Capsule Stories Winter 2019 Edition features stories, poems, and essays all centered around the theme Frozen in Time. With over 110 pages of beautiful writing, this literary magazine is the perfect book to curl up with on a cold winter night.
Frozen in Time
The feeling of crisp sheets on your skin. The smell of cinnamon, nutmeg, butter, pine. The dry heat emanating from the oven. The chill of a winter breeze on your already cold nose. The awkward pause under mistletoe. The warmth in your cheeks. The contrast with the brisk air. The shock of the doorknob on your fingers. The sound of laughter around the dinner table. The silence of gratitude taken right before a feast. The creak of the stairs in your childhood home.
These are the moments that define us. The moments through which we remember our lives. We savor these moments, tiny pockets of memories protected in our minds, frozen in time.
Capsule Stories Winter 2019 Edition Letters from the Editors
I remember my life in moments. In sitting on the living room rug, carefully taping cardboard boxes. Handwriting in every single customer’s name on their letters. Diving deep into my well of emotions to find what might resonate with you next. Capsule Books has kept me company for over two years, but it’s time for me to close it down. I’ve put so much of my heart and soul into it, and have learned so much. I’ve received so much love from the bookish community and have made such important connections. And I’ll continue to contribute where I can, with Capsule Stories. It will always be frozen in time.
—Natasha Lioe, Publisher and Editor
Places have always held memories for me. Stepping foot in an old house or a once-familiar part of town is like stepping onto a frozen lake and hearing the layers crack beneath your feet. Layers of memories are revealed, frozen in time, frozen in this place. The memories come back all at once, layered so closely that they blend together.
These stories, poems, and essays capture a moment in time and let us sit in it. We’re put in these places—whether under cozy blankets or on the frozen ground—and memories are revealed to us as if they were our own. We invite you into Capsule Stories Winter 2019 Edition. Curl up with it and stay awhile—be here with these writings, and nowhere else.
—Carolina VonKampen, Editor in Chief
Capsule Stories Winter 2019 Edition Contents and Contributors
Essays
“Our Language of Pressure” by Aaron White
Aaron White lives and works in Terre Haute, Indiana. He holds an MA in literary studies from Eastern Illinois University and contributes to Bluestem Magazine as an assistant nonfiction editor. His writing has appeared in The Anatomy of Desire: An Anthology of Distance, Months to Years, The Smart Set, Brain, Child Magazine, Motherly, and other publications. He spends his days raising a daughter, navigating academia, trying to sell a novel, and wallowing in obscurity. Connect with him on Twitter @amwhite90 and Tumblr at amwhite90.tumblr.com.
Stories
“Clarity” by Raymond Sosa
Raymond Sosa is a Canadian teacher of Filipino descent. His Twitter handle is @AnotherProtag. His story “Singing in the Wire” was featured in Capsule Stories Autumn 2019 Edition.
“The Clockmaker” by K A Servian
K A Servian returned to her childhood love, writing, after twenty years in the apparel industry as a patternmaker, designer, and tutor. In the past four years, she has published four novels and completed a diploma in advanced applied writing. Her first novel, Peak Hill, was a finalist in the Romance Writers of New Zealand Pacific Hearts Award in 2016. Her short story, “Seeing Him Again for the First Time,” won the 2018 RWZA Chapter Short Story Contest, and her historical work in progress, Together We Will Ride, won the historical section of the Romance Writers of America Arizona chapter’s 2018 Hot Prospects Contest.
Kathy is also a keen photographer. In her spare time, she makes historical costumes, photographs them, and sells the images on stock sites for other authors to use on their novel covers. You can find her at kaservian.com, on Instagram at @KathyGiannoulis, and on Facebook at @KAServian. Capsule Stories nominated “The Clockmaker” for the 2019 Pushcart Prize.
“A Regular Christmas Miracle” by Morgan Russell
Morgan Russell (she/her) is a rhetorician and poet, and her work may be found in a number of places, such as Empty House Press Issue 1, Rabid Oak Issue 12, Capsule Stories Summer 2019 Edition, and others. She is the creative writing editor for Marías at Sampaguitas and spends far too much time drinking wine with her aunt at her local indie bookstore. When she’s not reading or writing, she can be found mainlining coffee, babysitting, or toiling away at her cubicle job in corporate America—dreaming for the day she becomes a professor of rhetoric and communication that also writes poetry (because this is a dream).
“What Happened in Birchwood Grove” by Margot Nelson
Margot Nelson is a French-American writer living in Burlington, Vermont. Her work has been featured in Teen Vogue, Local Wolves, and Honey & Lime. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, knitting, and trying to keep her community garden plot alive. Capsule Stories nominated “What Happened in Birchwood Grove” for the 2019 Pushcart Prize.
“The Lake Sings” by Lucy Zhang
Lucy Zhang is a writer masquerading around as a software engineer. She watches anime and sleeps in on weekends like a normal human being. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in publications including MoonPark Review, Elephants Never, and Bending Genres. She can be found at kowaretasekai.wordpress.com or on Twitter at @Dango_Ramen.
“There’s Lipstick on Your Collar” by Charlotte L Oakeby
Charlotte L Oakeby is a seventeen-year-old fiction and freelance writer from the United Kingdom. An aspiring criminal lawyer, she has a passion for literature and languages. Her love for writing began after cancer stole her father when she was thirteen. Her work is published in multiple publications, including the Cosumnes River Journal, Gordon Square Review, The Woven Tale Press, The Haloscope Review, The Daily Positive, LoveNotHate, and LiveWriteThrive. She was also awarded a GSR 2019 Editorial Mentorship. You can find her on Instagram (@charli_oakebyxo), Twitter (@charlioakebyxo), or her website (charlotteloakeby.com).
“Fire on the Mesa” by Otis Fuqua
Otis Fuqua holds a BA in creative writing from Brandeis University. His work has appeared in Horror Sleaze Trash and Laurel Moon and is forthcoming in Writers Resist. He is on Instagram at @otislikeswords. Capsule Stories nominated “Fire on the Mesa” for the 2019 Best Small Fictions.
Poetry
“Second Love, Longest Winter,” “Instructions,” and “In Contrast” by John Grey
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, with work recently published in Midwest Quarterly, Poetry East, and Columbia Review and work upcoming in South Florida Poetry Journal, Hawaii Review, and Roanoke Review. Capsule Stories nominated “Instructions” for the 2019 Pushcart Prize.
“Slow Dance” by William A. Greenfield
William A. Greenfield is a writer of poetry, a youth advocate worker, a fairly good poker player, and a fairly poor golfer. He resides in Liberty, New York, with his wife, son, and a dog; always a dog. His poems have appeared in dozens of literary journals, including The Westchester Review, Carve Magazine, Tar River Poetry, and many others. In 2012, he won Storyteller Magazine’s People’s Choice award. He was a finalist in The New Guard Literary Review’s 2016 Knightville Poetry Contest, and his work recently received an honorable mention in The Common Ground Review’s annual poetry contest. His chapbook Momma’s Boy Gone Bad was published in February 2017 by Finishing Line Press. His second chapbook, I Should Have Asked the Blind Girl to Dance, was published by Flutter Press in June 2019.
“Breakfast” by J. Sean Rafferty
J. Sean Rafferty is a redhead, a godfather, and an eejit. He is an MA English lit student at Ulster University, and his work has been featured in Gravitas, Sage Cigarettes, and The Alcalá Review. When not losing games of pool he, sometimes, writes stuff.
“It Snowed Once” by Sarah Marquez
Sarah Marquez is an MA candidate at Southern New Hampshire University. She has work published and forthcoming in various magazines and journals, including Amethyst Review, Crêpe & Penn, Ink&Nebula, peculiars magazine, and Royal Rose. When not writing, she can be found reading, sipping coffee, or tweeting at @Sarahmarissa338.
“These Mountains” by Raymond Luczak
Raymond Luczak is the author and editor of twenty-two books, including Flannelwood (Red Hen Press, 2019) and Lovejets: Queer Male Poets on 200 Years of Walt Whitman (Squares & Rebels, 2019). He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“Sangria” by Geoffrey A. Landis
Geoffrey Landis is a poet, a science fiction writer, and a scientist.
“Frozen Piano” by Mark J. Mitchell
Mark J. Mitchell’s latest novel, The Magic War, just appeared from Loose Leaves Publishing. A full-length collection of poems will be released next year by Encircle Publications. He studied writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz under Raymond Carver and George Hitchcock. His work has appeared in several anthologies and hundreds of periodicals. Three of his chapbooks—Three Visitors, Lent 1999, and Artifacts and Relics—and his novel Knight Prisoner are available on Amazon. He lives with his wife, the activist and documentarian Joan Juster, and makes a living pointing out pretty things in San Francisco. A meager online presence can be found on Facebook at @MarkJMitchellwriter.
“take back your ghost” and “what’s a memory worth?” by Linda M. Crate
Linda M. Crate’s poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. She has six published chapbooks: A Mermaid Crashing into Dawn (Fowlpox Press, 2013), Less Than a Man (The Camel Saloon, 2014), If Tomorrow Never Comes (Scars Publications, 2016), My Wings Were Made to Fly (Flutter Press, 2017), Splintered with Terror (Scars Publications, 2018), More Than Bone Music (Clare Songbirds Publishing, 2019). She has published one microchapbook, Heaven Instead (Origami Poems Project, 2018), and is the author of the novel Phoenix Tears (Czykmate Books, 2018).
“And One More Thing” by Akhim Alexis
Akhim Alexis is a writer born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago. He is currently pursuing an MA in literatures in English at the University of the West Indies at St. Augustine. His most recent work has appeared in Moko and In Parentheses and is forthcoming in KAIROS Literary Magazine and The Caribbean Writer. Capsule Stories nominated “And One More Thing” for the 2019 Best Small Fictions anthology.
“New Moon in Scorpio” and “Present: The Magician, Upright” by Allison Armstrong
Allison Armstrong is a queer leather femme, a kitchen witch, and a Professional Naked Girl living on an ancient seabed, and unceded Algonquin territory, in Ottawa where she writes poetry, reads tarot, and makes things with her hands. She has work published or forthcoming in Moonchild Magazine, Bywords.ca, Red Queen Literary Magazine, L’Éphémère Review, and Hustling Verse, among others. Follow her adventures on Twitter at @amazon_syren.
“snapshot of my sixth birthday party” by Lee Clark Zumpe
Lee Clark Zumpe, an entertainment columnist with Tampa Bay Newspapers, earned his bachelor’s in English at the University of South Florida. He began writing poetry and fiction in the early 1990s. His work has regularly appeared in a variety of literary journals and genre magazines over the last two decades. Publication credits include Tiferet, Zillah, The Ugly Tree, Modern Drunkard Magazine, Red Owl, Jones Av., Main Street Rag, Space and Time, Mythic Delirium, and Weird Tales. Lee lives on the west coast of Florida with his wife and daughter. Visit leeclarkzumpe.com.