCabe

The second that Alex’s underpants drop down to his ankles, the rigidness of his everyday life is discarded along with the cheap cotton he kicks away. A pale, naked Buddha, he sits on a beach towel with his ankles tucked and genitals exposed. This is the same beach where he’d burned his fussy skin into hard red plastic just twelve days earlier, yet there is no way he can resist stripping off in the powerful heat again.

Egg on legs, Alex thinks as he glances at his protruding football belly, but he’s not ashamed of it like he is when he’s back in Liverpool. Nearly forty now, fella, he reasons, slightly detached, as if he were discussing an ageing celebrity in a magazine.

Alex’s ‘real’ life is poisoned with self-consciousness. Passive in almost every situation, he utters ‘sorry’ with an absurd regularity. If strangers spill…

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She’s a Romneyac – by Chuck Teixeira

GAY FLASH FICTION

(c) 2015, Chuck Teixeira

Romneyac’s Website was so crude it could lead to outlawing porn.  It allowed viewers to rate videos that studios upload.  Five leaden stars turned gold when the cursor grazed  them.  Clicking on only one star produced little alchemy.  Clicking on all five meant hands could soon be too sticky to touch the display.

Since their election defeat, Romneyac and his wife, Ann, had spent several afternoons healing on television talk shows.  Healing replaced job creation as a family value.  Not sure how much healing still needed to occur, Brother Theresa suggested that Website could elicit comments on less kinetic concerns.  Let the viewers provide redeeming social  value.

“Less kinetic?” Romneyac said.  “Websiteis motion — a continuous crashing through the boundaries between decency and feeling good.”

Despite the rash along his thighs, Brother Theresa resisted the urge to stir on his cushion. While he resisted…

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Issue 20 is live

It was supposed to be published in April.  But at the last minute we got some excellent subs, so we stopped the presses, as it were.  So here it is, a week or two late.

Six new stories, five by some of our favourite contributors and one from a new author.  Poignant, funny, dark … as ever our stories cover the many different ways it is to be a gay or bisexual man.  Every author has their own flavour, and we like it like that.

Three non-fiction pieces: two reviews, and one meditation.  A sort of meditation.  Or perhaps just a grumble.

WO has been around for over six years now, and we still think it’s a great gay-shaded e-zine.  We hope you do too.

Issue 19 is up! Merry Christmas!

Our 19th issue!  It’s remarkable!   We’ve been publishing quality gay and bisexual stories for nearly 6 years now, and before that, pretty much the same team published stories at Forbidden Fruit, our predecessor magazine.  Our team is 100% volunteer. Our editors, webmaster, reviewers, copy editors, promoters, all of us work at Wilde Oats as a labour of love, trying to find time and energy to fit all the work that goes into creating each issue of WO into busy and full lives.  Wilde Oats is entirely independent, and we flatter ourselves that here you will find some of the best gay-shaded stories on the web.

Next year will see even more stories, reviews and articles uploaded to our new website from our archives.   Visit us every couple of weeks to see what’s new,  or join our updates list, here.  We have found the quarterly format we adopted over the last year somewhat tight, particularly regarding illustrations for the stories, so will be reverting to three issues a year in 2015, in April, August and December.

It just so happens that this December issue has two seasonal stories, both  a little melancholy; a son’s memory of his mother; and a tale about love and fidelity.   There are four book reviews, of Rick R Reed’sLegally Wed,  of Richard Natale’s Café Eisenhower, and of two non-fiction books about Oscar Wilde and two Victorian cross-dressers.

All of us at Wilde Oats wish you season’s greetings, and hope you will be back to read our e-zine in the new year.

 

Bye Bye Lingual – by Marc Nash

GAY FLASH FICTION

(c) Marc Nash, 30 Oct 2014

I was the last in my line. The final native speaker of my language. It would die out with me since none would follow. For I had neither progeny nor converts. The concept of converts is a ridiculous one anyway, we ought solely to be learning our mother tongue at our mother’s knee. Our language doesn’t even have a word for ‘convert’.

Not that I haven’t striven my hardest. I’ve played on the emotional appeal of our tribe in peril without our indigenous tongue. I’ve tried to cajole, seduce, flatter and bully, again all to no avail. My kithmen refuse to have me pour our words into their cloth ears. The ewer holding our vernacular is cracked and the word flow has dribbled away into the dust.

Our argot is an expressive one. Born of our rural roots, it is all facial articulation and gesture…

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If Only – by Drew Payne

GAY FLASH FICTION

(c) Drew Payne, June 2010.

The bed was uncomfortable, the traction holding his broken leg restricted his movement, and his leg was hurting. Tony knew there wasn’t any point in calling for a nurse, he still couldn’t have any more painkillers, but he considered it. Max, the short blonde, male nurse, was looking after him today; Max was handsome and caring. He could do with Max’s attention.

He hated being in hospital.

If he hadn’t gone out that night he wouldn’t be in here. Jackson’s Field was a piece of common ground that had been neglected for years, but ideal for cruising. He’d been lonely and frustrated, hoping for a little company, so he’d gone there.

If he hadn’t followed that guy, Tony wouldn’t have been led into an ambush by a bunch of queer bashers. Four men had fallen upon him, blows and insults raining down on him. It…

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Anel Viz’s ‘The Interrogation’

This story from Issue 2 has just been uploaded from our Archives.  You can read it here.

Issue 18 is live!

Well, on the last day of August (!) the August Issue of Wilde Oats is now published.  Three stories, part 3 of Brian Holliday’s novella Delta, and the winning six drabbles from our drabble competition.  Also, as part of the issue 18, another story from the archives, If Only, by Don M,, was uploaded, which is where this picture comes from.  We thought you’d enjoy it.

DOCTOR SNAP – By Cristina L White

GAY FLASH FICTION

It was written on the sideboard menu in white chalk: PLAIN BELGIAN WAFFLE. As opposed to what, I wondered. Fancy Belgian waffle? Or maybe it wasn’t about plain or fancy. Could one order a plain Bulgarian waffle? What the hell is a Belgian waffle anyway? And why would I care? Please take note: Rachel Sutton doesn’t care about waffles, plain or fancy. Oh, sure, I thought. As if anyone out there is taking note of what I care about. Once upon a time, Angie would have taken note. No. Better not think about that. She had moved on; I should do the same. It was over.

I sipped my coffee. It was black. Bitter. I liked the taste of it, the heat of the liquid. I closed my eyes and listened to the chatter and clatter around me in the café. The noise of the place was soothing. It occurred…

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Victor Banis’ short stories

A collection of Victor Banis’ short stories has just been published by Untreed Reads.  It costs just $0.99 and consists of  eight stories.  You can buy it here.

The stories are:

Tell Them Katy Did

The Kiss of Death

Midnight Special

Changing Views

Neighbors

Illusions

Clouds

The Princess of the Andes