new writing

Today’s Stressful World

Pop Lit Fiction

STRESS IS EVERYWHERE, and has been in this mad society at least since the pandemic. Move faster, take on more demands, growing to-do lists about cars kids pets schools jobs, keep up with everybody as our screens multiply and costs skyrocket, accompanied by brutalist redesigns and algorithmic advertisements, politicians becoming hysterical and neighbors catty while everywhere we turn is growing anxiety until we, everyone of us, wants to shout, “Enough!”

NO ONE has captured this aspect of the contemporary world better, in our opinion, than Elizabeth Ohga in our new feature short story, “Portrait of a Lady in Gold.” Or: life today. The writing is so spot-on perfect that instead of one excerpt here, as is our usual practice, we could give a dozen. Instead, click the link, read the story– plunge into the narrative– and discover it for yourself.

Penny used to have it under control. She was breaking the cycle. Then 2020 happened. Everyone acknowledged it was a bad time for working mothers, though Penny’s boss saying “we see you, moms, and how hard you’re working,” did not add hours of sleep to her nights or dollars to her bank account. It didn’t put food on the table or change Lulu’s diapers. And then the people in charge decided they were sick and tired of Covid – just completely over it – and deemed the pandemic over. Nothing to see here, folks, let’s get back to work and make the good old American dollar. Get vaccinated, or don’t. Wear a mask, or don’t. But we are not going to let a stupid virus upend our lives. Except for people like Penny, it already had.

The Hustle Is Not a Dance

Pop Lit Fiction

LIVING IN AMERICA TODAY

In this insane society there are two kinds of hustlers.

One kind are the multi-billionaire tech boys painting visual sci-fi pictures of futuristic craziness while scamming in every possible way to pump up their money bubble to further increase their enormous wealth.

The other is the traditional hustling-to-survive kind, still seen in parts of hectic cities like New York. Which is the kind portrayed in our slightly crazy new feature story, “Casanova Must Die,” by Dan Shapiro. A story which well captures the unique east coast city street vibe, and the fast-moving fast-talking characters who inhabit those towns. Especially fascinating is when one of the characters is a gorgeous woman.

Jump into the story. You’ll enjoy it.

The entire time not a single glimpse of the woman who stole his wallet, but plenty of women who reminded him of Madeline, something he hadn’t anticipated. Not so much facial resemblance, but the way they dressed. Cream-colored summer sun hats, with wide brims for extra protection. Long, flowy white short-sleeve sundresses that billowed in the breeze and swayed as they walked. Standard  tote bags hanging off their shoulders.  

What Is Pop Fiction?

Pop Fiction

WHY do we have “Pop Lit” in our name? What’s that about? Isn’t anything pop scorned right now? (In truth, isn’t it because most well-hyped pop music at the moment is corporate-produced generically-imagined garbage?)

The great thing about the word “pop” is it has several meanings depending upon context. Popular. Populist (with a political edge). Pop Art in the Andy Warhol sense.

At its most basic, pop means fun. A word which seems to have been chased out of today’s literary scene in our time of snobby profs and conformist critics to whom writing is synonymous with “work”– meaning, a serious drudge, images of stony-faced monks or mandarins behind thick walls forcing themselves through “difficult” writing– the most dull and inaccessible examples possible. (Think Virginia Woolf staring monotonously at lighthouses.)

“Let’s be serious, people. Art isn’t supposed to be fun!!!”

ANYWAY, today we have a short sci-fi tale about creatures from outer space: “Quest of the Globules” by John Haymaker. A colorful story which is fun, and maybe a quick commentary on our crazy society besides. By the end of it, you might be saying, “We want the Globules!” We hope you enjoy reading it.

A vibrant sound had reached Globiliad, a planet 10 billion trillion light years from Earth and inhabited by a highly evolved alien species known as Globules. Their commander, General Nimble, organized a quest to locate the sounds’ source. His assembled forces, a brigade of multicolored Globules the exact size of tennis balls, streaked across space fleet as a comet’s tail. . .

The Best The Best The Best

Announcement

OUR NOMINATIONS FOR 2026 BEST OF THE NET

AT THE MOMENT we’re strictly an on-line project, at least until we get our art printer fixed and begin cranking out print publications again. Which means the best location for nominating writing we’ve published is Best of the Net. SO: we nominated some of the work we’ve run, by some of the de facto if not de jure very best writers out there. You can read about which writers, and which writings– two stories and six poems– at an announcement at our underutilized News blog.

THE TWO STORIES: Both are excellent reads which stress our humanity– so necessary in this time of AI, of the diminishing value given to human needs and uniqueness.

THE SIX POEMS: All exhibit from their authors a way with words, with sound, yet are simultaneously visual. The poems project penumbras of meaning while capturing the vibe of NOW.

All eight nominees are well worth rereading.

Dystopian Fiction, Dystopian Life

Pop Lit Fiction

A NEW SHORT STORY ABOUT A.I.

Dystopian fiction has been around a long time– at least since Mary Shelley’s still timely 1818 novel Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus. The difference between her world and ours is that we now find ourselves living in a full-on dystopia, in which we’re losing the distinction between what’s real and not-real, human and not-human. It’s likely to become worse, as tech moguls and venture capitalists are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in AI companies and AI devices– ever more dreamed-up money-grab gimmicks to separate the gullible from their bucks. After all, the AI wave needs to be monetized. Someone needs to pay for it. That targeted someone being YOU. Us. All of us.

ON THAT happy note we present a new short story about one such company and consumer: “Ghost In the Machine” by Andie Weber. It’s fiction. Sure it is.

We hope you like it!

C. Ryan: Yeah, now I’m speaking your language. And AfterLife is the hottest new word in profits. This isn’t just your average chatbot, it’s bigger, better, and way more lucrative—and with the projections our finance department has put together, I can assure you this money-making snowball isn’t going to stop rolling anytime soon.

More 2025 Fiction

Pop Lit Fiction

What should 2025 fiction– of the here and now– look like?

COULD it capture today’s chaotically volatile up-and-down economy and markets? The “let’s make a buck” societal mindset? The culmination of a tech wave of ambitious innovators and hustlers eager to make fortunes? Who are these guys? Have any writers captured the personality and/or mystery of them?

Well, yes– in our new feature short story, “Crypto” by Jonathan Stone, one of the most intelligent short story writers around.

NOT ONLY is it a glimpse of a unique moment of history– this moment– it’s an excellent story, about the pursuit of a kind of excellence. We’re sure you’ll agree when you read it!

Nine figures doesn’t happen every day, but for Mark, its pathway is utterly unsurprising – money that comes from money. Ahmet’s eight figures is inherently far stranger – produced from nothing but an idea, walked into the right receptive investor at the right market moment. When it came time to transfer proceeds – required distributions per the fund charter, and then unloading into cash equivalents when they all dumped their shares – Mark had overseen the allocation to Ahmet’s brokerage account. A deposit requiring phone calls and letters with signatories. Eight figures in a fell swoop. The American dream, on steroids. Or better yet, hallucinogens.

On American Dreams

Pop Lit Fiction

MOST AMERICANS still believe in the Dream, or want to believe in it. Often difficult to, given rising costs, a widening wealth gap, and of course contentious politics. Amid it all, the American Dream remains. People grasp for any semblance of it– even illusory caricatures of the Dream like crypto coins and other gimmicks.

Where we live, downriver from Detroit, we see and hear expressions of the American Dream. Two young fast food workers opening their own hamburger stand, for instance. Or the many immigrants– those most put-upon persons at the moment– mostly from Mexico and the Mideast running sixteen-hour food trucks on street corners as prelude, they hope, to the real thing. In so doing, mimicking what immigrants to America have done over the decades (a great novel about this: City for Conquest by Aben Kandel, written in 1936) while adding value and variety to beaten-down neighborhoods. America was once a beacon, a welcome mat for ambitious hustlers of every stripe. Much of what we know today as America, economically and culturally, was due to them. We here in our little pop-lit world believe America can still be that beacon– and not open solely to those who can pay a five-million dollar “gold card” fee!

WHICH BRINGS US to our new feature short story, “Fame and Fortune” by Alan Swyer, about two cousins pursuing their own ambitious dream in California, the Golden State. (Which has itself been put upon, by nature, of late.) It’s kind of a Cinderella story, capturing those quintessentially American qualities of ambition, creativity and opportunity. Needed reading.

We hope you enjoy it!

By the time he was alone in Steve’s guest room, Jeff’s head was spinning. Growing up, he’d always revered his older cousin, who had long served as a role model. It was due to Steve that Jeff became passionate about the Red Sox and Celtics. And, though not gifted athletically, he had worked hard enough to overlap with his older cousin for a year on their high school baseball team. Then, after following Steve’s path through Brown and B.U. Med School, Jeff chose to specialize in pediatrics once Steve suggested that they eventually form a practice together. 

Yet suddenly he couldn’t help but wonder what in the world he’d gotten himself into. 

January 2025 Fiction

Pop Lit Fiction

THE YEAR 2025 has begun with a bang– with assaults of nature both hot and cold, California windstorms propelling unprecedented fires in the land of tech moguls and gross inequalities, while the East Coast and Midwest endure waves of snow and frigid temperatures. As if the universe-or-God has said, “Enough!” to mankind’s wars, all-encompassing technological systems, and ever-growing insanity.

AMID THE MADNESS, we at New Pop Lit struggle on with efforts to introduce sane, human-designed literary art into the mix– which at the same time depicts, relevantly and truthfully, the world we live in. Along with reminders of our common humanity.

Which talented writer Shelby Raebeck does ably– more than ably– in our new featured story, “The Ghost of Camp Hero,” using multiple-viewpoint technique to give different perspectives on three young people trying to find themselves– and to find ways to communicate their needs, goals, confusions and frustrations. Well worth reading.

Next afternoon after school, not bothering to wait for Lance, I biked into the village of Montauk and took the town bus to East Hampton, walking the rest of the way to Freetown. I turned into the driveway and found Lance sitting on the porch, looking up at me like I was a total stranger. Like if I take you in to be with my sister fine, cause I took you, but on your own you better not even walk up my driveway. 

(Note: The NEw POp LIt human-generated novella The Loud Boys is now available in a paperback version, here.)

Human Potential

Pop Lit Fiction

OUR SOCIETY is designed to place all of us into narrow categories based on this standardized two-dimensional test or that one, gauging our ability to fit into a technocratic economic system.  But can they possibly measure all human abilities? IQ tests and others like it have their uses, but are only one way of quantifying human potential. There are many ways of perceiving and interacting with the world, some which go beyond the easily measured or comprehended.

These thoughts provoked by our brand-new feature short story, “The Meteorologist” by Olaf Kroneman— about an autistic young woman whose abilities run outside the norm. A story in line with our goal to present more work which emphasizes our humanity– in this dawning age of the artificial; of robots and AI. Also, this terrific story is simply a great way to end our year of new featured fiction and poetry. (Though we may have a quick classic surprise come Christmas Eve!)

“Mr. Andrew is going to die,” Sarah said. Her voice was loud and piercing, almost a scream. 

She became mute and returned to her mysterious parallel world, but it seemed like she could still hear everything we said. As her long-time family physician, I had grown accustomed to her living in a private world. She would interact with me when she needed something basic or when I attempted to drag her into my world.

Late Fall Fiction

Pop Lit Fiction

November! The last days of autumn. A time of falling leaves and dropping temperatures– at least where we’re at. Moments of shortening daylight, cooling breezes, and wistfulness– accompanied by the sudden pulling out of closets sweaters, hats, scarves– and overcoats. Which brings us to our new feature short story, “An Overcoat” by Tony Covatta. About a lawsuit over a missing coat, with glimpses of restaurants, businesses, attorneys, and courts– also a case which must be wrapped up as quickly as possible.

Why is that? You’ll have to read the story to find out!

Here was a chance for astute Gino not only to repair relations with favored client and disgruntled “chief” but also to display his blossoming courtroom chops. Lawyers who try cases—litigators, in short—are a breed apart. They are the jet jockeys of the profession, just as surgeons of essential organs are in medicine. Success, even on a small case involving a missing overcoat, could advance Gino’s climb up the greasy poles of firm acceptance and professional renown.